Mission Statement Garden Club Meeting Statement The Clayton Valley Garden Club was formed to bring together peo-ple in our area with a common in-terest in gardening and to develop

CVGC Mar. 2014

P.O. Box 633 Clayton, CA 94517

Volume 17 Issue 2 Judy Bates, Editor

“Life begins the day you start your garden” -Club Motto

Mission Statement

The Clayton Valley Garden Club was formed to bring together peo-ple in our area with a common in-terest in gardening and to develop

that interest.

Garden Club Officers 2014

Steve Lane - President

Mia Malick - Vice President

Alyce Shikano & Dennis Kaump Membership

Al Malick - Programs

Carin Kaplan - Secretary

Diane Selmer - Treasurer

Meetings

Meets the 2nd Wed. of the month (No meetings in Dec. & Jan.)

7pm to 9pm at Diamond Terrace 6401 Center St. Clayton, Ca 94517

Web Site:

www.claytonvalleygardenclub.org

REFRESHMENTS

MONTH SNACKS DRINKS

MARCH NANCY H STEVE & INGELA

APRIL MARY ANN K NEEDED

Garden Club Meeting 7:00pm @ Diamond Terrace

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Matthew Levesque, program manager for San Francisco’s Building REsources, and The Red Shovel Glass Company, specializing in re-useable building materials, and tumbled glass products, will be our

guest speaker. He is an experienced builder and re-modeler, as well as an artist and designer.

His program will be:

- Making Garden Art using repurposed Materials.

With a hands-on demonstration!

Check out his book, The Revolutionary Yardscape, Ideas For Repurposing Local Materials to Create Containers, Path-ways , Lighting and More, published by Timber press:

http://www.timberpress.com/books/revolutionary_yardscape/levesque/9780881929973

You don’t want to miss this! See you there!

CVGC 2 Mar. 2014

Dear Club Members, Thanks to all who came out to our February Club Meeting / official kick-off of our 2014 Garden Club season – we had a great membership turnout, with some guests, some great snacks (thanks to Sheila Nichols and Carin Kaplan),

and an interesting speaker – Karen Rezai, speaking of Flower Essences, and how to use flower essences as natural medicine for our ailments. We also, debuted the new Diamond Ter-race PA / Sound System to everyone’s delight -- we can now clearly hear what’s being said at our meetings! Thanks again to Robb Kingsbury, Nadine Findley, Diane Selmer, Ellen Diamond, and all the donors, including you – CVGC members, whom made this new system a reality.

If you missed the meeting – you missed Linda Karp’s update of our successful 2014 ‘Blossoms for Barbara’ event. Read the recap and enjoy photos from this year’s event in this month’s newsletter. Also, see the announcement for David Austin Roses (some of the best!) for sale at amazingly low prices - proceeds will help fund ‘Blossoms for Barbara’ 2015.

We held our first official ‘Potting Party’ on a beautiful, Spring-like Sunday – February 23rd, at the home of Linda & Jesse Cruz. We had a great turnout of about 20 volunteers, and mostly prepped 24 flats (approx 30 plants/flat) of 720+/- Aptenia (iceplant/succulent) starts, marking our first big (pre) sale of 2014! Read more about our successful February ‘Potting Party,’ with great food and friends in this month’s newsletter. NOTE: Be sure to try Carin Kaplan’s Artichoke Dip recipe, which was a huge hit, among many other tasty items volunteers brought to share at our February Potting Party… Who will bring the “hit” side dish to our March 22nd ‘Potting Party’ – it could be you! Also be sure to checkout our ‘Annual Plant Sale’ page on our website, and see the most up-to-date, ever-growing 2014 Plant Sale Inventory List, plus a List of Invasive Plants – plants not to purchase, pot-up, nor plant.

Your prayers for rain and secret rain dances seem to be working, with many thanks to those few good rains storms that passed through this past month… However, we still have a L-O-N-G way to go to get even close to “normal” rainfall at this late date. Hence, we’ll all be required to conserve and ration our water use this year. At our March Meeting - I would like to briefly “share & tell” ways our members are conserving water this year. Until then - check out some of the drought tolerant event flyers and the listings in the “Dates to Remember” section of this month’s newsletter, and make your reservations now, as these events will likely fill fast.

Speaking of water conservation – our ‘From the Archives’ feature this month contains “Water-Wise Suggestions & Tips” from former Club member, Bob Frost, as it originally appeared March 2009 newsletter – 5-years ago – our most recent low-rainfall year.

Our March 12th Club Meeting Speaker will be Michael Levesque speaking of making Garden Art with Re-Purposed materials. Learn more about Mike on our CVGC website’s ‘Speaker Pro-grams’ page.

Until then – get out and do some early Spring Cleaning and fertilizing in your gardens between these most welcome rain showers, as Spring actually begins this month – Warm (and wet) Spring Wishes to all! Steve Lane, CVGC President

A Message from Our President

Steve Lane for March 2014

CVGC 3 Mar. 2014

MARCH

6th (Thur): "Drought-Proof Your Landscape with Greywater" 7pm at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley CA 94702. Cost is sliding scale $5 - $15. No one turned away for lack of funds. RSVP to [email protected] 8th (Sat): 10am to noon Crassulaceae at Ruth Bancroft Garden 925-955-9352 14th (Fri): 2-5pm Plant Sale at Diablo Valley College 18th-23rd (Tues-Sun): “Bouquets to Art” Celebrating 30th Years of Art through Flowers at the de Young Museum 19th-23rd (Wed-Sun): San Francisco Flower Show at the San Mateo Event Center 22nd (Sat): 9am to noon Markham Arboretum Plant Sale 925-681-2968 22nd (Sat): 10am to noon “Cactaceae & Euphorbiacea” at Ruth Bancroft Garden 925-955-9352 22nd (Sat): Greywater Design and Installation workshop. Richmond, CA. (This workshop will be located at an irrigation store where you can purchase greywater system compo- nents after the class if you feel ready.) 10am-12:30pm Cost: Sliding scale $15-$40 Bring: Photographs of your laundry room and landscape, and a site plan with dimensions of your house and yard. You must register to attend. Www.greywateraction.org/ workshop/2014 23rd (Sun): Hands-on Rainwater Harvesting workshop 9am to 2pm $30 See flyer pg 11 25th (Tues): Deadline for info for the April CVGC Newsletter 26th (Wed): 7-8:30pm “Living in the California Great Watershed—The Delta, Its History, Beauty and Future” 925-947-1678 29th (Sat): 10:30 to noon “Introduction to Summer Dry Plants” at Ruth Bancroft Garden 925-955-9352 29th (Sat): 9:00-11:30am Field Trip to Big Break Regional Shoreline with Mike Moran, for reservations call 925-947-1678 30th (Sun): Greywater Installment Workshop 9am to 2pm $30. See flyer pg 10 APRIL

5th (Sat): 9am to 1pm LAVGC Plant Sale at Amador High School parking Lot, 1155 Santa Rita Rd. in Pleasanton 5th-6th (Sat-Sun): DFD Field Trip to Boonie Lang Myo Wa En Garden & High Hand Nursery See flyer on pg15 of the round the Mountain Newsletter or ask Linda Cruz for info. 10th (Thur): 10am Lafayette Garden Club Plant & Craft Sale, Lafayette Christian Church, 584 Glenside Dr. in Lafayette 12th (Sat): 11am to 3pm “Spring Opening & Plant Sale” at Ruth Bancroft Garden 925-955-9352 19th (Sat): 9am to noon Markham Arboretum Plant Sale 925-681-2968 24th (Thur): “Kentucky Derby High Tea” hosted by the Walnut Creek Garden Club at The Gardens at Heather Farm 26th (Sat): “Clayton Cleans-Up” 9:00am to Noon Clayton City Hall 26th-27th (Sat-Sun): 10am to 4pm Clayton Gardens Tour, begins at the Clayton Museum, Bumblebee Farm & Garden is one of the featured gardens. Museum: 672-0240

CVGC 4 Mar. 2014

Garden Tour Fundraiser Life in the Alamo – Danville Garden,

Benefitting Lazarex Cancer Foundation

When: Saturday May 3rd, 11am – 4 pm Where: Private Alamo/Danville Gardens

What: Five gardens designed by landscape architect John Montgomery Tickets: $30 donation – for tickets https://lazarex.ejoinme.org/garden

All proceeds go to Lazarex Cancer Foundation to support all

end stage cancer patients by providing assistance with costs for clinical trial participation

(PICTURES NOT INTENDED TO BE REPRESENTITIVE OF GARDENS ON TOUR)

CVGC 5 Mar. 2014

Blossoms For

Barbara

(At the Hospice Foundation of the East Bay, 150 flower-ing Valentine’s Day gifts for patients pour out on Febru-ary 10 during the Clayton Valley Garden Club’s (CVGC) third annual “Blossoms for Barbara” event. Shown are (from left) Aileen Olson, Darbi Finley, Hospice Founda-tion; CVGC members Nancy Harvey, Barry Hart, Marcia Hart, Linda Manss Karp; and Ruth Michael-McDevitt, Denise Zavaleta, Hospice Foundation.)

