Sign Garden Ready for Planting!! Sheduled for Thursday, May 26 at 5:30.

The 'groundwork' has been finished by Rick, Linnea and Kris and it is ready for planting! Rick and Linnea's new edger works great! Thanks to Rick for helping out! Two loads of composted organic material has been added and raked out so it's a go for planting!

Kris has the soaker hoses, a timer, fertilizer and all the plants. She will also purchase some Deer Off. The wood chip mulch will be delivered just prior to planting so we should be able to get it spread after planting.

Kris will arrive earlier on Thursday to mark out the spaces for the plants. Everyone can come at the regular time of 5:30 pm. and should be sure to bring a trowel or hoe for planting, a shovel and/or rake for spreading chips, and bug spray. If it is raining, we will reschedule after the Memorial Day weekend-- Tuesday, May 31st at 5:30 pm.

For the Plant Sale, we need more plants, especially shade plants! We have a request from a customer for a full flat of Coral Bells (12-15 plants), so anyone with some to spare, please pot them up! Kris reports that our plants are looking good from the potting party--it helps so much to plant them way ahead of the sale date. Kris still has potting soil and pots if anyone needs them for potting. This is heavy soil, so if you are potting annuals, Kris suggests mixing in some soilless mix, too.

Call Kris if you have questions. Hope to see you all at the planting party!!

Learning about Herbs

At our May 2016 meeting Kathryn Scheidermayer, a Master Gardener from Springbrook, WI, spoke on A Dozen Herbs to Grow in your Backyard, teaching us how to grow and use herbs and the dozen that she considers indispensable in the garden. She kept our attention with an excellent PowerPoint presentation.

During our break, we celebrated member Mark's 17th birthday with a cake and gifts from the garden!

Meeting Reminder, Thursday, May 12, 6:30 PM Room 115 Grantsburg High School

We will be meeting on Thursday, May 12, at 6:30 PM in room 115 at the Grantsburg High School.

Our program for the meeting will be How to Grow and Preserve Herbs!

The meeting agenga will include: the new cookbook!!, final plans for plant sale, community garden planting, weeding and watering schedule, planning for local garden tour and for the August club bbq!

Refreshments will be provided by Jen and Rhonda

There is nothing better in cooking than using fresh herbs or herbs that you've preserved from your own garden! Come learn all about it and enjoy refreshment! Hope to see you there!

Fragrant, beautiful and great for cooking!

Meeting Minutes, April 2016

Burnett Garden Club
Secretary’s report for Apr. 14, 2016
General meeting, Linnea Seume’s home @ 6:30 pm.

President Mary Charmoli called the meeting to order at 6:36 PM.
Attendance: Teresa & Mark R., Mary C., Kris H., Jackie G., Linnea S., Sandra & McKenzie H., Sandy H., Janet B., Becky T., Lucille D., Mary G., Georgianne K., Pam.

Secretary’s Report-Kris. Minutes posted on the blog last month. Jackie motioned, Pam seconded to approve the minutes as posted. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report-Jackie. Prior balance $1817.13, current balance $1177.47 after paying for the cookbooks and some gift cards. No corrections, report stands as read.

Committee Reports:

• Community Plantings-Kris & Pam. Kris reported that she has done 4 presentations so far to groups for the sign renovation—Grantsburg Village donated $300, Lions Club donated $100, Mark Dahlberg donated $20, Gary Nelson Agency donated $25; no word yet from the American Legion or the Rotary Club. The plants are ordered for the sign. Bennie Johnson from the Lions has pledged a sack of cannas and callas to us—we can use them for the sign if needed or sell them. Pam will order the plants for the flagpole and Library separate from the sign.
• Fairgrounds-no report yet.
• Plant Sale-Kris. Kris passed around a volunteer and materials signup sheet for the sale day. She asked that people save pop flats and boxes for the sale, and we need donations of 4”, quart, and gallon pots. She will talk about the sale plans more next month after we know what was brought in for potting. We scheduled Monday, May 2nd at 5:30 pm at the sign to dig perennials.
• Tours—Becky. We discussed two gardens—Rhonda Johnson, SE of Grantsburg, and Karla Holmquist from Siren. Becky will check again to be sure they are confirmed.
• Fair Float—Pam. Pam said that she would be able to do it if she gets some volunteers to help. See her if you can help with this.
• Grantoberfest and Holiday in the Park—no reports yet.
• Cookbook—Jackie. Jackie reported that all the recipes are entered and the books ordered and paid for, $524.15. They should be ready around May 15th in time for the sale. Many thanks to Jackie and Pam and all contributors for their work on this project.
• Announcements:

