Carpool:  9:30 a.m. from the Meadows Shopping Center, north of Rite Aid. Email or call Mollie Morton to ensure others will be there.

Location:  Growing Gardens, 1630 Hawthorn, Boulder, CO--east of Broadway, off of Iris St.

Program: Update from Annie Sweeney and Vanessa Keeley

Growing Gardens is blessed by the generosity of the landowners, the Long Family. The land is farmed by Long's Gardens which is a third generation, family-owned and operated iris farm on North Broadway in Boulder, CO. Long's Gardens was founded in 1905 by J.D. Long. His granddaughter, Catherine Long Gates, and her husband Dennis Gates, carry on the family business. They strongly support preserving agricultural land and agricultural education and lease the east 11 acres of their property to Growing Gardens.  This is the last remaining piece of agriculturally zoned land in the City of Boulder and Growing Gardens is very grateful to be able to call it home. Our largest Community Garden (the Hawthorn Garden) is located here, as well as the Cultiva Youth Project, the Children's Peace Garden, the Able Garden and the 400 square foot greenhouse. Annie will give us an overview of Growing Gardens including the Horticultural Therapy Program and their educational programs such as the beekeeping classes.

Hostesses:  Mollie Morton and others.

Bring a brown bag lunch and a drink. Dessert will be provided by the hostesses.

Location:  The Gondolier

Program: Whoo are the Owls? (Part 2)

Speaker: Suzanne Michot, Volunteer Naturalist and Honorary Club Member.

Owls have been regarded with fascination and awe throughout recorded history and across many cultures. Over half of the owls recorded in the U.S. have been seen in Boulder County, and most of those owls nest here. Join Boulder County naturalists for a slide program to explore these fascinating creatures, and to learn about the special adaptations that make them such expert hunters.

Suzanne has spoken to us several times in the past. She completed the Boulder County Parks & Open Space Volunteer Naturalist Training in 1996. Since then, she has worked for the City of Boulder Open Space Mountain Parks Dept. as an Outreach Specialist, as an environmental educator for Eco-Cycle, and as a nature hike guide for Front Range Community College Continuing Education and Boulder Walking Tours. That's pretty good for a Louisiana girl! Prior to becoming an environmental educator, Suzanne was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines and a paralegal for various law firms and corporate legal departments. She loves backpacking, biking, skiing, traveling and learning more about nature in her free time.

November 16, 2018, Noon

Location:  The Gondolier

Program:  Pollinator Friendly Lawn Care

Speaker: Tony Koski, Professor and Extension Turf Specialist, CSU Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture.

Dr. Koski will discuss turfgrass water use and irrigation management, evaluation of soil amendments for water conservation and other effects on turfgrass soils. He will also tell us about how CSU evaluated turfgrass cultivars and alternative grass species for drought resistance and adaptation to the Rocky Mountain region.  Lastly, he will update us on the development of turf-type saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) and the latest in herbicide and fertilizer efficacy research.

The Boulder Garden Club’s Holiday Season Celebration  1:00 p.m.

Home of Cindy Hoge, 353 Grant St., Longmont, CO 80501

Program:  Cookie Exchange

Please bring a dozen cookies to eat and share with others--and include copies of the recipe to give to others.

Donations:  Members are encouraged to bring donations of new or gently used gloves, jackets, blankets, and socks for Boulder Cares, a group that goes out on the streets each winter night to help the homeless.  Sandy Edmondson will collect the donations.

Directions:

From Boulder take the Diagonal Hwy. (Hwy. 119) north toward Longmont.  Veer left onto S. Hover St. at the south end of Longmont.  Follow Hover north almost 2 miles to 3rd St. Turn right onto 3rd St., and go past Sunset and Francis to Grant. Turn left on Grant and Cindy's house will be down the street on the left.

February 15, 2019 

Location: Gondolier Restaurant

Program:  How Do Bees Decide Which Flowers To Visit?