250 flowering Valentine’s Day gifts are presented on February 11 for delivery to Meals on Wheels recipi-ents in various Contra Costa locations, including Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Clayton, Lafayette and Concord. L-R: Linda Manss Karp, CVGC, Sharon Fitzgerald, Program Manager and volunteer Meals on Wheels drivers.

Celebrating the third annual CVGC “Blossoms for Barbara” event. Donations from the CBCA, David Austin Roses, Color Spot Nurseries and Renee’s Garden Seeds helped enable the outreach effort to local care facilities and programs to expand from 350 gifts in 2012 to 850 gifts this year! Notes thanking the CVGC and personal monetary donations towards the event are continuing to be received in response to the gifts.

'Last Call for David Austin Roses for $18.00' Hello fellow gardeners, The funds raised from the sale of these rose plants goes toward our annual 'Blossoms for Barbara' event. This past Valentine's Day we delivered 850 flowering plants to those so much in need. The sale from these roses will help start our fund for next year. I have 12 varieties of roses to sell. Let me know what you want and I will hold them for you. The total price for each rose plant is $18.00 which includes tax and shipping. I have available a donation receipt if you would like one. Please pass on this information. First come first served! Go to http://www.davidaustin.com/ to see pictures of the roses. Thank you for your support, Linda Karp 'Blossoms for Barbara' Chair (925) 524-0220 12 varieties available: (1) BOSCOBEL, (2) CARDING MILL, (3) THE DARK LADY, (4) THE EN-DEAVOR, (5) FIGHTING TEMERAIRE, (6) GLAMIS CASTLE, (7) KEW GARDENS, (8) PRINCESS ANNE, (9) TAM O SHANTER, (10) TESS OF THE DURBERVILLES, (11) THE WEDGWOOD ROSE, (12) WOLLERTON OLD HALL

CVGC 6 Mar. 2014

POTTING PARTY/POTLUCK On February 21, Steve, and Sharon Osteen, assisted Carla Thompson and Linda Cruz IN planting seeds for our Pollinator Section planned for the 2014 Plant Sale. In less than a week, seedlings are already beginning to pop up! On February 23, members and guests showed up for the Potting Party/Potluck at the Cruz yard. Steve, Ingela Nielson, Lew and Carla Thompson, Ben and Alyce Shikano, Al Malick, Dennis Kaump, Rory Rich-mond, Mary Ellen, Diane Selmer, Patty Remoy, Debbie Eistetter, Linda Shubin, Linda Cruz, guests Marcia Thome and husband Frank (who donated Aptenia), and Aptenia flat buyers Deborah Gong and husband Dan. Thank you Sharon Osteen for donating soil mix and fabric cloth to hold the soil for the Aptenia flats. Thank you Lew for your delicious Tamale Pie, Rory for your Kale salad which only tastes good when you make it, Diane for her macaroni/chicken salad…uhmmm good, and Carin’s wonderful artichoke dip. Volunteers prepared 28 flats of Aptenia which have been sold. Lew and Mary Ellen were busy adding soil, cleaning up, dividing and potting up plants while Rory was potting up nice succulents. We had a great pot luck after our hard work. Thank you all for your support to CVGC! We are moving along for our 2014 Plant Sale.

(L-R: Al Malick, Linda Shubin, Dennis Kaump, Patty Remoy)

(L-R Carla Thompson, Diane Selmer, Ingela Nielson, Alyce and Ben Shikano)

(L-R Carin Kaplan, Al Malick, Lew and Carla Thompson, Steve Lane, Ingela Nielson, Marcia and Frank Thome)

CVGC 7 Mar. 2014

Diablo Foothills District (DFD), Inc. Membership Meeting/Luncheon Thursday, February 27th

Report/Highlights of the meeting:

1. Six CVGC members in attendance: (1) Steve Lane, CVGC President, (2) Diane Selmer, CVGC Treasurer, (3) Judy Bates, DFD Parliamentarian, Yearbook Editor and CVGC Newsletter Edi-tor, (4) Linda Cruz, DFD Newsletter Editor (5) Elaine Billeter, CVGC Member, (6) Sharon Osteen, CVGC Plant Sale Committee.

2. Bob Earhart, bringing (5) very large (20-gal pots), beautiful camellia plants to raffle, to help raise money for the DFD; starting bids were $60 - all plants sold. I had the pleasure of meeting Bob "the Camellia Man" for the first time. He invited the CVGC Membership to email: [email protected], or call him: (925) 937-0188, if interested in purchasing camellias of any size. Bob suggested our Club take a Fieldtrip to his camellia garden at his home in Walnut Creek.

