FREE ITEMS

Large snowberry plant (Symphoricarpus albus) needs a home. Already dug up and waiting for you. This is a BC native plant.

Ames garden cart. Well-used, no back wheels, but still functional.


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Contact Christine at 604-719-1464 if you would like either of these.

No December or January meetings! Next meeting Thurs Feb 8th!

We won't be having a regular GGC meeting in December or January.

Our next regular meeting will be on Thursday, February 8th. Write it in your 2018 calendar.

In the meantime, do have a lovely winter holiday, and I'll post a reminder with some details about our February meeting early in the new year.

Cheers,
Penny

Our November Meeting — Thursday, November 9th, 2017, 7:00 p.m.

Hello Garden Club folks,

Well, there's good news and bad news. First, the bad news: The speaker we had been expecting, Brad Jalbert, from Select Roses in Langley, has just let us know that he's unable to come and speak to us at our meeting on Thursday.
But now the good news: Christine Allen, our club leader, is also an expert on growing spectacular roses, and she has agreed to do a talk for us on Thursday. So... if you were looking forward to a talk on roses, your hopes will not be dashed. And Christine knows about roses. Her former garden in Langley contained over 150 rare and antique roses. She is a Life Member of the Master Gardeners' Asssociation of BC, a Past President of the Vancouver Rose Society, and author of the book Roses for the Pacific Northwest.

She will talk about:

• The different types of roses
• Choosing the right rose for your garden
• Planting and maintenance
• Pruning 
• Pest identification and treatment
• Environmental and other potential problems 

This should be another super Garden Club event — a delightful way to spend a wintry fall evening.

As usual, we will meet in the "LRC" — the Britannia Learning Resources Centre, which is under the VPL library. As you're walking west toward the library, veer left, walk alongside it, and you'll come to a ramp entry to the LRC on your right. We start at 7:00 and end before 9:00.

Bring your gardening questions and concerns ... and your ideas for topics or speakers for upcoming meetings.

We always have tea and goodies and a few door prizes. See you there!

The Grandview-Woodland Community Seed Library

If you have seeds to spare, consider donating some to the Grandview-Woodland Community Seed Library. Please package your seeds in a clean and dry container, glass or plastic, and label it clearly, including the following information:

• Your name and contact information
• Type of seed (e.g., tomato, pea, bean, basil, marigold)
• Variety (e.g., Black Trim, Alderman, Scarlet Runner)
• Genus and species (optional)
• Year the seed was harvested
• Seed source of parent plant
• Other plants that the parent plant was grown near and risk of cross-pollination
• Info on provenance, growing, flavour, etc. (e.g., tomato is determinate or indeterminate)
• Results of germination testing (if performed; optional but recommended)
• Other notes

October Meeting — Janis Matson

Our meeting on Thursday, October 12th, will feature Janis Matson speaking on "Designing with and Growing Herbs".

As Janis says, herbs have been used and enjoyed by people for centuries. They've been harvested for culinary, medicinal, scullery, and craft purposes. As well, they're a wonderful and beneficial part of the landscape. They can be part of your garden, integrated in with ornamentals and vegetables. They can be used as frames, hedges, topiaries, and borders. They can attract beneficial insect, including bees and other pollinators.
Come and learn more about herbs!

Janis is a delightful speaker. She enjoys the challenge of making garden spaces look good and feel good; she worked at Murray Nurseries in the Southlands from 1988–1993; she was owner and operator of Shoreline Landscape Design for over 20 years; she is a faculty instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley with the horticultural diploma and apprenticeship programs and a contract faculty instructor with Burnaby Community Education with the Horticultural Hardscape Program, and is an adult education instructor at VanDusen Gardens.

This should be a super event — a good way to spend a fall evening.

As usual, we will meet in the "LRC" — the Britannia Learning Resources Centre, which is under the VPL library. As you're walking west toward the library, veer left, walk alongside it, and you'll come to a ramp entry to the LRC on your right. We start at 7:00 and end before 9:00.

Bring your gardening questions and concerns ... and your ideas for topics or speakers for upcoming meetings.

We always have tea and goodies and a few door prizes. See you there!


Grandview Seed Library!

Christina Mak is a volunteer with the Grandview Woodland Food Connection and she's starting up a seed library. She'll come to give a brief announcement about it at our October meeting and she will be happy to take donations of seeds to get things started. Please, if you bring seeds, label them (what they are, when they were harvested, what sorts of conditions they prefer, etc.).

Xmas Garden Club Potluck?

We're thinking that for our December meeting we won't have a formal speaker, but we will have a potluck supper. Think about that and we'll talk about it at our meeting. We might need to change rooms for that evening so we have running water and a few kitchen amenities.

Membership!

In case you aren't a member of the Garden Club yet and would like to join, we're making a special offer. If you join at the October meeting, we'll give you the rest of 2017 and all of 2018 for $25. Regular membership is $20 for the year. If you're already a member, you're also welcome to renew now or soon for 2018, $20. Meeting drop-ins are still $4.

Our September Speaker! Casey Werfl "Planting for Successful Growth"

Our first meeting of the school year — doesn't September always feels like a new beginning? — is Thursday, September 14th. 

Our speaker is Casey Werfl, a head gardener at VanDusen Botanical Garden. 

His topic is "Planting For Successful Growth" and he'll tell us how to give plants the best possible start in your garden, and how to set them up for years of healthy growth. 

Casey will explore best practices to encourage strong root growth, help plants get through summer drought, and more.

We'll learn why it may not be optimal to overly enrich the soil prior to planting, how to wean plants off water, and the best time of year for specific plantings.

He'll also give us a great overview on how to plan your fall plantings, with specifics like perennial division and mulching, as well as which garden preparations are best done before winter arrives. 

 
Casey has worked in private and public gardens all over Vancouver and has over 15 years of experience in the industry. He holds a Horticulture Certificate from Capilano College and is a certified Journeyman Landscape Horticulturalist. He enjoys teaching foundational methods in an interactive workshop setting, aiming to inspire those who wish to enhance their knowledge and skills in the gardening world.

This should be a super evening — a good way to start off the fall season.

As usual, we will meet in the "LRC" — the Britannia Learning Resources Centre, which is under the VPL library. As you're walking west toward the library, veer left, walk alongside it, and you'll come to a ramp entry to the LRC on your right. We start at 7:00 and end before 9:00.

Bring your gardening questions and concerns ... and your ideas for topics or speakers for upcoming meetings.

We always have tea and goodies and a few door prizes. See you there!

Safers Japanese beetle traps

Susan Lockhart sent this message:

Attached is a photo of a Safers Japanese beetle trap.  We got the message from the Grandview Gardening club about watching out for Japanese beetle infestations.  These kits are regular $10 but the Rona store on Grandview Highway has lots and they are clearing them out at 50 cents each!  Can we get a message out to the gardening club?