December Garden Club Program

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Holiday Decoration.   

Spread the holiday cheer in the holiday season by embellishing our home with Christmas decorations. The decorative holiday accents come in many different colors and patterns.

Lori Dupont and Emily Johnson from Floral Acres, Antioch  made a Christmas presentation on holiday decorations to help us celebrate the holiday in style. Members learned how to make a holiday centerpiece and a decorative swag. The finished pieces were raffled off to the members. It was a fun filled event. The refreshment was right after the presentation. 

The celebration of our 20th anniversary was held on Nov. 2nd, 2015 at the Lake House Restaurant in Antioch.  27 members attended events. The past presidents were all invited. The celebration was festival with delicious dinner, wine, cake and gifts. Everyone attended had a good time. We're looking forward to having many years of wonderful club activities to come.

We also had our monthly program presented by Deborah Finch-Murphy, a Master Gardener from University of Illinois Extension and her assistant Judy Panico. The topic was Autumn garden wrap-up: Dressing it up - Wrapping it up - and Setting the stage for winter and Spring.  It was very educational, full of information with slideshows and printed materials. Members brought some good ideas home to practice in our own gardens. 

"Growing Succulents" 
​Growing succulents inside and outside. Displays of  succulent gardens plus a demonstration of planting a succulent container by Melody Orban, a Master Gardener from the University of Wisconsin Extension.

"A Walk through the Village Gardens" 

​Members and guests  walked through the village gardens maintained by the Antioch Garden Club on Sep. 14 around  dusk.  It include Mini-Park located in central downtown, Berm Garden, Seven Sons Flower Tree Garden and Arbor Day Garden on Orchard St., and the Blue Star Memorial Rock Garden on Main & Depot Streets.  Our Horticultural committee chairman, Karen Coulter and member Nancy Zitkus  made commentaries during the walk.  Started with history of each garden, then introduced some special flowers, bushes and trees in the gardens.  Answered questions about the plants and care tips. It's a good opportunity to get acquainted with the club’s gardens along with learning about plants someone may want to have for their own garden. After the walk, members and guests enjoyed Pot Luck Supper at the meeting place-United Methodist Church Hall.

The fiscal year of AGC 2014-2015 has come to the end. We celebrated this by having a pot luck dinner at the June general meeting. The new club members of the year were inducted and each received a jar of local honey as welcome gift. Our out going officers of the fiscal year 2013-2015 were complimented and new incoming officers of fiscal year 2015-2017 were installed.  All old and new officers received Rose as a thank you token. We appreciated their dedication to serve the club. The out going president Cheryl Hoke presented a certificate from The Garden Club of Illinois, Inc.  for our club 20-Year Anniversary congratulations.  A certificate for the 1st place of AGC Website Publication Award was presented to Chong L.-our webmaster.  We also excepted a new member at the meeting.  Members who attended the meeting enjoyed the program and wonderful food. We are looking forward to the new fiscal year! 

Our March garden club program featured Lori Dupont and Emily Johnson from Floral Acres, Antioch, demonstrating how to create topiaries. They were using sedums, fresh flowers, leafy greens, moss, wire etc. to make all kind of shape and form of topiaries. It was a very informative and interesting program. Everyone attended enjoyed it very much and learned many new tricks on how to create our own topiaries. The hospitality group prepared nice refreshments served after the program. Here are some pictures for sharing.