President's Message...

Happy Spring! We have made it through the winter. It was not a bad winter, putting aside Covid. I hope you are all well.

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Ellen Ogden’s talk on Sunday was inspiring. I am thinking about how to rearrange things in my garden (even though it probably will never get done!). I like her ‘arches’ as entryways to areas. That is probably the change I will make. I have an arch in my vegetable garden for the beans to grow up and I think it will be moved to a sunnier spot. The hardest part of the task is finding a time where my husband and son can help me.

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To all who want to comment on the newsletter, or the zoom meeting, the best way to reach me (or anyone on the board) is to send me an email. annecognato@gmail.com. Replying to the email the newsletter or the zoom meeting just sends it to a non-monitored email. The mailbox is checked maybe once a week.

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We are having an outdoor gathering/plant swap on May 15. I am really excited about this event. We will get to meet and talk and catch up. It will be at Eisenhower Park in the morning. Watch your emails or check the website for further information. It will be a relaxing day of friends, gardens, and free stuff!

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I have been busy cleaning up my garden beds. It seems every year I have more and more onion grass. I dig it up so carefully, and I throw it out and it never seems to make a dent. That and mugwort. Uhg! The only good thing about these two pests is I like the fresh onion smell of the grass and the herbal smell of mugwort. Weeding gives me an excuse to be outside in the sun.

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In the vegetable garden, the peas and radishes are growing. I did not know that swiss chard is a perennial (or biennial). I planted it last year and it is back. A nice surprise.

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I started a lot of seeds indoors, and each day I walk them out to a portable greenhouse (it is one of the plastic igloos that have become so popular), and they get brought in each night. Gardening is a labor of love.

And one last note, there is a shortage this year on garden gnomes! Can you believe it!

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-Anne

Boredom

Busters

           Virtual Visits

This month: 

Ellen Ecker  Ogden: New Heirloom Garden 

Monte Don The Power of Nature, 5X15 Stories

April Flower Arranging - Garden Answer

Cook's Corner

This month's recipe comes from Carolyn Bantz

Recipe for Cheese Lovers

Companion Plants for Roses

by

Josephine Borut

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Still on the Trails...

by Toni Cabat & Stuart Germain

Ronnie's Recap:

Ellen Ecker Ogden: New Heirloom Garden by Ronnie Brancazio

                Did you miss the presentation? Watch it here

From the Editor....

We had the most beautiful day to go to Holland Tulip Farm, in Cream Ridge, NJ for the tulip festival. To see over 1 million tulips was a sight to behold, it was magnificent. I also learned something, tulips do not need water. The ground there was as arid as I would imagine it is in their native land of Turkey. Parched earth, bone dry, it looked as if it hadn't rained in years. And there was

DUST. Huge dust clouds billowing up from the cars driving into the farm. I had to put my mask on in the car just to avoid breathing it in as we drove into the farm to our eventual parking spot. Once the dust settles and you can gaze over the plains at the bright, colorful rows upon rows of TULIPS! Many, many tulips it was truly spectacular!

  Only thing I wish they had done would have been to label the varieties. Its not that kind of place, it is a tulip picking farm but once you spot something you really love it would have been nice to know the name, so you could order it in the fall.

   It's hard to pick a favorite but I was very impressed by the peony style tulips, they had flowers as big as peonies, very showy!

  The virtual Garden tours are up and running, Thank you to Ronnie Brancazio, Jo Borut and Judy Basse for sending in photos of their spring gardens! Check out the Virtual Garden Albums Here  Also check out the Garden Calendar page for the "To Do List" for May

-Ann Wetzel