Thursday, September 29, 2011

HELLO, GARDEN FRIENDS!  ROCK SPRING GARDEN CLUB HAS A NEW WEBSITE!

PLEASE VISIT US AT WWW.ROCKSPRINGGARDENCLUB.COM  FOR ALL OUR LATEST

NEWS AND ACTIVITIES.  THANKS!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 - Meeting and Announcement of our GARDEN OF THE YEAR AWARD!

September 2011 Meeting



YES! WE ARE ANNOUNCING OUR GARDEN OF THE YEAR WINNER FOR 2011!
Come see what the Rock Spring Garden Club is all about. Meet new and interesting people and learn something new! Whether you are a rookie gardener or an old hand, there's always something to learn. Our speaker lineup for the year provide our members and guests with valuable information and great ideas about gardening, floral design, horticulture, conservation, garden tours and so much more.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM at Little Falls Presbyterian Church, 6025 Little Falls Road, Arlington, VA 22207.  All meetings are held on the third Thursday of the month and are open to the public (unless otherwise noted) so please RSVP to rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com
 
At our September 15 meeting, announcing our Garden of the Year Winner for 2011 followed by a garden tour of nominee gardens.  Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP! 
 
COMING UP IN NOVEMBER:  Rock Spring Garden Club will host a Floral Design Event - learn how to make your own flower arrangements - it's easy once we show you how - for the upcoming holidays, weddings, showers or family events!  We have several designers to guide you and our GUEST DESIGNER this year is Sarah Von Pollaro of Urban Petals. Her designs have graced the White House and many other signature events in the Capital Region.  Save the Date!  Tuesday, November 13, 2011 7-9 PM at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Building, 4301 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia. Admission is $20. Free Underground Parking. Door prizes, raffles, delicious freshments, floral supplies available, and we will auction all of the evening floral designs!  For more information, please contact rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com

Saturday, February 26, 2011

September 2011 Meeting


Come see what the Rock Spring Garden Club is all about. Meet new and interesting people and learn something new!   

Our next meeting is Thursday, September 15, 2011 at the Little Falls Presbyterian Church, 6025 Little Falls Rd, Arlington, Virginia. Guests are always welcome and our program is free and open to the public. The business portion of our meeting begins at 10:00AM; our program begins at about 10:45AM. Come see what our Garden Club is all about!  Feel free to drop by or RSVP at rockspringgardenclub@gmail.com  or call 607-425-4176.

WE ARE ANNOUNCING ARE 2011 WINNER OF OUR GARDEN OF THE YEAR!!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Our Calendar


Rock Spring Garden Club Programs and Designs of the Month
All meetings are at Little Falls Presbyterian Church
6025 Little Falls Road, Arlington, VA 22207 703-538-5230 unless otherwise noted.
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March 17, 2011, at 10 AM

“Promote Biodiversity and a Healthy Bay – Grow Natives”
Laura Beaty, horticulturist and native plant enthusiast

Design of the Month: “Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match”
Create a parallel design of all fresh plant material, plus other components as desired.
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April 21, 2011, at 10 AM

“Fruits of Victory, The Women’s Land Army of America in the Great War”
Elaine F. Weiss, author and journalist

Design of the Month: “A Tisket, a Tasket”
Using a wicker basket, evoke the bounty of the Victory Garden with a design with fruits and/or vegetables. Greens and a few flowers may be used.
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May 19, 2011 at 9:30 AM
Carpool to Merrifield Garden Center, 6895 Wellington Road, Gainesville, Va.

Garden Jewels:  “Container Gardens”,  Renatta Holt, landscape designer
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June 9, 2011 at 10 AM
Spring Luncheon & Tour - private garden of Peg Bier,
Merrifield Gardens plant specialist and manager
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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Monday, November 29, 2010

Holiday Floral Design Event! Click on above photos!


On Tuesday, November 16, the Rock Spring Garden Club held its first Holiday Floral Design Demonstration event at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association building in Ballston, Arlington, Virginia as a fundraiser.  Four garden club members and one special guest demonstrated five holiday designs.  Susan Foulke demonstrated a Traditional Mass Design for any holiday using greens from her yard, roses, carnations, lilies, and other readily available flowers from the markets.  Sheila Moore demonstrated a Harvest Design using greens, herbs, flowers, and miniature fresh pumpkins for a wreath and Thanksgiving tableau.  Barnett Norris showed how to make a Boxwood Christmas Tree with decorations added for great interest.  Dorinda Burroughs showed how to use fresh cranberries and super market flowers to create a long lasting Thanksgiving or Christmas centerpiece.  Our special guest, Debbie Brookes of Beachcomber Arts, Ocean Ridge Florida, showed how to celebrate New Year's with a top hat design of white hydrangeas, dendrobium orchids and local greens.  She ended the design demonstration with a funky fun purple top hat design utilizing blue hydrangeas, purple dendrobiums, and bells of Ireland.