3. Penny Pines - framed certificate presentation to past co-Directors: Jane Berger and Mona Dunlop.

4. Presentation by CVGC President, Steve Lane of Business Advertising in the Diablo Foot-hills Yearbook & Roster for 2014 (similar to the CVGC model), to help offset printing costs. Appli-cations were made available, and will available to CVGC members interested in advertising in the District Yearbook, in addition to the 2014 CVGC Membership Directory. Application will be avail-able via forthcoming email announcement, and at CVGC meetings thru August. Deadline is Sep-tember 5th. Three different ad sizes available: (1) 1/3 page - $25, (2) 2/3-page - $50, (3) Full page - $75. Contact either Steve Lane or Judy Bates, with any questions.

5. Speaker Program: Laura Hogan - Succulent Container Gardens Excellent presentation with sources for materials, and how to create beautiful Succulent Container Arrangements. Five demonstration containers were made and sold to members present, to raise money for the Ruth Bancroft Garden.

6. The meeting, facility, and my lunch were great!

Next DFD Membership Meeting/Luncheon: June 26th, 9:30AM-1:30PM, Hosted by the Discovery Bay Garden Club; Guest Speaker: Bert "Buzz" Bertolero; Topic: DFD Awards Submitted by Steve Lane, CVGC President (L-R) CVGC Members: Sharon Osteen, Diane Selmer, Steve Lane - three of the six CVGC members in attendance.)

(Succulent Container Garden, as created by Laura Hogan, Guest

Speaker. This arrange-ment was made in about 15-min, and sold for $60. Great items like this will be created by our CVGC

members to sell at our upcoming Plant Sale.)

CVGC 8 Mar. 2014

CVGC 9 Mar. 2014

CVGC 10 Mar. 2014

CVGC 11 Mar. 2014

Artichoke Dip From: Carin Kaplan

1/3 cup yogurt

2/3 cup mayonnaise 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 - 4 oz. can diced chilies - drained 1 - 15 oz. can artichoke hearts - drained

1 - 8 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts – drained 1 clove minced garlic

Red pepper flakes to taste

Blend artichoke hearts and garlic with a little of the mayonnaise in a blender or food processor with steel blade

Mix with remainder of ingredients

Bake, uncovered, @ 350 for 30 minutes until bubbly

Serve hot with tortilla chips

Submit your favorite recipe to our Newsletter Editor, Judy Bates at [email protected] by March 25 for the April CVGC Newsletter.

CVGC 12 Mar. 2014

CVGC 13 Mar. 2014

CLAYTON VALLEY GARDEN CLUB GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

Meeting was called to order by President Steve Lane at 7:04 pm.

Steve advised that the flautist who was to open the meeting was unable to attend.

Meeting minutes from General Membership Meeting November 13, 2013 were approved as written. OFFICERS REPORTS: Treasurer: Diane Selmer provided spread sheets for the 2013 Actual budget and proposed 2014 budget Balance of checking, 1/13/14 - $8037.59 Further discussion to follow Membership: Alyce Shikano reported that there were 29 members present. Two new members: Kyle Taylor and Dennis Olivas. Two guests: Connie Kelly and Teri Cooper. Programs: Al Malick reported tonight’s program will be presented by Karen Rezai. The program for March will be garden art from repurposed objects, and April’s program will be container gardening. Al suggests that one of our future programs could be provided by members bringing pictures of items from their garden that they love or are having problems with, and shown through our Club’s HD video projector. COMMITTEE REPORTS

Blossoms For Barbara – Linda Karp reported that the project is winding up this week; an astounding 850 plants were provided to people this year. Members of Hospice, convalescent hospitals, board and care homes, and Meals on Wheels were all recipients. Plants were also provided for Diamond Terrace and a card is being circulated among the members to wish them a special Valentine’s Day. Special thanks to all of the help received from Lew & Carla, Marcia and Barry, Alyce, Joan, Dennis, Elaine, Nancy and Steve. Thank you notes and donations for next year are already coming in. The project will be mentioned in the Clayton Pioneer and CC Times this week. Plant Sale – Linda Cruz reports that our plants are doing well. A recent potting party was attended by Diane, Alyce and Jan. We need to continue planting. She recommends that going forward we con-centrate on drought tolerant plants and veggies. Linda said - If members are pulling plants out of their yards and want to donate she has all of the sup-plies needed to pot them up. Seeds are available tonight if you want to start plants for the sale. Remember to gather up gently used goods, planters, etc., for the sale as well. Next potting party will be 2/23 @ 1pm at Linda’s, 359 Chardonnay Circle. Clayton Valley Charter High School Youth Garden –Steve reports that the “Garden to Table” / Cooking Class project has stalled. We have not received a plan from the students for the raised bed edible garden project as requested and they are now Seniors, so it is doubtful that the project will pro-ceed. A group of students did visit Bumble Bee Farms and got a lot of information from Robb & Nad-ine’s garden.

