President's Letter January

Dear Garden Club Members,

Well, we’ve made it to mid-January with barely a flurry and I have the odd blossom in my garden - quite different from last year! It was wonderful that there was no storm in the forecast for our January meeting -- we had a great turnout for the Louise B. Carter lecture. Page Dickey was a lovely and generous speaker about her struggles with and successes in her garden at Duck Hill. We learned that we must never, ever plant barberry unless we’d like our beds to be invaded by prickly volunteers, we should think more about incorporating flowering shrubs in the garden and seriously consider hedges. Thank you so much, Louise, for providing the club with the means to access this excellent program.

And everyone who was able to arrive at the AG Station early was lucky enough to hear a very informative talk with Nicole Berube, the Executive Director of CitySeed, about the organization’s farmers’ markets and community outreach. CitySeed’s goals are in line with the Garden Club of New Haven’s and I hope we might be able to collaborate with them in the future.

January is a time of resolutions. Each year I promise myself I’ll keep a garden diary to have a record of the changes in and the evolution of my garden. I’m hoping the three books listed below, currently on my bedside table, will prod me along:

• As we learned this week, Page Dickey is a delightful, informed writer and Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden (FSG) is a book I intend to dip into throughout the winter.

• The Irvington Diaries by Monty Don (Bloomsbury) is a very personal, passionate month-by-month journal of a garden in Herefordshire, England. It is a beautiful volume to hold, with lots of handsome photographs.

• Life in a Cottage Garden by Carol Klein (BBC Books) is charming record of another garden in the UK, complete with gorgeous pictures and an abundance of tips that have a strong seasonal slant.

Other suggestions? Please share!

I look forward to seeing you at the February 6 meeting when Clive Lodge discusses Formal Gardens: A Dying Art. And try to join our pre-meeting when the Horticulture Committee will encourage us to nurture our gardens with “How to Begin Composting”.

In the meantime, wishing you – snow or not – a month when you have lots of time to curl up in front of the fire with gardening books, plant catalogs and a cup of tea.

Warm regards,

Susan

PS Please mark the following dates, which are not listed in our directory:

Tuesday, April 24: The premiere of our 2013 Tree Project film about The New Haven Green

Saturday, April 28: Garden tag and plant sale at Edgerton Park

Details about both to follow!