Somerville Garden Club

Monthly Programs – 2014

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 8 – Annual Potluck Dinner
Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Somerville Garden Club! Bring an appetizer, veggie, pasta, entree, or dessert to share. There will also be a digital photo presentation of SGC’s 2013 Garden Tour. Bring your prepared food dish before 6:45 pm if possible.

February 12 – America’s Romance with the English Garden
Tom Mickey, author of the book America’s Romance with the English Garden, will address how the 19th century seed and nursery catalogs taught America how to garden and what garden design and what plants were important.

March 12 – Managing Soil Health in the Urban Residential Landscape
Chuck Sherzi, Jr., Plant Health Care Manager and Arborist for Tree Specialists, will be giving a presentation on managing soil health in the urban residential landscape.

April 9 – Companion Gardening: Integrating Vegetables, Herbs and Other Edibles into the Ornamental Flower Garden
Barbara Emerson will talk about companion gardening and how to integrate vegetables, herbs and other edibles into the ornamental flower garden. She has held leadership positions at several publishing companies, is a past President of the Direct Gardening Association, and was responsible for sales and marketing at Horticulture Magazine.

May 14 – The Nature of the Middlesex Fells
The Nature of the Middlesex Fells will be discussed by Bryan Hamlin, Chairman of Friends of the Fells and a well-respected botanist who for the past nine years, along with a team of volunteers, has been painstakingly cataloging all 900 species of plants in The Fells.

June 11 – Sharing Knowledge
Members of the Somerville Garden Club will share four hands-on gardening projects. Each of the four demonstrations will be offered in fifteen-minute workshops, giving participants a chance to enjoy all four if they wish.

July 9 – Art’s Traveling Cactus and Succulent Plant Show
Art Scarpa, Vice President of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Massachusetts, will present ‘Art’s Traveling Cactus and Succulent Plant Show.’ Art will showcase dozens of cacti and succulents, from the rare and bizarre to the familiar and easy to grow, and will discuss growing succulents indoors and out, including hardy succulents and container and dish gardens.

August 13 – Garden Bounty
The August 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.

September 10 – Know Your Insects
Somerville Garden Club member Chris Desjardins, who is a PhD in Entomology, will share his knowledge of insects, focusing on the life cycle of some of the many insects found in Somerville gardens.

October 8 – Favorite Garden Tools and Tales
Somerville Garden Club members tell their favorite garden stories and/or bring in their favorite gardening implements for show-and-tell.

November 12 – The Greening of Somerville
Environmental and community gardening organizations based in Somerville will share their visions, goals, and accomplishments with meeting attendees.

December 10 – Pruning Techniques for Home Gardeners
Certified Arborist Chuck Sherzi, Jr. returns to demonstrate and answer questions about pruning techniques for home gardeners, such as how to prune for certain desirable goals, what time of year to prune, and when to do thinning-out cuts.