Butterfly Garden Planting

Beautiful sunny skies and "coolish" morning garden planting.

Should have known that planting would start before 8 am by Mike, Larry, Bonnie and Ian.

Busy Nicole lent a hand before dashing off to next adventure.

In the midst of planting, we had a butterfly "scout" checking out plants.

Yeah we finished by 9:15 am.

Thank you Kyle Franklin and IMS crew for awesome plant selection and design. Y'all are the best!

The plants have been tagged with QR codes for easy phone app identification.

May General Meeting

THOSE IN ATTENDANCE  INCLUDED: Beverly and Larry Allen, Bonnie Buhl, AJ Challagundla, Norma Chiaramonte, Joe and Wendy D’Virgilio, Sandra Gilbert, Debbie Haluch, Sandy Haumpton, Elizabeth Hearn, Ellen and Mark Jones, Ian and Nicole McWilliam, Mike Owens and Dale Smothers.  

Tokens of Appreciation were presented to Kyle Franklin from IMS Landscape and Captain David Padovan, Cy Fair VFD for helping make our Junior Gardening Event a big success.

The beautiful flowers provided by Kyle were hand selected by each person creating a lovely pot and ultimately putting a big smile on the faces of many children, parents and grand parents in our community.

Captain Padovan and his crew on the fire truck and emergency vehicle created a fun and educational experience for both the children and adults.

Our sincere thanks and appreciation to both of you.

PROGRAM:

Robert “Skip” Richter a  Master Gardner, horticulturist, garden educator, writer and photographer was our speaker. He provided a list of small, medium and large trees for Houston area Landscapes and presented slides on thirteen trees with a focus on research, selection, planting, pruning and fertilizing.
The presentation was very educational and provoked excellent questions and discussion. 



HOST:
Thanks to Mark for arranging for the speaker and door prize and to AJ for the delicious cookies and water.

The door prize was a gift card from Plants For All Seasons and the lucky winner was Larry Allen.

UPDATES and OLD BUSINESS:
Special thanks to Liz and Lyn for chairing such a successful event.
Discussion around our successes including improved communication  with signs and social media, record attendance, enhanced experiences - decorations, chalk board, treats, more hands on with planting and the fire truck.
Everyone was asked to think of suggestions for the 2019 event.

YARD OF THE MONTH:
Bev Allen advised the selection for May was Mr. and Mrs. Michael Villarreal 






BUTTERFLY GARDEN I
Larry said we could choose May 26 or June 16 for garden replanting. We chose May 26th and voted to do it ourselves.  We will meet at the garden at 8 AM on Saturday, May 26.

NEW BUSINESS:
APRIL MEETING MINUTES
Norma’s motion to dispense with reading of the minutes was seconded by Liz.

FINANCIAL REPORT:
Bonnie provided an overview of the month to date including starting balance, all transactions and closing balance.

2018-19 Planning meeting will be held at the Jones’ Monday August 13.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM

May General Meeting Blog

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Robert "Skip" Richter

County Extension Agent - Horticulture

Texas AgriLife Extension Service

Skip received his master’s degree in Horticulture from Texas A&M University, “the source of all earthly knowledge.”  He has been with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service for 28 years in Montgomery, Travis and Harris County where he currently serves as a County Extension Agent in Horticulture.

Skip has gardened in the brush country of south Texas, the rocky hills of the Missouri Ozarks, the acid sands of the East Texas piney woods, the semi-arid climate and high pH soils of central Texas, and the humid, hot climate and black clays of southeast Texas.

He is an enthusiastic student and teacher of natural gardening techniques. He helped develop Extension's "Don't Bag It" yard waste recycling programs, the "Composting for Kids" educational web page, and the Grow Green environmental education program which educates Austin residents on landscaping practices that protect water quality.

He has written a bi-weekly internet column for the National Gardening Association, numerous newspaper and magazine articles on gardening. His “Gardening with Skip” YouTube channel features over 120 brief gardening videos. Skip has served as the National Gardening Association’s regional horticulturist for the southeastern U.S. and is a contributing editor to Texas Gardener magazine. He is the host of the Gardening Success radio show. His new book, Texas Month-by-Month Gardening provides guidance on planting and caring for your garden and landscape every month of the year.

Jr Gardener Event

Kids enjoyed making Mother's Day pots

Selecting plants

Potting plants

Selecting hand made decorations

Signing flowered board

New arrivals signing in

Dad helping with pot painting

Mom admiring her little one's creation

Taking pictures

Eating popcorn

Touring fire truck

Meeting neighbors

Peggy with her original "pot sticker" creations 

Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Fighters signing up decorating

Amazed by all of the activity

Mother and daughter each decorate a pot

Finished product

Fantastic weather

Creating Mother's Day card

Family time

April General Meeting

THOSE IN ATTENDANCE INCLUDED:  Beverly Allen, Larry Allen, Bonnie Buhl, Norma Chiaramonte, Elizabeth Hearn, Ellen Jones, Mark Jones, Ian McWilliam, Nicole McWilliam, David Mausolf, Marcia Mausolf and Mike Owens.

