Monthly programs take place at each Somerville Garden Club monthly meeting. The SGC usually meets on the second Wednesday of every month 7:00–9:00pm at the Tufts Administration Building (TAB), 167 Holland St., second floor. The meetings are open to the public and are wheelchair accessible.

January 14 – Annual Potluck Dinner
Happy birthday Somerville Garden Club! Bring an appetizer, veggie, pasta, entree, or dessert to share.

February 25 – Bonsai Basics
Informed by his longtime interest in growing bonsai, SGC member Chris Little will focus on choosing and caring for tropical bonsai species that can be kept indoors year-round. Additionally, he will touch on pot and tray selection, drainage, and soil mix, as well as methods of wiring plants to shape. Chris’s theme of approachable bonsai will emphasis the idea that a person need not to be an expert to create excellent bonsai specimens.

March 11 – Garden as Ecosystem
Kristina Niovi Jones, Director of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and a faculty member in Biological and Environmental Studies at the College, will present “Garden as Ecosystem”.

April 8 – Plant Propagation
Joe Rajunas from the Master Gardner Speaker Bureau will speak on plant propagation.

May 13 – Designing Shady Retreats
Jana Milbocker and Joan Butler of Enchanted Gardens Design, Holliston, MA, will present their talk “Designing Shady Retreats.”

June 10 – Urban Backyards: Raising Honey Bees, Chickens, and Pond Fish
Members of the Somerville Garden Club will share their expertise on keeping bees, raising chickens, and tending pond coy and goldfish in their urban backyards. PowerPoint slides as well as demos will be included.

July 8 – Plant diseases
Just in time to diagnose any issues you may be encountering in your garden this growing season.

August 12 – Growing Dahlias
Enjoy a DVD, “Dahlia,” made by the National Capital Dahlia Society. Expert gardeners will also be there to talk about their experiences growing dahlias.

September 9 – Garden Bounty
The September meeting focuses on the garden bounty grown by Somerville Garden Club members. Members will share samples of fresh or cooked produce from their own gardens, and talk about growing the produce and how it was prepared. There will also be a group exchange of gardening questions and answers.

October 21 – Cold Frames
Gretel Anspach, member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Board of Trustees, will give a talk about cold frames. Cold frames and hoop houses are a way of extending the growing season, allowing vegetables to be planted 2-4 weeks earlier and helping seedlings transition from inside to the outdoors. We will learn how, where, and when to use these interesting tools in our gardens.

November 18 – Botany for gardeners
Judith Sumner, a botanist and frequent lecturer for botanical and horticultural organizations, and instructor at the college level, and at botanic gardens including the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University and Garden in the Woods, will be giving a talk called ‘Botany for Gardeners’. Her talk is aimed at gardeners who want to understand more about how plants grow. Judith will also cover fertilizers, symbiotic relationships in the soil, and specific adaptations in garden plants.

December 16 – Winter Decorating with Fresh Evergreens and Dried Flowers
Somerville Garden Club members Carol Dempkowski, Judy Eisenberg, and Melissa Fox will demonstrate how to make holly wreaths, fresh evergreen swags, and decorative arrangements using dried flowers, branches, and seed pods.