September 2020 Newsletter

Summer’s Grand Finale

Dear Members,

This week, the board held its first meeting outdoors aside the beautiful allée of maple trees at Emerson field.

These trees were planted by garden club members in the 1930s.

Looking at these magnificent trees provided a moment of reflection and hope in view of our current crisis.

Our predecessors planted these trees during the Great Depression and did not know what lay ahead with the coming of World War II and beyond.

My hope is we can take comfort in knowing that this crisis, too, will end one day and that we will somehow be the better for it. 

The maples have survived many a storm, and so will we.

For the time being, we are subject to the limitations set by the ongoing pandemic: we are prohibited from meeting in-person, but will join one another via Zoom.

Our first program, next Wednesday at 1 p.m., will be a talk on bulb gardening by Lifetime Master Gardener Kathi Gariepy (see details below).

The Programs Committee, chaired by Jane Rupley and Elise Woodward, has done a lot of fast footwork to ensure that we have virtual programming in place, including an upcoming film and a presentation on taking a better photograph.

Choosing to focus on what we can do will be our guide.

With the ongoing help and support of club members, I know we can maintain  a sense of community, albeit virtually.

Yours in good health, social-distancing and mask-wearing!

Sandra Conrad, President

Please join us for a Zoom talk on bulb gardening by Kathi Gariepy, a Lifetime Master Gardener. She will talk about the history of common and not-so-common bulbs for spring and summer beauty.

Kathi is a former special needs preschool and kindergarten teacher who has gardened since she was a child.

She has volunteered more than 10,000 hours to the Mass. Master Gardners Association; is past president of the Attleboro Garden Club; was chair of the Federation’s Gardening Study School; and owns a garden design company, Pleasant Vistas.

I can’t think of a more hopeful way to start our year than to learn about bulb gardening.

To paraphrase Robert Frost, “give the buried bulb a dream…”

A Zoom link and email invitation will be sent to all club members a few days before the presentation.

If you have not already done so, you can download  Zoom at:https://zoom.us

Share the bounty of your harvest or gardens?

Customarily, our first meeting of the season is a fall social at which members share the bounty of their gardens with fruits, jams, vegetables, flowers, etc.

If enough members are interested, we might arrange an exchange at one central location. 

 Also, if you are interested in sharing a video of your home garden in its final fall glory (stalwarts of the drought, all!), please contact me about one or both ideas at mailto:psbp@comcast.net

Thanks to club members Lauren Huyett and Kate Wharton for suggesting these ideas.

For inspiration, here are photos from the gardens of Anne Umphrey and Kate Wharton:

From the board

We welcome two new members to the Executive Board this year: Georgine Feldt, Recording Secretary, and Katie Sluder, Treasurer.

They succeed Cris Van Dyke and Pam Hixon, respectively. As we were unable to thank Cris and Pam in person at our June luncheon, please be sure to thank them if you see them around town for their four years of service to the board.

The board also extends thanks to our immediate past president, Hilda Parrott, for her support as an ex-officio board member over the last year.

Committee News

Community Outreach

Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature for the Concord Museum is chaired this year by Julia Farwell Clay. She will be joined by Liz Berk, Joan Campbell, Leslie Cheney, Jane Coutre, Barbara Freeland, Mary Pope and Chandler Woodland.

The book is Up the Mountain Path by Marianne Dubuc.

Have a look at this charming book here:https://papress.com/products/up-the-mountain-path

Town Gardens have continued to flourish despite the drought this summer thanks to the guidance of co-chairs Beth Thut and Kate Chartener and the dedicated tending and watering by club members.

Stay tuned for a bulb planting party at the West Concord Garden in October… This will be the final installment to the plantings that have flourished in their first season.

The Milldam/Veterans Memorial area was cleaned up and a trough planted with annuals. Passersby and visitors to the small park all expressed gratitude to GCC for the lovely annuals and the cheer they bring to the space. 

This area will become our third town garden next season. The club will work with the Concord Rotary and the Town of Concord to maintain the park going forward.

Special thanks go to: Kathy Venne and Pam Nelson for advocating for and working on this project; to Henry Dane of the Concord Rotary for his ongoing support; and to our special honorary club member, Rod Riedel, who quietly appears to weed and care for the area.

Grants

Thanks to the board’s unanimous decision last season to fully fund our grants and a scholarship, helped in large measure by our members-only plant sale, GCC will be accepting grant applications from local organizations again this year.

Last year, grants went to Orchard House, Minuteman ARC, Friends of Minuteman National Historic Park, among others.

It is gratifying that the work and commitment of the club in trying times will allow us to continue to support our community.

Please urge a group or community organization you may know to visit the Grants page for an online application on our website at https://www.gardenclubofconcord.org

Please contact Maryrose Sykes, Chair of the Grants Committee, with any questions. mailto:b_sykes@comcast.net

Deadline for the submission of applications this year is October 12th.

Membership

Honorary member Winifred (“Winkie”) Bush celebrated her 100th birthday in late August. Felicitations on reaching such a milestone!

Ways and Means

Our one-of-a-kind notecards, with beautiful photos by club member Cris Van Dyke, remain for sale @ $12 per set.

You can pick up a package (or two…) on the front porch of Jen Lannan’s home at 102 Sudbury Rd.

Please mail a check made payable to GCC to: P.O. Box 1296, Concord, MA 01742.

Looking for a way to practice social-distancing and enjoy art at the same time?

Meet up with a club member to enjoy this year’s Umbrella installation in Hapgood Wright Town Forest. For further information click here:https://theumbrellaarts.org/2020-art-ramble

For the Federation’s latest news, click here for the current issue of the Mayflower: Fall MayflowerNewsletter

Please keep an eye on our Calendar section of the website as we update events for the season.

Perhaps we need to add these lady slipper masks to go along with our GCC aprons?

Fond regards to all,

 Sandra