PROGRAM:

Louise Ruggard, Master Gardener and local resident presented a program describing her personal experiences with Landscape Winners and Losers in Cypress Creek Lakes. There were questions and discussion around her list of winners and losers.  She also showed slides of many of the plants and trees in her yard and the impact of the winter’s hard frost on many of them.

HOST:  Thanks to Norma for arranging for the speaker and for bringing her delicious home made apple cake. Norma also provided the door prize, a beautiful floral hanging basket that was won by Nicole McWilliam.

UPDATES AND OLD BUSINESS:

Junior Gardening Event - Liz passed out the flyers she created and asked that they be distributed wherever possible. Announcement also posted on Facebook and Web site.

Thanks to  Peggy Sue Owens who created 80 decorative plant stickers.

Decision made to use tubs of soil and stones versus individual bags for planting the pots.

Butterfly Garden II - plans are on hold because new contracting company takes over in July. Discussions with them will be required regarding irrigation, removal of grass, turning the soil, etc.

NEW BUSINESS:

MARCH MEETING MINUTES:
Norma’s motion to dispense with reading of the minutes was seconded by Liz.

FINANCIAL REPORT:
Bonnie provided an overview of the last month including starting balance, receipts and closing balance.

COMMITTEE CHAIR UPDATES:
Marcia advised that the proposed trip to Books and Blooms was cancelled due to lack of participants.

Larry said that Butterfly Garden I will be planted after Memorial Day and will include some larger perennials and plants to attract butterflies. We will also have the option to place the plants in the ground ourselves or have them planted by Kyle. Larry will survey the members to determine how we want to handle.

Norma said in the past we have given Kyle a gift card to thank him for all he does for us. A motion to do again this year was made and seconded by Mark.

YARD OF THE MONTH:
Ellen and Norma volunteered to assist Bev in the monthly selection.

The next and final meeting for the season will be May 14, 2018.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:40.

March General Meeting

THOSE IN ATTENDANCE INCLUDED:  Bonnie Buhl, Norma Chiaramonte, Debbie Haluch, Dale Smothers, Ellen and Mark Jones, Larry Allen, Elizabeth Hearn, Sharon Morris and Cathy Oland.

PROGRAM

Annie Britton, Master Gardener gave an interesting presentation on creating a habitat to attract butterflies. Different species of butterflies will only lay eggs on specific plant leaves and they have organs in their feet that tell them when they are on the right plant. Our region has over 250 butterfly species.

Annie has over 20 years of experience raising butterflies in this area.She will be sending out a list of the recommended plants which will be posted here. She has also agreed to work with us in providing recommendations for plantings in our community Butterfly Garden.

HOSTS: Thank you to Ellen Jones for arranging the program.

Refreshments and Door Prize were provided by Bonnie Buhl. The door prize won by Liz Hearn was a colorful pot of Gerber Daisies. An additional door prize of plant food was provided by Cathy Oland and won by Debbie Haluch.

UPDATES and OLD BUSINESS:

Jr Gardening Event - a productive planning meeting was held on March 6 at the Home of Ellen Jones. Attending the meeting were Elizabeth Hearn, Debbie Haluch, Norma Chiaramonte, Bill Sonne and Bonnie Buhl.

Liz agreed to and has created a large wooden sigh board. It will be painted with chalk paint and decorated with large flowers. It will be displayed at the Bunny Brunch at St Aidan’s with an announcement of the Jr Gardening event. The sign board will also be used for photo opps at our event.

We will be receiving money from the HOA and IMS Landscaping will donate the flowers. Norma has confirmed arrangements for a Fire Truck to be present and the Fire Dept is trying to arrange for a Police Car to be on site as well.

In the past, we have donated to Fire Station 3 on Telge Road. Larry Allen made a motion to do the same this year and Mark Jones seconded the motion.

Ellen was contacted by PinPoint Magazine. They will run an advertisement in April edition. Focusing on promoting the Jr Gardener Event and highlight open enrollment opportunity at CCLGC.

Larry will investigate having about 15: 18X24 inch signs printed and Liz will provide the sign format and information.  

Butterfly Garden I- IMS has planted petunias and we will schedule a workday for full planting in early June.

NEW BUSINESS

FEBRUARY MEETING MINUTES

Norma made a motion to dispense with reading of the minutes and Mark seconded.

FINANCIAL REPORT

Bonnie announced that there had been no deposits or withdrawals in the month of February and the balance remained the same.

