Somerville Garden Club

Monthly Programs for 2017

January 11 – ‘Annual Potluck Dinner’ – 7:00 -9:00 pm – Celebrate the 21st 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 ‘Flora and Fauna’ in the gardens’ of SGC member’s. Bring your prepared food dish before 6:45 pm if possible.

February 8 – Lucy Borodkin, one of Somerville Garden Club’s founding members and past Presidents, will give a presentation on ‘The Garden in Winter’. She will talk about how the types of plants (including evergreens) their form, texture, color and mass can add winter interest to any garden.

March 8 – Warren Leach, talented garden designer and owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth, MA, will recommend a diverse selection of superlative plants in his talk ‘Beyond Blooms: Creative Design with Color, Structure and Seasonal Senescence’ . He will suggest plant combinations that you can translate into your own garden, echoing leaf colors and texture to brighten the garden through the seasons.

April 12 – The Shona people of Zimbabwe are well known for the originality and beauty of their stone carvings.  Many of these sculptures have been featured in botanical gardens and sculpture parks throughout the world.  Rosemary Chimbganda of Zimbabwe, an expert on and importer and retailer of Shona sculpture, and Susan Miller, a Somerville gardener whose garden highlights Shona sculpture, will share their knowledge of Shona sculpture as well as present photos and video(s) of Shona garden sculpture and the sculpting process.

May 10 – Gretel Anspach, Master Gardener, and member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Board of Trustees, will give a talk on ‘Preparing Soil’. The presentation will cover improving soil, making compost, and following good gardening practices to keep your soil healthy and your garden thriving.

June 14 – Two Somerville Garden Club members will each give a presentation this evening. Dorothy Africa will present a talk on ‘Thinking About Hardscaping’ that will inspire program attendees to think about their own garden hardscapes. Eleanor Ramsay will share her experience of twenty years of gardening after the asphalt driveway was removed to make room for plantings.

July 12 – Jessica Lubell, Associate Professor of Horticulture, at the University of Connecticut, will give a presentation on ‘Landscaping with Novel Native Shrubs’. Jessica will talk about a number of native shrubs that are sustainable, and adaptable to tough conditions, and that can be ecologically friendly replacements for banned, invasive shrubs.

August 9 – a film will be shown – which one TBD

September 13 – This 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.

October 11 – Trevor Smith will speak to the Somerville Garden Club on the topic of ‘Rain Gardens, Rain Harvesting and Permeable Pavements’. In addition to the information topics in his talk, Trevor’s company, Land Escapes Inc. http://www.everydaygetwaway.com//, is committed to developing and promoting eco-technologies such as living walls, urban farming, green roofs, and native plant/habitat design.

November 8 – Judith Sumner, botanist, and author who specializes in ethno botany, flowering plants, plant adaptations, and garden history will discuss ‘Botanical Names for the Fearful’.

December 13 – Dan Jaffe, Propagator and Stock Bed Grower for New England Wild Flower Society, will give a presentation about ‘Tough Plants for Tough Places ‘. Practical tips for severe drought, plus a new drought-tolerant plants list based on last year’s (2016) drought will be covered.