Plant America!
On Wednesday, November 20, 2019, we held our annual Christmas Party which included a potluck, wreath workshop, gift wrapping and assembly of our preschool ABC Bags donations. Candis Drechsler and B.J. Dennis did a beautiful job decorating and organizing the potluck.
A special thanks goes to Cathie Drake for organizing the collection of donations.
Monica Kidwell taught us the basics of wreath and bow making.
In spite of the freezing temperatures, a few brave souls from the Holiday Garden Club took the Loon Pontoon Cruise at Hobbs State Park.
The scenery was beautiful, but not one loon was spotted!
Carroll County Extension officer, Olivia Foster, presented a pruning workshop for the Holiday Island Garden Club.
The 2019 Northwest District Meeting of the Arkansas Federation of Garden Clubs, Inc. was hosted by the Bella Vista Garden Club. Mr. Brent Heath of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, from Virginia, gave a program on “Bulbs as Companion Plants.” We were treated to a delicious lunch and also enjoyed the flower show.
The Long Creek Herbs field trip was such a success that we continued our herb study with a review of Jim Long’s book, “Herbs 101.” Colleen Cook led the demo of how to make focaccia bread, herb salts and sugar, lilac infused honey, as well as herb plant propogation. Our refreshments included: lavender chocolate brownies, lavender cookies, rosemary orange chocolate chip cookes, lavender ginger lemonade, cool cucumber punch, watermelon punch and finally tomato basil foccacia!
After returning from the summer break, the Holiday Island Garden Club September 2019 meeting also included a review of the history, and overview and goals of the club. Members were given the opportunity to choose committees and give suggestions for programs, projects and field trips for 2020. We recieved many great suggestions.
The Holiday Island Garden Club visited Long Creek Herbs in Blue Eye, Missouri. We had an incredible time as our hosts Jim Long and Josh Young gave us a tour of the beautiful herb garden, instructed us on the different varieties of herbs and planting times, and showed us how to identify some new invasive plants. We were treated to ice cold lemonade, lemon thyme blueberry muffins with edible flowers! Best of all, we were able to sit with Jim on his porch and hear personal stories of his travels and favorite places to eat. See the article in Carroll County News.
Jim long is the author of over two dozen books on herbs, gardening and historical subjects. He is a frequent lecturer at flower and garden shows, herb conferences, State Master Gardener conferences and professional organizations throughout the United States. He has appeared on numerous HGTV® and Discovery Channel® programs, as well as the P. Allen Smith Gardens television show. He’s a regular columnist for The Heirloom Gardener, Missouri Gardening and The Ozarks Mountaineer magazines and has a syndicated newspaper column, “Ozarks Gardening.”
The Holiday Island Garden Club enjoyed another day of garden therapy with the residents of Peachtree Village in Holiday Island. Begonias were the flower of the day. The begonias were planted in the garden club box in the Holiday Island Community Garden and harvested after three months. The Peachtree residents selected pots, begonias and 4th of July decorations to create beautiful potted plants for their balconies and porches at their Peachtree Village apartments.
