Safety Harbor Garden Club 

 

Newsbreak!

SHGC President Gary Sawtelle is resigning his position after three years as president.

SHGC 1st Vice President Leslie Zambito is resigning her position after three years as Vice-President 

As a result, our nominating committee is seeking out members interested in the following three offices including that of Assistant Treasurer:

President
1st Vice President
Assistant Treasurer 

Officer Job Descriptions 

The President shall:

A.  Be the official representative of the Club.

B.  Preside at all Board and Regular Meetings.

C.  Appoint all Chairpersons of Standing and Special Committees, subject to the approval of the Board.

D.  Consult with the Treasurer in appointing the Budget committee.
E.  Be ex-officio member of all Standing and Special

Committees, except the Nominating Committee.
F. Communicate with membership.

 

The First Vice-President shall:

A.  Perform the duties of the President in absence of, 

or by request of, the President.

B.  The elected First Vice-President shall be 

Program Chair.

Assistant Treasurer  

The Assistant Treasurer shall perform the duties of the Treasurer in the event of absence of the Treasurer.

Current Held Positions

Paula Harvey - 2nd VP. Membership
Karen Isak - Recording Secretary
1st Treasurer - Celeste Sawtelle
2nd Treasurer - Vacant

Social Secretary - Barbara Nelson
Publicity - Sharen Kuckkahn
Webmaster - Judy Zaccaria
Hospitality - Jennifer Rothe

If you are interested in any of the three available positions reach out to a member of our nominating committee:

Sharen Kuckkahn, Gisela Bennie, Nancy McClelland

Election of officers will take place at the March general membership meeting.

There has never been a better time to step into the roles of President, Vice-President or Assistant Treasurer of our garden club!

You'll have an experienced, fun team to work with and loads of support!

We need you!

For more information email: SafetyHarborGardenClub@gmail.com

Gary and Leslie aren't leaving us! They have thoroughly enjoyed their roles as President and Vice-President and look forward to serving the Club in their roles at Folly Farm Nature Preserve.

   

                                        Announcing

Folly Farm Nature Preserve Positions

appointed by SHGC president w/board approval

 

Nancy McClelland

 Folly Farm Gardens Manager

 Manages “Folly Farmers” volunteers to maintain gardens. 

Focus on enhancing and expanding the Folly Garden experience.

Knowledgeable in native plant use in landscape designs. 

Good communications skills.

Able to leap tall ant mounds in a single bound.

Works closely with Folly Farm Nursery Manager.

Gary Sawtelle

Folly Farm Garden Manager Assistant

City of Safety Harbor Folly Farm Site Beautification Technician

 

 Leslie Zambito

Folly Farm Nursery Manager

 Manages “Folly Farmers” volunteers to maintain nursery.

Focus on native plant propagation.
Knowledgeable in nursery operations.
Good communication skills.
Works closely with Folly Farm Gardens Manager to determine preferred plant inventory.
Acts as SHGC Folly Farm liaison to City of Safety Harbor.

 

 Gary Sawtelle

Folly Farm Nursery Manager Assistant

City of Safety Harbor Folly Farm Site Beautification Technician

*******************************************************

The SHGC is also searching for a Newsletter Editor:

 

SHGC Newsletter Editor

 Publishes a fun monthly online-newsletter detailing the activities of the club.

Activities reported include monthly meetings
 and special events.

 Must be able to write and edit content.

Experience in photography and photo editing a plus!

 Works with and has the support and input from the President and board to keep the membership informed of all current events and information.

Interested? Or need more information? 

Email: SafetyHarborGardenClub@gmail.com

  

 

 

 

December SHGC News

Happy Holidays! 

Monday, December 5

Mullet Monday!

We added plants to the beds and did some pruning and weeding
at Mullet Creek Park

8:30 start-up 

Sunday, December 11th

Kiwanis Plant Sale on Main Street
8AM - 4:00PM

Donations topped $1200! 

************************************************

SHGC Christmas Party

Moccasin Lake Nature Park

Thursday, December 15
11:30 AM

Thank You to our Hospitality Team 

led by Jennifer Rothe 

for a Beautiful Party!

Sharen Kuckhan,
Karen Bredow,
Carol Zieres,
Linda Howard
Paula Harvey
Karen Isak 

You even worked through a tropical storm and a 

tornado watch! 

The decorations, centerpieces, food, program!

everything was truly magical.

Jennifer, you really know how to throw a party!

It takes a lot of time, energy and patience 

Thank You!