COMMITTEE CHAIR UPDATES

Ellen will send an email to all members regarding the Bluebonnet Garden Club Annual Flower Show in Brenham.

Ellen and Mark visited a stone business on FM 2920 to research cost and availability of a garden stone. They presented pictures of two stones as possibilities for Butterfly Garden II. Cost for engraving, delivery and set up is approximately $1400.00. At this time, no date has been confirmed for the new garden.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 PM.

February General Monthly Meeting

THOSE IN ATTENDANCE INCLUDED: 

Bev and Larry Allen, Bonnie Buhl, A J Challagundla, Norma Chiaramonte, Joe and Wendy D’Virgilio, Sandra Gilbert, Debbie Haluch, Elizabeth Hearn, Ellen and Mark Jones, Ian, Lyn and Nicole McWilliam, David and Marcia Mausolf, Dr. Sharon Morris, Mike Owens, and Dale Smothers

PROGRAM:

Kyle Franklin of I.M.S. Landscape Services presented an informative discussion on Watering Your Landscape Efficiently.  With the benefit of a Lawn Irrigation model, Kyle was able to illustrate the working operation of an irrigation system and highlight the areas that should be monitored and maintained routinely.  He provided instruction on how to train your landscape to use water efficiently.  Highlights include: break up watering plan into 2-3 cycles to reduce or eliminate runoff; zone irrigation system to water beds and turf separately; use organic soil amendments; adjust heads so they are not spraying beyond beds or turf, and consider converting bed zones to drip irrigation; water early morning (4:00 am) for approximately 5 minutes and repeat cycle for a second watering.  

Dr. Mike Owens, a Garden Club member and Board Member of MUD District 374, complimented the discussion by sharing recent data on the water usage within our MUD District and emphasized the need to be good stewards of water usage.  Data shows the average home in Texas uses 4000 gallons of treated water per month.  Irritation systems in use account for 92 percent of water consumption. Thus, the information provided by Kyle gave us critical knowledge on ways to be efficient and effective in our watering practices.

HOSTS:

Thank you to Dr. Mike Owens for arranging the program and to

Mike and Peggy Sue for the door prize and delicious refreshments.  The door prize won by Wendy D’Virgilio was a beautiful ceramic 3 pot planter with fresh herbs.   

OLD BUSINESS:

CCL Butterfly Garden II – the landscape contract for that area is in the bidding process.  Once the contractor has been determined plans to implement the new garden will be set in motion.  Norma is working with all parties and she also presented a diagram of the proposed plantings.  Sandra Gilbert offered to provide information on the business who created the center stone in the original garden.  Once provided, Ellen will get a quote for a center stone for new garden.

Pinpoint magazine – the March/April edition will include a promotion of the May 5^th Jr. Gardening Event.  The May/June publication will include a feature article on the CCL Garden Club Butterfly Garden II

CCL website – Rob Melloy will contact Norma within the next few weeks to follow through with assistance to incorporate Garden Club information within the site.

NEW BUSINESS:

January Meeting Minutes:
Norma made a motion to dispense with reading of the minutes and Marcia seconded.

FINANCIAL REPORT:

Bonnie provided an overview of the past month including starting balance, no receipts or expenditures and closing balance. There were no questions or discussion.

COMMITTEE CHAIR UPDATES

Marcia announced that the Blue Bonnet Garden Club will host an event, Books in Bloom on April 19 at the new library in Brenham.  Marcia asked that those who would like to attend to please let her know by our next meeting on March 12.  She will coordinate reservations, $10 per person, and arrange for meeting time and car pool options. Should be a fun outing and we hope many can participate.

JUNIOR GARDENING EVENT

Liz Hearn and Lyn McWilliam will chair this year’s event.  A planning meeting is scheduled at the home of Ellen Jones on Tuesday, March 6. Volunteers are needed, and all members are welcome to attend and support this planning effort.

DISTRICT IV GARDEN CLUB REQUEST

Ellen received a request to provide the following information before February 20 to the District IV club president.  Following is the category and detail of the information requested:

Club Anniversaries:  Ellen will advise, CCL Garden Club celebrating 10-year anniversary

Club members that celebrated their 90^th birthday:   Ellen will advise no members in this category

Club “Garden Angels” – there are no requirements for this.  Intent is to acknowledge someone who goes the extra mile to support the club.  Ellen proposed three candidates and highlighted their contributions. The candidates were Larry Allen, Norma Chiaramonte and Debbie Haluch.  Ellen asked for a motion to nominate others and none were recommended.  A ballot vote was take and Debbie Haluch was voted Garden Angel.  Ellen will provide information to District IV

The next CCL Garden Club meeting will be March 12, 2018.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM