The Sunnyvale Garden Club

At our Summer Symposium on August 13^th, we will make “Earth Buckets” and you will go home with a tomato plant ready for your fall garden.  To minimize our costs, and to keep Deborah Stafford pleased with us,   we need your recycling help.  We need you to find and save 5 gallon plastic buckets.

You are asking, what the heck is an Earth Bucket?  It is a  water-wise or self-watering system for growing vegetables or flowers in a bucket (or actually, two buckets). Here are a few photos of my earth buckets:

I purchased my buckets from Lowes and Home Depot, but at nearly $3 each, that could be costly for the Garden Club to provide 2 buckets for each member at the Symposium. (We will provide all the other supplies and tools.)  Besides…. We need to learn to recycle.  I am positive that there are lots of buckets out there – just waiting to be “repurposed.”  Please help these buckets find a useful life!

So — for the next two months, your assignment is to find 5 gallon buckets.  These could be from a bakery or restaurant (I understand pickles and cake icing come in 5 gallon buckets) or from a pool supply company (just be sure to wash out the chemicals very well and then expose the buckets to sunlight).  The buckets that Tidy Cat litter comes in work well.  So, if you have a cat – save those buckets.  If your neighbors have cats, ask for their buckets.  The buckets that work best will have about  a 3” ‘lip’ at the top.  (In other words, when one bucket is put inside the other,  there can be a 3” water reservoir in the bottom bucket.)

So – scour up some buckets before August.  If you find a source for lots of buckets, please let me or Janet know.

Thanks,

Rachel

Dear SGC Member,

The Sunnyvale Garden Club’s 2013 “Asian Spring” Flower Show is almost here!  We hope to see you this Saturday, May 4 at D’Ann Robinson’s house.

Please invite your friends, neighbors and family members to join us for the show!  Feel free to send them the lovely flyer that Rachel Doyle designed (see attached).

Don’t forget to enter your horticulture exhibits.

We still need a few volunteers.  If you can volunteer in the morning, contact Rachel Doyle.

Thanks so much!  See you Saturday!

Georgeann Moss – SGC Flower Show Chairman

Submitted by: Martha Billman – Communications Committee

Public invited to view Asian-inspired floral designs at Biennial Flower Show

The Sunnyvale Garden Club (SGC) is hosting its 25^th biennial Flower Show, titled “Asian Spring”  on Saturday, May 4 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the home of D’Ann and Lee Robinson at 119 Lakeview Drive in Sunnyvale. The show is free and open to the public. Attendees will see more than 20 beautiful flower arrangements in a natural home setting, two special exhibits on Bonsai and Ikebana and numerous horticulture exhibits.

SGC members who entered the flower show participated in a series of free workshops to learn what the judges will be grading them on and to get ideas for how to design creative Asian-inspired floral arrangements.

Sunnyvale Garden Club is a gold-rated member of National Garden Clubs, Inc. (NGC). The national organization encourages members to hold standard flower shows every two years to:

• Educate club members and the viewing public
• Stimulate interest in horticulture and floral design
• Provide an outlet for creative expression
• Convey to the community objectives of NGC

Standard Flower Shows are among National Garden Clubs’ most popular educational and social activities.  These colorful, enjoyable events continue to draw crowds across the U.S., while giving club members an opportunity to exhibit plants, floral arrangements and informative displays on horticulture, gardening and projects of local and state garden clubs. Flower shows help spread the word about the joys of gardening and serve as forums for learning design trends for the home, new cultivars in horticulture and what trees, shrubs and plants grow well locally.

National Garden Clubs offer a wide variety of helpful resources for those interested in learning more about growing plants and flowers, designing floral arrangements and designing beautiful table settings.  In addition, NGC offers training opportunities for members who are interested in becoming certified flower show judges.

National Garden Clubs, Inc. provides education, resources and national networking opportunities for its members to promote the love of gardening, floral design, civic, and environmental responsibility.

For more information about the show, contact SGC Flower Show Chairman Georgeann Moss at 214-533-3457 or

972-203-9175.

Submitted by:  Martha Billman – Communications committee

Yes, you can recycle garden club “tablecloths” for tomato cages during a cold spell!

Submitted by:  Deborah Stafford