LAKESHORE
Garden Club of Lexington
March 2015
Volume 18
From the Board:
Hopefully everyone has had a good winter and is ready for our
first meeting of 2015 on March 31st. We have several projects
already planned for this spring.
Our District VI spring meeting, on May 5 th, will be
sponsored by the “Soe and Hoe Garden Club” at the Open
Door Missionary Church in Sandusky, Michigan. Speakers
will be Robert Solman and Julia Sobell. It would be nice to
have a group from our club attend, especially since it is so
close.
The annual Tierney Park cleanup on May 9th is one of
our first work projects. This is a project that Lakeshore Garden
Club as well as others in the Lexington area work on together.
Bring a friend and come ready to work.
Between May 14th and May 24th
we have our annual flower sale at
Lexington Gardens and Greenhouse.
This is one of our clubs fund raisers,
so please consider supporting it.
The Michigan State Garden
Club Convention will be in Petoskey on June 3 rd and 4th at the
Odawa Casino Resort.
In July it is our turn to host the District VI annual picnic.
We will need a group to plan and organize that event. It would
be a good time to showcase the gardens we have at the harbor.
I’m looking forward to seeing all you at our first meeting
on March 31st at St Denis Hall!
Judy Ross, LSGC president
Issue 1
The First
meeting of the
2015 Year!
At St. Denis Parish Hall
Dennison St, Lexington
~~~~~~
Our Next Meeting
April 28th
7:00 PM
at
St. Denis
Church Hall
Lakeshore Garden Club Newsletter March 2015
1
From the Kitchen
Welcome back to the Lakeshore Garden Club after a very harsh winter
month of February.
For the monthly meetings in March and April I will be getting
volunteers to sign up for refreshments. Each member will be responsible
for bringing refreshments for just one meeting within the year. If you
volunteer for either the March or April meeting your duty will be done
for the year.
Beginning with the month of May - I will go back to the membership
roster and assign members a month to bring refreshments. If you would
like to be assigned a specific month please let me know in advance by
calling or emailing me (see below). Once you are assigned a month and
find you cannot attend that meeting please make “your own”
arrangements to “trade” with another member.
Also, remember that when you are on the refreshment list you are
required to come a little early to help with “set-up” and to help with
“CLEAN-UP” after the meeting…many hands make big jobs go faster.
LSGC Officers 2015
President
Judy Ross
st
1 VP
Linda al
nd
2 VP
Karen Balcerski
R.Secretary
Margaret West
Treasurer
Sue Haron
C.Secretary
Sandy Dehem
Lakeshore Garden Club of
Lexington Inc., PO Box 232
Lexington MI 48450
www.lakeshoregardenclub.org
Editor
Sue Phillips…………………..359-2512
Newsletter Writers
Linda Bombard………….….359-8961
Mary Brown……….………..359-7810
Sue McFadden…………….633-9131
Corinne Falls………………..622-9260
Mary Ann Knoblauch……...359-7831
Deadline
for the April 2015
rd
newsletter will be Friday, April 3 .
All Chairs submit your articles to
the newsletter editor Sue Phillips at
[email protected] .
Looking forward to the summer of 2015 and many wonderful garden
club events!
Diane Gray
Refreshment Chairperson
810-359-5734 or [email protected]
Our Condolences go out to:
March Refreshments:
Rosemarie Perrin on the death of her husband Tom;
Volunteers!
Barb Sobczak on the death of her mother;
Julia Sobell on the death of her father;
Renee Carlton on the death of her father.
Our thoughts are with you.
Please remember that if you are on this
month’s refreshment list we also need
you to help with the set-up, a table
arrangement and clean-up. If you’d like
to bring your refreshment in more than
one dish, that would be appreciated but
not necessary. Diane Gray also says
“Don’t forget a serving utensil for your
dish!”
♥Bring your coffee cup!♥
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Lakeshore Garden Club Newsletter March 2015
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Keeping your Garden Safe, Healthy and Beautiful
Whether you are planting a field or a mixed bed around your home, you
didn’t plant that area to feed all of Michigan’s wildlife! Deer, especially,
get into our vegetable gardens as well as our beautiful flower beds. The
best method to control marauding deer is to keep them out of your
plantings by using fencing. Do you know that the fence must be at least 6
feet tall to be effective at all? Oh, well, that won’t work around most of
our flower beds but thorny shrubs may and unlike fencing, shrubs help
feed and house our friends the birds.
There are also products on the market or on the web that purportedly
repel deer like blood meal, sulphur, rotten eggs, soapy water, stinky soaps
and human/dog hair. You could even purchase bottled coyote urine! Just
realize that all of these repellents that rely on deer’s sensitive noses must
be reapplied after every rain…even weekly in the case of coyote urine
and hair. So this could be time consuming and rather expensive. On the
positive side, these items usually repel rabbits at the same time.
Probably a better way to discombobulate a deer’s nose is to use one of
the many plants that are available- plants that deer either find foul of
scent or distasteful. Most bitter, coarse, spiny, poisonous or aromatic
plants will keep deer at bay. Some of the annuals that people have had
success with are alyssum, begonias, calendula coleus, geraniums,
impatiens, petunias marigold parsley, poppies, snapdragons, sunflowers
and zinnias. Deer will also leave alone many bulbs like the alliums
(stinky onion family), daffodils hyacinths and lily of the valley.
There are a myriad of perennials that will also help ward off deer (or at
least won’t be eaten by them). As a bonus, perennials once planted last
many years. Try a Japanese Anemone, Butterfly Weed or a sedum. Now
some of the perennials for warmer regions will work but as a perennial up
here in Michigan-they are worth replanting if you love the color/shape of
their flowers so try a Lantana or rosemary. Then again, if you want
useful plants you could go with herbs which deer and other overly
friendly varmits will ignore- lavender, dill, basil, thyme and garlic are a
few that look good and add to your food’s flavor.
Whatever of these plants you decide to try, choose your plants because
you like them...and enjoy this season’s offerings. Happy Gardening!
Betty McEntee, Master Gardener
The speaker for our March
meeting will be Joe Steen,
owner of Ameriscapes
Landscape & Supply of
Yale. His topic is “Hardscape
Design in the Garden.” The
discussion will include making
good design decisions and
how to incorporate walks,
paths and walls into your
landscape using brick, block,
flagstone and rock. He will
have a Power Point
presentation as well as
handouts for everyone to
follow.
Lakeshore Garden Club Newsletter March 2015
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1.
How about a gutter garden? Create a “small window box
garden” using roof gutters. Attach to lower side of house or
garage for a small space garden that is handicapped
accessible. Good for lettuce or herbs.
KY friend
2. To help kill bacteria on fruits and vegetables, add ¼ cup
of 3% peroxide (or vinegar) to a sink full of water.
Immerse the fruits and vegetables, rinse off well with
cold water. This should also make them last longer too.
KY friend
4. In case you were
wondering how my
garden in a bag turned
out last year…..I
planted three tomato
plants in a bag of soil.
I cut a hole in the
plastic for each one.
As they grew, I put in
tomato cages. They
took a lot of water all
season and I did have
a lot of tomatoes. I
grew them under a
tree in the back yard.
It would work nicely
on a deck or the like
because no mess.
Mary Ann Knoblauch
3. Prune small evergreens (ie: mugo.) As the new growth
emerges, cut or pinch back 1/3 to ½ of it. This keeps it
dense and compact. (Wish I had known this earlier)
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Lakeshore Garden Club Newsletter March 2015
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