We had a wonderful Ways and Means table and tasty light refreshments.  Guests could bid on the arrangements and all of them were sold!  The event raised approximately $1700 and it is hope that it will become an annual affair! 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Impressions from a New Member


Not Your Grandmother's Garden Club

By Carole Owen

I went to a garden club meeting recently. And I was in for a surprise.

I had never been to a garden club meeting. But new friends in the neighborhood asked me to go, including Cathy, the neighborhood garden guru, so I said yes. Cathy has fashioned a garden paradise with a gem of a fish pond in her back yard (it has a waterfall!). But more on that later.

I am so glad I went. Because I discovered that my old stereotype of white gloves, silver tea service sets and a social hour involving little talk about gardening was outdated. Plus, people can't be stereotyped. Then there was the issue of common interest. Suddenly, with no real effort on my part, I was in a room filled with people who love gardening and conservation, people just like me.

But I barely had time to consider this epiphany because the day's entertainment, I mean speaker, started firing so much information at us I could barely keep up. Writer/gardener David Roos said, for one thing, gardeners should "lighten up on the Latin. If you are a gardener, this is not really important. It doesn't make you a better gardener. It will just make you annoying to others."

He then turned serious and said gardeners are vitally important in the effort to solve some of the world's worst problems and to just look around to see why, especially at the children. Autism, behavioral problems and allergies are increasing at alarming rates, in Roos' opinion, "all because we are transforming from a gardening world to a chemical world."

There were 80 people at the meeting that day and Roos brought only 25 handouts. He commended the unexpected crowd and said organizers were to be praised for that. Although only women were in evidence at the Rock Spring Garden Club in Arlington, VA, Roos said that in Britain, especially, men are active in garden clubs and bring wives and children to meetings. That is because they are at the vanguard of a back-to-the-garden movement in Europe.

Roos, who wrote "22 Things Your Mother Never Told You About Gardening," said pesticides are not the only problem he sees today, citing fertilizers as bad for the environment and particularly for the Chesapeake Bay in this area. He said people should deploy organic preparations if they need to, but also should loosen their standards about what constitutes the "perfect" lawn. He said it makes no sense to use hazardous materials on our grass, then send the children out to play on top of the chemical mess.

"Don't try to grow plants; grow dirt and then stand back," is one of his standards. Gypsum and organic peat will break up hard-packed soil and clay. Put compost on top of the soil and mothball the rotary tiller and other power tools. "Your goal .... is to make your garden the happiest garden in the world for earthworms," signs of fertile, organic and most of all safe soil. That in turn saves the birds, the bees, the water, the atmosphere, our plants and food and therefore, us.

To start doing that, spend lots of time in the growing spaces. This is first on his list and every gardener knows why: "Observe and listen: the best manure for a plant is the gardener's shadow."

Finally, he left us feeling like stars at the October garden club meeting, saying we were in the "worst place in the continental United States to garden." He cited Virginia's nasty clay combined with the Middle Atlantic region's heat and tea rose-slaughtering humidity in summer followed by the cold winter's snow and ice. The area can only "grow corn and horses" with ease.

So while all gardeners are important, it is in the Mid-Atlantic that growers deserve real praise for optimism and persistence. "You are gardening gods," he said.

To start doing that, he suggested that we spend lots of time in the growing spaces. This is first on his list and every gardener knows why: "Observe and listen: the best manure for a plant is the gardener's shadow."

Finally, he left us feeling like stars at the October garden club meeting, saying we were in the "worst place in the continental United States to garden." He cited Virginia's nasty clay combined with the Middle Atlantic region's heat and tea rose-slaughtering humidity in summer, followed by the cold winter's snow and ice. The area can only "grow corn and horses" with ease.

So while all gardeners are important, it is in the Mid-Atlantic that growers deserve real praise for optimism and persistence. "You are gardening gods," he said.