*************************************

An open letter to our members...

We are blessed with such an amazing group of volunteers. 

(I started to list you all by name but...) 

We have great talent in every position!

And the work being done by our "Folly Farmers" and the Twins in our gardens at Folly Farm and Mullet Creek is nothing short of amazing!

Thank you all! 

I am inspired by everyone's commitment to our projects to make Safety Harbor beautiful. 

Every day we are thanked by
visitors to the parks we garden.

I am so proud of every single member for their efforts making our club great. 

Congratulations to our "Person of the Year"

Nancy McClelland

Truly, well deserved!

Gary Sawtelle, Nancy McClelland, Leslie Zambito

Nancy is a fine example of the spirit of volunteerism that we have in our club. She is cheerful, hard-working and forever sharing her knowledge!

An unstoppable force in the pursuit of creating a garden for all to enjoy.

A Master of Folly, indeed!

Thank You!

And thank you to my wife, Celeste,
She is the reason I have been able 

to give my time and energy to our club. 

She is the garden of my soul.

Thank you, my dear, for your inspiration and support. 

*****************************************

 

 Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,
Happy New Year
However, you celebrate 
I hope you experience holiday magic!

Looking Forward:

2023 is going to be a busy year
for our club.
 IMPORTANT DATES / ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sunday, January 8 

Sandy Huff will be celebrating her
80th trip around the sun!

Her husband Bill and crew are hosting an open house from 1 pm to 5 pm at their house located at 3530 Fairview Street, Safety Harbor. (If you get lost call Sandy at 727-420-6184)

There will be food and birthday cake with ice cream! 

Please come, either for the whole time, or whatever time you can spare. She doesn't need any presents, but a chance to visit with you will make it a precious day, so do bring a big smile.

 PS to help the party organizers, rsvp to Huffsandy@aol,com 
727-420-6184 

Extra guests are welcome.

Saturday, January 14th

2nd Saturday Plant Sale at Folly Farm
9-noon

Volunteers needed at 8:30 please  

SHGC Membership Meeting

Moccasin Lake Nature Park

Wednesday, January 18 

9:30 AM 

James B Stevenson

Education & Outreach Supervisor
Brooker Creek Preserve

 January topic “The Buzz on FL Pollinators”

 His specialty is Botany and Native Plants

James is an Extension Specialist with the University of Florida IFAS Extension Services in Pinellas County; he works out of the Brooker Creek Preserve Environmental Education Center in Tarpon Springs.  There he teaches classes on a variety of natural resource conservation topics, including plant identification, botany, entomology, ecology and particular groups of native plants such as orchids.  Exploring the natural world has been James’ passion since growing up in Clearwater.

He received his bachelor’s degree in Plant Ecology from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN and then worked in botanical gardens around the world, from North Carolina to Europe & Israel.  Before returning to Florida in 2006, James worked in the UK on his advanced degree at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and as the Assistant Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. 

Saturday, January 28  

Seed Swap

10AM - Noon

Folly Barn

Safety Harbor Garden Club is sponsoring a seed swap! This is an opportunity for gardeners to organize their seed collections and get rid of the ones they don’t want. 

Bring your seeds in envelopes, we will provide bins to sort them into. If you do not have seeds, still come, pick out your seeds and leave a cash donation in its place.

Saturday, January 28 

Volunteer Appreciation Cookout and Firepit

4:00PM- 6:00PM Gazebo Cookout

6:00PM Firepit 

A big thank you to all of our volunteers!

If you volunteered your time to our club, in any capacity, 

you are invited to come join the fun!  

Big Foot sighting?
No!
It's our very own giant gnome "Gnomeo"
Now under construction by Chris Dotson!

Thank you for a great year!

Safety Harbor Garden Club is Awesome!

  

 IMPORTANT DATES / ANNOUNCEMENTS

Monday, November 7

Mullet Monday!

We'll be adding plants to the beds and doing some pruning and weeding at Mullet Creek Park

8:30 start-up 

Saturday, November 12th

2nd Saturday Plant Sale at Folly Farm
9-noon

Volunteers needed at 8:30 please 

"FREE THE TREES"

Invasive plant mitigation along the trail

8:30am till Noon 

meet at the Folly Farm Gazebo

SHGC Membership Meeting

Moccasin Lake Nature Park

Wednesday, November 16
9:30 AM

The Delights of a Florida Winter Garden

Learn all about winter visitors to welcome to your yard with Master Gardener Liza.