Speakers: Dr. Shannon Murphy & Dr. Julie Morris, Associate Professors at D.U. and Graduate Student Eva Horna Lowell

Humans depend on honey bees (Apis mellifera) for food production; honey bees are responsible for pollinating 12 billion dollars of crops each year.Human dependence on honey bees for major global crop production has led to extensive research regarding the behavior of foraging bees in flower patches within a landscape; honey bees use a variety of signals to communicate and coordinate effective nectar and pollen collection among individuals within a hive and to influence honey bee recruitment to a resource patch (e.g. waggle dancing). Communication signals that occur within a hive and that  affect recruitment to a resource patch have been studied relatively extensively. However, the cues that honey bees use to decide which flowers to land and forage upon once at a flower patch are not as well understood. We will talk kabout ongoing research at D.U. in which we are studying how honey bees decide which flowers to visit within a flower patch. As part of our research, we work closely with several hundred students the D.U. who are not science majors and by involving them in our research we introduce them to the scientific process and help them to realize that anyone can do science.

February 9-17, 2019  Colorado Garden & Home Show

The Club will volunteer at the Colorado Federation of Garden Clubs exhibit on a date to be chosen. We will work specific several hour shifts at the CFGC display area, explaining the exhibits and answering questions from the public.

The CO Garden & Home Show is the state's oldest and most prestigious show of its kind in the state, and attracts more than 60,000 visitors annually. It is produced by the Colorado Garden Show, Inc., which awards grants to organizations throughout Colorado. Money raised from the show supports horticultural and related activities in Colorado.

Coordinators: Connie Farnbach and Mollie Morton

March 15, 2019, Noon

Location:  Gondolier Restaurant

World Gardening Month – A silver offering will be collected at this meeting to provide support for a world project to be chosen by the membership.

Program:  Members Meeting and Plant Sale Readiness

Speakers will include Jill Jagemann, Marie Leslie, Nan Otero, Sandy Edmondson, and Pam McIllwain, with input welcome from all members.

This organizational meeting will cover all aspects of our May plant sale, including strategies for growing saleable plants, popular plant categories, associated sale items, and volunteer opportunities.  Last year was very successful and we hope to repeat that.  What can we do differently to make it work even better?  Sign-up sheets for the tasks at the sale will be available. 

April 19, 2019, Noon

Location:  Gondolier Restaurant

Program:  Ken Fisher, Forester, City of Boulder

Ken will update us on the state of Boulder's trees and parks, and will bring others to discuss city gardens and flowers. Ken in his own words: "I plant, prune, remove, protect and monitor trees on City of Boulder property. We have about 52,000 trees in our inventory.  About 40,000 are along city streets in the public right of way and the other 12,000 are in city parks. I suppose my specialty is the planting program. I've planted somewhere around 5,000 trees in Boulder over the last 20+ years. I have a good idea of trees that will survive Boulder's climate and soils and many other trees that grow, but maybe are more borderline hardiness. I can bring the complete list of all the tree species I've planted since 1997. I can answer most questions related to insect and disease issues along the Front Range--Emerald Ash Borer being the most significant."

May 11, 2019
9-Noon
ACTIVITY

ANNUAL PLANT SALE
Location: Unitarian-Universalist Church,
5001 Pennsylvania Ave.
Boulder CO 80303

Set up for Sale:  Friday, May 10, 2019, 4:30pm-6 pm

May 17, 2019, 11:00 a.m.

ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON

Program:  What’s New from Plant Select--Member Carolyn Toole will discuss the new plants for 2019.

Location:  Home of Stefanie Selden, 325 Snow Peak Lane, Lafayette, CO 80026

Lunch, dessert, and drinks will be provided by the hostesses and the Boulder Garden Club. Cost is $5.00 per person.

 Annual Dues will be collected - $20.00. Total for the dues and lunch - $25.00.

Hostesses: Club Officers

Directions: 

Snow Peak Lane is a private driveway on the south side of Baseline. It is located about 1.5 miles east of 75th St., just west of the railroad tracks and before you get to 95th St. Look for the stone entrance labeled "Snow Peak Farm." There are three house in Snow Peak Farm and Stefanie's is the middle green house.

June 21, 2019, 10:00 a.m.

Program:  Garden Tour across the street  from the home of Sandy Edmondson, at 5191 Ellsworth Place, Boulder, CO 80303. Lunch will be at Sandy's house at 5215 Centennial Trail.