CVGC 14 Mar. 2014

February Meeting Minutes cont’… Diablo View Middle School Project – Cheryl Burton has volunteered to be our liaison for this project. She met with Principal Patti Banister. They are very sensitive to the drought so they would like to fo-cus on a small project. They discussed a possible memorial garden for Linda Hull, a school staff mem-ber who recently passed away. There will be more to come as things progress. Mt Diablo Elementary – Chris Callaghan was not in attendance. Steve reported that there has been no action yet on the proposed raised beds and small orchard project, since presented last November. Steve reports that we are still trying to make contact with Mrs. Hollenbeck. Steve will announce a date for a rose pruning work party once it is scheduled. Olympic High School – Teri Cooper, a Biology teacher at Olympic, spoke to the membership. The school has four 8 x 12 foot raised beds that have irrigation. These were built with funds that they re-ceived from a grant and were maintained by the students. She spoke of the benefits that she has wit-nessed with the students on their multiple campuses which include Olympic, Cross Roads, and Alli-ance. The original grant money is now gone and the beds are in need of renewal. They are now applying for funding through a Whole Foods program. One of the requirements for this funding is that they have consulting partnership support. She thanked CVGC for offering that support. Clayton Museum –Steve provided a detailed update on the proposed hardscape and planting improve-ments project in our newsletter. Part of the fund-raising for this project will be engraved bricks; sam-ples were provided at the meeting. Library Beds – Georgia Martin has volunteered as chair. A work party will be set up. Potential dates mentioned were 2/15 or 2/22. Email will be sent to members once a date has been chosen. Diablo Foothills District – Steve attended the meeting. He states that two other clubs will be having their plant sales on the same day as ours. There is another meeting coming up; check your newsletter. OLD BUSINESS

Historian Position – Steve reports that our long vacant historian position has been filled by Linda Cruz, who has volunteered to do the scanning. Steve will assist her with this task. PA SYSTEM - Steve reported that he and Robb got the PA system up and running after 2 weeks of intense effort. We have asked the CBCA for the final $352.00 needed to meet our $5000.00 goal. NEW BUSINESS

Annual Budget -2014 Proposal – Members received the proposed budget with our meeting minutes prior to the meeting. Clarification of protocol was noted: a meeting of the Budget Committee prior to the Board Meeting did not occur and should have. This will be corrected in the future. Steve did note that the budget was prepared in close concert with the Treasurer, the 2014 Budget Committee (Diane Selmer, Rory Richmond and Bruce Balha, and the rest of the Board.

Diane Selmer had spread sheets available for reference at the meeting. Line items were discussed.

Floor was opened to membership for questions.

Budget was approved. Carla Thompson moved to approve. Dennis Kaump seconded.

CVGC 15 Mar. 2014

February Meeting Minutes cont’… FREE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Joanne Caspar – 37th Camellia Tea will be Sunday from 1-4 pm Rory Richmond – Art and Wine Festival is coming up on 5/3 & 5/4. They will need wine pourers. He recommended that CVGC man one of the booths for the event. CBCA expects that all organizations that receive a donation from them will provide volunteers for their events in return.

CBCA has donated approximately $2500.00 to CVGC’s ‘Blossoms for Barbara’ events. This is a way for CVGC to give back. Rory will provide more information as we get closer to the event. Linda Karp – David Austin Roses has donated roses to help raise money for ‘Blossoms for Barbara.’ If anyone would like to order roses from them, Linda Karp had catalogs available. Steve Lane – Hospitality Chair is to send cards to members who are ill, have had surgery, or who we just haven’t seen in a while.

• Bob Hoyer had surgery yesterday. Steve will make sure that a card goes out. Break for Refreshments @ 8:01pm PROGRAM – “Grow Your Love of Plants with Flower Essences - Karen Rezai, MPH, owner of Footbridge Wellness gave a very interesting talk on the benefits of using flower essence to restore per-sonal balance in our energy. Steve Lane adjourned the meeting @ 9pm

Minutes submitted by Carin Kaplan, Secretary