For many gardens and gardeners, winter is a time of rest from the business of growing, flowering, fruiting, and weeding.

But in subtropical Florida, how do plants detect and respond to winter's arrival?

And, what are plants and gardeners busy doing in this delightful season?

Supporting migrating and over wintering birds is an additional service that Florida winter plants and gardens perform with bounty and beauty.

Refreshments 

Plant of the Month

Plant exchange  

SHGC updates
don't forget your name tag
and drinking cup 

The nursery is undergoing a makeover and it is really coming together.
next up? improved irrigation.

Michele, Karen, Leslie, Arlene and Sharen celebrate new groundcover addition in the nursery!

Janice developed a new and improved potting method in the Nursery Rows!

Our new helper in the Garden, Hunter, gets a t-shirt from Leslie, Gary and Colleen.

October plant sale was a huge success!

Rick shows the size of the torpedo grass he wrestled with in the garden he and Collen care for.

 

Colleen is happy with the burst of cooler, low humidity weather! 

The latest Garden to join the Folly Farm Gardens is called the "Pathways Garden". It's right out front along the fence line. We received a $1,000 city grant to plant all natives to help launch our Pollinator Pathways initiative. (Coming Soon)

Robert looks in on the planting of the new "Pathways" garden
along the front fence at Folly (bordering MLK). 

Chris waters in new plants in the "Pathways" garden.

Rebecca, Karen, Sharen and Julia work in the new Pathways Garden near the Folly entry sign.

Sydney and Shari helping out in the Pathways Garden

Alan and Dave add a Yaupon Holly to the Pathways Garden

Mullet Mondays continues... First Monday of every month.
Next up Monday November 7  

Carol at Mullet Mondays 

Jan is ready for action! Leslie suggests a garden that needs work during Mullet Monday.

Folly Crew dance yoga???

Our Folly Farm Fright Night event was a scary? scene near the pumpkin arch entrance to the scary trail...
Nice turn out from our members
and help from Cayden Renshaw and friends

Friday had rain and Saturday a generator malfunction,
but it was a really cool, fun event!
Our Zom-Bees looked great,
and the silhouette screen looked really good!
We had dancing and dismemberment both nights! 

Thank you and Kudos to the City Recreation Department for a great event and letting us join in! 

Hive warning sign.

"The Hive" was a big hit on Friday and Saturday night
at "Fright Nights" at Folly.

Kelsy, Brittney, Chris and Gary at Saturday night at the Hive! 

Cayden and his volunteer Zom-Bees get ready to frighten!

 Cayden and friends helped us out Friday and Saturday night.

Zom-Bees dancing in the Hive...

That Zom-bee can Dance!! 

See more photos on our Facebook page

SHGC Facebook Page

Thanks for all the support this month!

 

 IMPORTANT DATES / ANNOUNCEMENTS

Saturday, October 8h

2nd Saturday Plant Sale at Folly Farm
9-noon

SHGC Membership Meeting

Moccasin Lake Nature Park

Wednesday, October 19
9:30 AM

 Pruning for Health and Beauty  

Featured Speaker
Alan Mayberry

Alan Mayberry is one of the most experienced and respected men in the arboriculture industry. He has shared his expertise and knowledge of tree biology by training hundreds of arborists. His 37-year career has included roles as the city arborist for
both Clearwater and Dunedin.

 Alan has twice been recognized by awards from the International Society of Arboriculture’s Florida chapter for his accomplishments.
In describing his work, Alan once said, "I became a voice of organisms that have no voice. Trees are the largest organisms on earth, and they do so much for us. I felt they needed someone to speak up for them."

Refreshments 

Plant of the Month

Plant exchange  

SHGC updates
don't forget your name tag
and drinking cup 

Hope to see you there!

Fright Nights Fund Raiser at Folly Farm

Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29 

On Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29 

the SHGC will be a recipient of some of the gate for participating in
Fright Nights at Folly Farm

This is really a fun event! Don't miss it!

Our Club is creating a Scary scene filled with ZOM-BEES
and a scary ZOM-BEE hive.

ZOM-BEES are the result of not enough native pollinator plants to nectar on!

The bees have to nectar on human blood!  

Along with our ZOM-BEES, we will have a table with friendly garden gnomes who have information on native pollinator plants to help combat the ZOM-BEES.

We need some garden gnomes to help us on both nights
To volunteer contact Gary!

***Help Wanted***

SEED LIBRARY

We've had many requests for the 

start-up of a seed library.

Do you have good organizational skills

 and the desire to help?

Then we could use your help starting up a "seed library"!  

If you are interested contact us SafetyHarborGardenClub@gmail.com

Got an Idea?

 Topics, Tours and Tips

Do you have a gardening topic you would like to see presented at one of our meetings?

or maybe a road trip or tour you think would be of interest to the club?

send your suggestion to:

SafetyHarborGardenClub@gmail.com

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Pollinator Pathway Planting

Friday, October 21 - Saturday, October 22 
 8:00 AM

We are planting a new pollinator garden at Folly out front 

alongside the fence. 

 

Monday, November 7th is our
"Mullet Monday"
gardening event 

First Monday-Tuesday of the month we garden at Mullet
and we start at 8am.

IMPORTANT DATES / ANNOUNCEMENTS

Monday, September 5th is our
"Mullet Monday"
gardening event 

First Monday-Tuesday of the month we garden at Mullet
we start at 8am
 

Saturday, September 10th
2nd Saturday Plant Sale at Folly Farm
9-noon
Come out and see what's growing on!
Volunteers at 8:30 please

The kick-off of the month-long "Bio Blitz" is also on tap.
Learn how to use the Inaturalist app to help record Folly native plants and insects.

Wednesday, September 21
Membership Meeting
Moccasin Lake Nature Park

Featured Speakers 

Suzanne Hassell & Susan Taylor

"Using Native Plants in Ikebana
the Art of Japanese Flower Arranging"

A beautiful flower arrangement can transform any room

Learn how to bring the beauty of native flowers into your home

Our skilled presenters will show you how!

Refreshments 
Plant of the Month

Plant exchange  

SHGC updates
don't forget your name tag
and drinking cup 

Hope to see you there!

 

The September schedule at Folly Farm 

has some fun events that you won't want to miss!

Films at Folly: Flight of the Butterflies on 9/9 at 7:30 pm
Nocturnal Pollinator Party on 9/9 following the movie
 Harvest Moon Hike on 9/10 
Pickin’ in the Park Bluegrass Concert on 9/23 at 6:30 pm 
Wetlands Expo on 9/24

Hope you can make it out to Folly!

   THE SAFETY HARBOR POLLINATOR PATHWAY PROJECT
Fall 2022

 The Safety Harbor Pollinator Pathway Project creates a patchwork quilt of gardens that offer contiguous habitat and forage to vulnerable native species. This is achieved through having small pollinator habitats, like roadside flower beds and home gardens, connect with the bigger habitats such as parks and meadows.  

Our Pollinator Pathway launches from the Folly Farm Nature Preserve located at 1538 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Street.
Folly is currently the western anchor of the Pathway and Mullet Creek Park is at the Eastern End.

The Folly Farm Nature Preserve already has an award-winning pollinator garden and Mullet Creek Park is undergoing a pollinator plant upgrade!

The Pollinator Pathway project is the latest Safety Harbor Gardening Club public gardening effort. 

Gnomeo, oh Gnomeo Wherefore Art Thou?

The Safety Harbor Garden Club is supporting
local Artist and SHGC member Chris Dotson
as he creates a new addition to our Folly Farm Gardens.

Pictured above is a working model of Gnomeo. 

The full-size version (14 ft?) is scheduled to be installed
during the Enchanted Garden Fest this coming Spring!

Here is an August look at some of our Folly Gardens! 

The Wind Garden at Folly
August 2022

 

Georges Garden at Folly
August 2022

You can now enter your volunteer hours from a link at our website!

Visit our SHGC Website
and look for the "Enter Volunteer hours here" button

(Left hand side scroll down a couple of paragraphs)

Photo Round Up

Chad receives wasp sting care 

Mullet Monday activity

 Stacey Matrazzo, President of the Florida Wildflower Foundation
makes a visit to Folly w/Nancy McClelland and Leslie Zambito 

 

Swamp Hibiscus in the Rainbow Garden

Looking ahead to October

Fright Nights at Folly Farm

Two nights of frightful fun!

Friday, October 28, and Saturday, October 29
6:30 -10pm 

Fright Nights at Folly Farm is two nights of frightful fun full of fall themed activities, a haunted trail, a campfire and more!

The Safety Harbor Garden Club is hosting a scene along the trail! The nonprofits participating will benefits from the event proceeds. think of it as a fun fundraiser.

We will be dressing as scary pollinators: zom-BEES and invasive species.

Mark your calendars and come out and join us!  More info to come..