Please bring a salad or side dish to share. Dessert, drinks, biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils will be furnished.

A few years ago, member Pat Weis-Taylor applied concepts on home-scale permaculture from the books Gaia's Garden (2009), by Toby Henenway and Square Foot Gardening (1981), by Mel Bartholomew as well as our own Barbara Hyde Boardman's three books as a sanity check on these ideas for Boulder gardeners. This spring, you will see what worked (survived and prospered) and what did not.

Hostesses: Sandy Edmondson, Marie Leslie, Ila Sheahan

Directions:  

From 55th St., between Arapahoe and Baseline, go West on Centennial Tr. approximately three blocks. The tour at 5191 Ellsworth Pl. is the northeast corner of Centennial and Ellsworth.

July 19, 2019, 10:00 a.m.

Program:  Tour at Eco-Cycle

Lunch Plans, Hostesses and Directions to be determined.

Eco-Cycle is one of the largest non-profit recyclers in the U.S.A. and has an international reputation as a pioneer and innovator in resource conservation. It was established in 1976 by everyday residents who had a passionate belief in conserving our natural resources. These volunteers brought recycling to town by making Boulder one of the first 20 communities in the U.S. to offer curbside recycling and they continue to be driven by these same passions and innovative actions. Eco-Cycle's mission is to identify, explore and demonstrate the emerging frontiers of sustainable resource management through the concepts and practices of Zero Waste. It believes in individual and community action to transform society's throw-away ethic into environmentally responsible stewardship.

Carpool:  9:15 from the Meadows Shopping Center, north of Rite Aid.

August 16, 2019, 10:00 a.m.

Program:  Garden tour at the homes of Jill Jagemann and Joan Fries

Jill calls her garden "A hodgepodge of fun and impulsive planting!" When she moved to this house five years ago, it was surrounded in black plastic and red cedar chips. Jill dugh, tilled and added compost to the soil and began planting quickly. Old diseased Siberian Elm trees were removed and a Fall Fiesta Maple and Honey Locust were planted. Tiger's Eye Sumac are focal points as well as the flagstone terraced pond area that houses nine Koe, I shubunkin and a gold fish a neighborhood girl won at the County Fair three years ago.

Her garden is in 90% full sun and burst in a myriad of colors in early spring through late fall with a variety of bulbs, sages, agastache, echinacea, poppy mallow, Joe Pye Weed, lost of Brown-eyed Susans and many other perennials. With the wild life area and open space behind her home, many birds regularly visit as well as butterflies, hundreds of bees and two sweet hummingbirds that have made this garden their own.

"Wild and Messy" are the words Jill uses to describe her garden and she looks forward to sharing it with everyone.

Joan and her family moved to their house in 1990 from Boulder. At that time the yard had a perimeter of junipers around the front. They were buried 4-6 inches deep in rock. All this was over a thick black landscaping fabric. Around the house were rocks 406 inches deep.  They were all removed by hand, except the junipers--which took a truck. Twenty-eight years later the yard has gone through many changes. There have been seven different dogs and two cats running about the property which was very challenging for the gardens. A 70 ft. cottonwood tree was in the center of the yard, which eventually died, causing the entire ecosystem of the backyard to change. Now, the front yard sports a perimeter of perennials. Next to the house are spring bulbs, milkweed for the bees and butterflies, and a few pots for color.There are ornamental grasses in the front yard. The back yard has an area for birds (and the inevitable squirrels) complete with feeders, bird bath, and flowers. There are raised beds that change from year to year holding vegetables and flowers. The yard is eclectic (short for wild and rough)!

Directions:  Jill's house is at 305 Oak St., Lafayette, CO 80026.  From Boulder, go east on Baseline (Hwy. 7) past Hwy. 287, also continuing past Pioneer School.  At Iowa turn north (left), then left again on Oak St. Jill's house is on the right.

Joan's house is at 803 E. Cleveland, Lafayette, CO 80026. From Jill's house return to Baseline and go east to S. Finch Ave. Turn right on Finch, then left onto E. Cleveland St. Proceed two blocks to Joan's house on the left.

Please bring a sack lunch.  Dessert, drinks, biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils will be furnished.

Hostesses: TBA

New members and guests are always welcome!