President's Letter

Dear Fellow Gardeners,

Having just returned from a cool, colorful weekend in New Hampshire, I am reminded of that poem by James Whitcomb Riley,

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;

But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

I hope that you all have had time to put the ‘fodder in the shock’, to clean your clay pots, to gather bouquets for drying over the next few months, and to gaze at the gorgeous New England landscape.

Our first meeting of the year was a busy one with lots of committee reports and dates of upcoming events. It was, also, a wonderful opportunity to see friends, to meet our newest members, to feast on delicious sandwiches and cookies, to purchase new plantings to enliven our garden spaces, and to celebrate the tomato through amazingly creative floral designs. And, Vince McDermott provided us with some insight into the challenges and solutions for the Farmington Canal – an exciting project that aims to be completed in 2011. It might be an opportunity for the Garden Club of New Haven to collaborate in its design as it comes out of the downtown tunnel and enters the Park of the Arts on Audubon Street. This is the same area that the Club designed and planted in memory of our former member, Barbara Wagner, two years ago and which has just had a face-lift, thanks to Ben Sandweiss who edged the beds, pruned the trees, and replaced some bushes that had died. If you are in the area of Whitney Avenue and Audubon Street, please visit the garden!

During the month of October I will be travelling to GCA Headquarters in New York for a Zone II Presidents’ Meeting and our committee chairs will be attending Zone representative meetings at the Agricultural Station on October 26^th. I am certain that we will all return with inspiring ideas and plans, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I hope that you are potting up your sun-loving, drought-resistant succulents for the November 9^th meeting, ordering your amaryllis and paper whites from Vicki Arkins for holiday bloom, and making plans to come and hear Art Scarpa as he introduces us to some interesting winter plants. It is beginning to be time to scrape the frost from the pumpkin and think of fragrant soup.

---Carol