Holiday Decoration. The florists Lori Dupont and Emily Johnson from Floral Acres, Antioch lead us in a "hands on" project to use in our home for decoration or give as a gift for the holiday season. Our club provided the cost of the seasonal materials. In addition, Floral Acres brought fresh flowers available to purchase & use in the design. All the participate members were having a ball while creating the holiday center pieces. What a great way to celebrate the holiday with style. A delicious refreshments served after the program.
Herb Gardening. Gale Borger is a master gardener through the University of Wisconsin, Kenosha system. She has been gardening for more than 50 years. She founded Gerry's Garden in order to share with others the tremendous satisfaction one can achieve from gardening. She shared with us her love for herbs, introduced many varieties of herbs and tips on how to grow herbs in home gardens. Visit Gerry’s Garden at gerrysgardenshop.com.
Beekeeping primer with Peter Poli of Humdinger Honey Works out of Wilmot WI. An introduction to beekeeping, what you need to know for the first year, what you can do to help bees without keeping them. Peter had his products available for purchase as well.
Members learned a lot from this program on beekeeping.
"A walk through our Village Gardens"
Members and guests met at the Mini-park at 6:30 p.m., toured the garden and then on to the gardens on Orchard Street, which include the Berm Garden , Seven-Son Flower Tree Garden and Arbor Day Garden. Finally, we visited the Blue Star Memorial Garden. Our horticulture committee chairwoman Karen Coulter did the commentary for the walk and answer questions. After the walk, the members went back to the meeting place at the United Methodist Church Hall to have our potluck dinner and regular business meeting. It was a very informative event to get our members more acquainted to the gardens.
At the Mini-Park in downtown Antioch
"Summer Celebration Potluck"
As the fiscal year winds down, we celebrated our successful garden year with a potluck dinner at our usual gathering place United Methodist Church Hall. Every member brought a dish to share. We had a ceremony for the AGC Nancy Zitkus Scholarship Award. Bernard Kondenar from Antioch accepted award for this honor. We also held an induction ceremony for our club officers. We are looking forward to another successful fiscal year of the Antioch Garden Club.
Basic vegetable gardening - Harvest a burst of flavor and nutrition with the basics, including planning (site, vegetable and supplies selection), preparing soil bed for planting, and caring for the vegetable garden. Planting time for warm and cool season vegetables was discussed. It was presented by Andy Brugger, a Master Gardener from the University of Illinois Extension.
Herb gardening was the topic at our April program. Learn how to start and maintain a herb garden and add herbs to an existing perennial garden. Many herbs that can be found in Northern Illinois were featured. It is presented by Deborah Finch-Murphy, a Master Gardener from University of Illinois Extension.
After the regular program, The club president Jayna Legg conducted club business, included approval of a revision of the club By-Laws; Recognition of our club founding member/current Treasurer Nancy Zitkus by naming our club scholarship fund as "Nancy Zitkus Scholarship"; Presentation of awards for Horticulture, yearbook and website achievements; An induction ceremony of new members. We had total of seven new members joining the club this month. Welcome our newest addition!
AGC president Jayna Legg was presenting GCI horticultural award to Karen H. for her leadership in the Horticultural committee
Susan Williamson and Kim Isaacson, Master Gardeners from the University of Illinois Extension presented the program-Perennial at our March general meeting. It was focused on selected perennials and their care. A lot of unusual perennial species that available in the market in our area were introduced with slideshow and printed materials.
After the horticultural program, the members participated a Mad Hatter Contest. Many members were wearing self made decorative hat to show off their creative and artistic side of telents. The categories of the contest include Fun, Creative and Spring. Three members won nice prices. It was a fun filled event.
The funniest winning hat
"All about Ornamental Grasses"
Ornamental Grasses - Hardy helpers for height, texture, and color in your garden. Find out what they are and how to grow them. Learn which are native that’s beneficial to insects and birds; which are non-native that might be best to use in your garden. It was presented by Kim Isaacson, a Master Gardener from the University of Illinois Extension.
Program was held on Monday, February 1st. General Meeting started at 7:00 pm at United Methodist Church Hall.
The presenter Kim Isaacson, a Master Gardener from the University of Illinois Extension