Mary C. passed around a sheet with coming events on it. Kris is doing a Community Ed class on basic gardening on April 18. Village Floral has upcoming Fairy Garden classes scheduled.

The Potting Party is May 5th at Kris’ home—bring your clumps of plants and we’ll pot them up!

Old Business:
 1. Quilt block hanging—Lisa absent, but we are still in need of painted blocks—get from Lisa.
 2. Constitution/ByLaws ratification—Mary C. Bylaws were discussed at the last Executive Board meeting on 3/10/16. Items needing ratification by the membership are:

•  a. Under the Constitution: #7 Section 1 – Remove the room number (we changed rooms this year at the school). Amendment passed. 
•  b. Under By-Laws: #1 Section 1 - Election & Terms - #E - "No Officer may serve more than two terms consecutively. Add "...with the exception of Informational Officer" (this allows Pam Davies to continue doing her exceptional job as webmaster and informational officer until she determines otherwise). Amendment passed.
•  c. Under By-Laws: #4- Section 2 Standing Committees. Add: Fairground Planting, "Grantoberfest", & Tours to list. Amendment passed.
•  d. Under By-Laws: #5 - Meetings - Section 2 – Add "November" to Annual Meeting phrase. Amendment passed.

3.    Speaker Honorariums.  It was decided by the executive board to give a $25 gift certificate to Village Floral/Wood River Garden Center. If the speaker is not from the local area, then a $25 gas card will be given. The treasurer will purchase these and present it with a thank you note from the club at the time of the presentation. All presenters will be offered the Honoraria, whether they are club members or not; they can decline the offer if they wish. This was thought to be an incentive to encourage members to present.

New Business:
 a. Pam received an email from Extension Service forwarded from Amplehervest.org. This is a nationwide non-profit founded by a Master Gardener that enables America's home gardeners to donate their excess garden produce to nearby food shelves. She will forward it to all of the members. Locally, members can also check with food shelves and Senior Centers to see if they will take produce.
Brag Time: 
 a. Georgianne has canning jars to give away.
 b. Mary G. has 2 Bat boxes to sell for a $10 donation to the club. She would also consider doing a program for us on Bats in the future. She is changing jobs and going to work for Coldwell Banker in Siren next week, and she has a home across from Linnea’s for sale.
 c. Mark R. reminded everyone that the Garden Store will open this weekend (he works there).
Adjourn. Pam motioned, Sandy seconded to adjourn. Motion passed.
Next meeting date is May 12th at High School. Our speaker is Kathryn Schiedermayer from Springbrook on “A Dozen Herbs to Grow in Your Backyard”.

Tonight’s program from Linnea and Becky is “Preparing for the Fairs”.

Respectfully submitted,
Kris Henning, Secretary

Potting Party a Great Success but more plants needed!!

A special thank you to Ruth’s husband, Steve Andersen, for repairing the 2 plant benches where the potted plants will live for the next month behind the shed—they were in a sorry state and he fixed them for us. Thank you, Steve!!

We potted the perennials that were dug from the sign garden earlier this week. There were plenty of leftovers to give away to the members present. Benny Johnson gave us a gunny sack full of green-leaved canna lily bulbs, a box full of red-leaved canna bulbs, 3 huge clumps of red dahlias, and some calla lily bulbs. We potted the callas and will be selling the dahlias and cannas bare-root. We may possibly use some of the cannas at the sign garden or the circular bed at the fairgrounds; they are too tall for the flagpole and library.

