Club tour- The Ground Up

Garden members car pooled on a cold and windy Saturday morning to see The Ground Up composting operations.  They have three operational sites and the club choose the Richmond location at the invitation of Assistant Manager, Paul Wilkinson.

Luis, operations manager, gave us an excellent educational discussion about their process and highlighted differences between Ground Up and competitors.  He will be our speaker in September.

The Ground Up is led by a dynamic, organic-minded team dedicated to teaching communities how to build more healthy, beautiful, sustainable lawns, gardens & landscapes.  They strictly follow the procedures of the Soil Foodweb to create the highest quality and best performing mulch, soils & vegan compost in today’s market.

 

This methodology, pioneered by world-renowned soil scientist, Dr. Elaine Ingham, focuses on creating soils which are organic, biologically rich & highly effective.    

 

They have strict procedures for landscapers who are delivering wood to be composed.  We watched as huge compost piles were redistributed.  It was easy to see the heat rising of fresh compost.  The air was filled with a sweet tobacco smell.

 

The tour lasted just over an hour.

 

 

February Club Meeting

President, Beverly Allen, called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. at the Cypress Creek Lakes Community Center.

Yard of the Month was awarded to the Tere Rodriguez family of 26110 Castlemoor St.

Those in attendance included: Sandra Gilbert, Billie Fontana, Beverly Allen, Larry Allen, Marcia Mausolf, Dave Mausolf, Ann Wiseman, Jennifer Buchert, Debbie Haluch, Patti Foucha, Kathie Corbett, Mike Owens, Norma Chiaramonte and Cathy Oland.

A motion was made and seconded to dispense of the reading of the minutes.

Business: Bev discussed various garden club initiatives including the need for a new Butterfly Garden volunteer to help manage and plan seasonal planting of the garden. Larry has volunteered to organize planting of the Butterfly Garden. Norma will head up the Junior Gardener event scheduled for May 2. A planning meeting will be arranged to discuss this year’s project and logistics. A gift card will be donated by CCLGC for the District IV silent auction.

Kyle Franklin from IMS Landscaping presented tips for smart watering and planting. He brought several examples of water-wise plants and provided this month’s door prizes.

Thank you to Debbie Haluch for being hostess this month!

The next meeting will be March 9, 2015 at the Cypress Creek Lakes community center.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.