Hi everyone!
Here is your
September newsletter with photos and information to keep you up to date with
Safety Harbor Garden Club (SHGC) activities. Also, dropping a few names of some
of our outstanding members volunteering their time to our club!
COVID and
club meetings
Our October
club meeting is cancelled.
Many of us
are more than ready to get back into our monthly meetings at Moccasin Lake.
Due to COVID restrictions there remains a maximum limit of 20 people allowed in
the meeting room. Current pandemic conditions are still too risky for a full group
meeting indoors.
But hang in
there!
The SHGC
Board is keeping a close eye on conditions and will schedule a group meeting as
soon as possible. As cooler weather approaches outdoor meetings will become a
possibility.
Folly
Update
***
Bluebirds have recently been seen at Folly! ***
Folly Farm
Nature Preserve is the new home of the Safety Harbor Garden Club. What a great place for us to expand our
knowledge of gardening and gather! Come
on out for a visit! Garden Club members get together on Monday and Tuesday
mornings to beautify our gardens at Folly Farm.
Leslie
Zambito is our VP and Folly Gardens manager and is always ready to assist with
plant knowledge and advice. She is so awesome! Remember, she’s not nagging, she
is offering friendly reminders. 😉
We try to
have a plant ID session each morning as well as a “walk about” through the
gardens (and some propagation going on). The Folly crew also meets on Friday night for a
casual dinner (BYO) at around 5pm. It is
called Friday Follies and we set up at the picnic tables.
This Saturday, 10/9 there will be a Garden Club Plant Sale at the Folly nursery. Volunteers should plan to arrive no later than 9:30am. Sale times 10-Noon.
Also this Saturday, there is a Air Potato vine round-up at Marshall Street Park. Gisela has been once again distributing Air Potato Beetles throughout the parks of Safety Harbor with great control results but there are still potatoes to round up! 8:30am-11:30am.
New water
feature and sculpture
Plans are
underway to add a water feature and sculpture to the garden previously known as
the “Egg Garden”. Carol Zieres has been maintaining the garden and came up with the water concept and Helen Renshaw,
(Logan’s Love Foundation) is working on a fundraiser to generate funds for the
fountain and a new sculpture. The date of the fundraiser is Saturday December 4.
Put it on your calendar. It’s going to be really cool! We will keep you in the
loop!
New Sculpture
donated
Dandelion
in the Breeze, a
stainless-steel sculpture created by Safety Harbor artist Hank Brooks is headed
to Folly Farm! It was donated by the lucky winner of a Library fundraising
raffle. And yes, it is heading for the "wind garden"!
Gardening
updates
Our
gardening crew is focusing on pruning and clearing some of the summer growth
and spread in the gardens. Some members have laid claim to different garden
areas and taken them on as personal gardens (with help from fellow Folly
Farmers). Nancy McClelland has really done a great job working in the Meadow
Garden and Wind Garden. She is a lovely, treasure trove of gardening knowledge
and advice.
The Vidovic
clan (Jarod, Kalina, Ruby, and Rowan), has been eliminating weeds in the
playground and adding mulch around the community orchard trees to keep them
healthy and safe. No Herbicides! Really doing a great job, thanks!
Our SHGC
nursery is growing! One of our newest members, Anna Marchand, is working her
magic and transforming the nursery and propagation areas. She has also found
time to work on the Gnome village!
Tip of the garden
hat to:
Barbara
Nelson is our social conscience and resident “Devil’s Advocate”. When she isn’t
keeping us on our toes, she is busy beautifying her personal garden area.
Is he an
architect? An artist? A gardener? We are lucky to have Chris Dotson, our Jack
of all trades! And he manages Chris’s Garden across from the Meadow Garden.
Judy
Zaccaria is leading us into to the future with upgrades on our social media pages.
Check out our new look on Facebook Safety
Harbor Facebook Page and our new look website SHGC Website.
Also involved with obtaining our club phone and new delivery address.
Thanks to
Becky DeCroteau and Michele Abruzzi
for their gardening (and
food!) and the twins, Sharen Kuckkahn
and Karen Bredow (They
are doing great work at Mullet Park as well). When people walk the gardens,
they are looking at the beautification efforts of many of our members, Janet DeLiso, Harriet and John Fuller (also logging hours as our
online volunteer coordinators), Sue Rose, Line Kerstein, Shari Borawski, Barbara
“Babs” Berman, Gloria Crutchfield and Theresa Rzymek.
Carol Zieres
has taken on the “Egg” garden and it’s transformation is underway with plans
for a water feature and Fairy sculpture. Carol also has an article featuring Folly
Farm and our gardening efforts published in “The Dirt”, a monthly Master
Gardener feature. We’ll post a link as soon as it comes out!
Teresa Cline
is watching over her milkweed garden with several species on display.
Julie Geyer is our “Jill of all Gardens”,
she does plant ID too!
Heather
Richardson is our SHAMC connection and a talented and resourceful gardener. The
Butterfly Labyrinth and entryway butterfly are just a couple results of her
influences. (Thank you, Beth Womack!
Butterfly painting designer.)
Sandy Huff
is always keeping us up to date on the latest happening in the Gardening world.
Robert
Moser, Chad, Shannon Shaffer, Andrea Norwood, and Autumn Reich are our City of
Safety Harbor teammates.
There are
usually 10 or so volunteers Monday and Tuesday mornings starting around 7:30am.
When you visit you may see many new smiling faces as we have added new members
almost every month.
Our Folly
Farm project is entered in the Master Gardener excellence awards. This is a
statewide awards program, and we are entered in three categories:
Beautification and Enhancement, Demonstration Garden, and a Master Gardener
team award. The Awards will be announced on Tuesday, October 19.
Mullet
Creek
We continue
to beautify the already wonderful Mullet Creek Park.
Thank you,
Gisela Bennie, for keeping Mullet on our radar!
Joe Caisse
has been a volunteer at Mullet for how many years? More than we can count! Just
about every Saturday you can find Joe there gardening.
Already a
fan of Mullet Creek Park and want to join in? Come by Folly and get more info.
SHGC
Volunteers
Currently, we
send a weekly volunteer log-in reminder to 40 active SHGC members! (We have an
online volunteer hour recording file, thanks John!)
This
includes members who are contributing their time to help the Club in ways other
than gardening at our Folly Farm, Mullet Creek and Library Garden sites. Hours have also been logged for planning,
sign making, baking, labeling, banking, and other associated club functions.
If you have
volunteer hours related to club activity, please click on the Volunteer
hours link and add your hours. Check with Gary or Leslie if you have questions.
Year to date,
the SHGC has logged over 2,500 volunteer hours! Most of which are in our Folly
Farm gardens but also Mullet Creek and The Safety Harbor Library.
Finance
Current balance
$4,380.23
Membership 60+ dues paying members
Thank you all for your support.
If you want to join in but not with a shovel:) contact Gary or Leslie.
30 years and still growing!
Safety Harbor garden Club
Gary Sawtelle
Leslie Zambito
Here's a look at September
hope to see you soon!
September Activity Photos
Teaming up with the Pinellas NPS to pull some invasive plants at Folly
at a joint Pinellas NPS and Folly Farmer meeting