We have plenty of these potted up: 

• callas, 
• ‘Purple Dome’ aster, 
• native Switchgrass, 
• ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum, 
• Asiatic lily-unknown color,
• Black-eyed Susan, 
• Early yellow daylily, 
• ‘James Marsh’ daylily (red), 
• ‘May Night’ salvia, 
• Yellow coreopsis, 
• ‘Dreaming Spires’ Siberian iris,
• purple liatris. 
• We also have white bleeding heart that may or may not make it.

We need many more plants, especially shade perennials!

We still have lots of soil here at my house; if you want to plant up some of your perennials at home for the sale, please contact me and arrange to pick it up—I also have pots if you need them. Just let me know what you are potting so we can see if we need it (we may have some scheduled to come in already). Or maybe you’d like to schedule a day to pot here with me—I will be potting lots of plants from my garden yet—we did not get to any of them last night. I’ll set up our potting station again and away we go!

At about 8:30 pm, we retired to the house and washed up for treats. Thank you to Mary C. and Ruth for adding to Kris & Jackie’s refreshments! Over our treats, Mary Charmoli informed us that Pam Davies will be resigning as Community Planting Chair, citing too many other things on her plate. Mary said that we will need to find someone for this position; it is the overseeing position for our plantings and the weeding schedule. We may want to consider separate planners for each area, which is mostly already done—Lisa is in charge of the fairgrounds (4-Hers are supposed to be maintaining boxes after planting), Pam & Georgianne are in charge of the Library just until the perennials are established (at which time the maintenance goes back to the Library), and Pam said she and Georgianne would take care of the Memory Lake flagpole planting, so it would be just the sign garden and the weeding schedule to oversee. We will discuss it more at our meeting next week.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the night go faster and more pleasantly!

Members present were: Lucille, Mary C., Mary G., Jackie, Georgianne, Lisa, Susan A., Sandy Hinrichs, Ruth & Kris. (Please let me know if I have forgotten anyone.)

Kris Henning, Plant Sale Chair and Secretary

Great turnout for the Big Dig!

Lots of members showed up for the Big Dig! Thanks to Kris, Mary C., Linnea, Ruthie, Georgianne, Pam, Sue, Lisa, Audrey, Sandy and Becky. (If I missed anyone, please let me know).

Here we all are digging and bagging up plants for the Potting Party on Thursday!

(click on pictures to get a larger view)

Linnea is showing off her favorite shovel. 

Ruthie brought her tiller after Mary C had a tragic mishap with hers. 

Sandy had such fun using it that it's going right on top of her gardening wish list.

 Audrey showed up in shorts and fancy flipflops but we put her to work nonetheless!

Just about all cleared out. We have two pickup loads for the Potting Party!

Georgianne got the only sit down job! How did that happen?

A quorum of the board voted to treat the workers to dinner at TDawgs. Some could not join us. Maybe next time!

There will be a next time soon. We will have another clean up day in two weeks to condition the soil and get it ready so that planting all those bedding plants will be easy peasy!  This revamping of the sign garden is a big deal and a lot of work. We raised money from the community to get it done right so please help out in two weeks and later with the planting. 

And don't forget the Potting Party!! 5:30 on Thursday at Kris's on Spirit Lake (HWY 70 east of Grantsburg and Alpha to Little Wood Lake Rd, turn south. Stay on that road until it angles off to the right. It is  #22131, the 7th house on the right up on the hill). Kris is making key lime pie! Bring plants if you have them but if you don't just bring yourself, your labor is greatly needed. 

Also needed: 4 inch, quart and gallon pots, and flats. We are potting only perennials. If you are growing annuals or veggies, you will have to continue to care for those at home. If you need some potting soil to pot or repot plants at home for the sale, pick up soil at the potting party. 

Hope to see you all there!!