Somerville Garden Club

Monthly Programs – 2012

Monthly programs take place at each Somerville Garden Club monthly meeting. The SGC 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 11 Annual potluck with slide show of SGC 2010 garden tour

February 8 – Lori Fitz, Somerville Garden Club member, will give a presentation on garden design. She will cover the concepts of garden design as related to different types of gardens, practical considerations for garden design (soil type, local environments, personality, low vs. high maintenance, etc) and inspiring elements that people may try in their own gardens.

March 14 – Jennifer Wille and Marissa Tomasic, employees at GYOstuff – Hydroponics, Organics & Indoor Gardens, 2400 Mass Ave, Cambridge, will give a presentation on indoor gardening with hydroponics. They will focus on the comparisons of growing inside with soil, coco, and hydro; an introduction to hydroponics; different hydroponic growing methods, growing mediums, nutrients, step-by-step instructions, and a demonstration.

April 11 – Jessie Banhazl, Founder of Green City Growers, will be speaking on the topic of growing your own food.

May 9 – Sarah Roche, Education Co-chair of the American Society of Botanical Artists, and a professional artist member of the Copley Society of Art, Boston, will give an illustrated presentation on the history of botanical art. She will speak about the story behind the history of botanical art, and its changing role through the centuries.

June 13 – Cheryl Monroe, Certified Master Gardener, will present ‘Clematis: Queen of the Climbers.’

July 11 – Tom Sopko, Somerville Garden Club member, will demonstrate the art of flower arranging using live flowers and foliage.

August 15 – The August meeting focuses on the ‘Garden Bounty’ grown by Somerville Garden Club members. Members will bring in samples of fresh or cooked produce from their own gardens to share, and will also talk about growing the produce and how it was prepared. There will also be a group exchange of gardening questions and answers.

September 12 – ‘Favorite Garden Stories and Implements’: SGC Members tell their favorite garden stories such as insect battles, unexpected successes, failures, miracles, childhood garden memories, or implements, books, etc. for show-and-tell. A prize is given to the member with the best garden story and to the member with the best gardening implement.

October 10 – Khrysti Smyth, resident of Somerville and owner of the company, ‘Yardbirds Backyard Chickens’, will give us an overview of the basics of raising chickens in an urban setting. Khrysti’s goal is to make backyard chicken-keeping accessible to as many people as possible.

November 14 – Wanda McNair, horticulturist, columnist and educator, will discuss the different types of Begonias, and demonstrate the propagation of such along with discussing and demonstrating the growing of high humidity plants in enclosed containers. She will bring live material to the meeting for her demo.

December 12 – All nature lovers, gardening enthusiasts, and history buffs are invited to attend December’s lecture by Meg Muckenhoupt, who is the author of the book, ‘Boston Gardens and Green Spaces’. Meg will speak about green Boston, and the role of public spaces throughout Boston’s historic and contemporary landscape.