Seed and Weed Garden Club
Theme for this year:
All Aboard...Discovering Native Plants

All Aboard...Discovering Native Plants  2009-2010

          When I first heard native plants would be the theme for the coming year, the first native plant to come to my mind was the row of shadberry bushes planted by my husband at a previous house.  How eagerly I watched those graceful, feathery branches for the swirls of tiny white flowers that for me signaled the arrival of spring.  Imagine my surprise to find that those very shadberries or serviceberries would be a part of the Seed and Weed native plant project.

          With “Discovering Native Plants” as our theme and “All Aboard” as our rallying cry, we are setting off on a year of projects and activities that will increase our knowledge of native plants and help us to use them to design our gardens and to beautify our community.

Our journey begins at Utica’s Union Station with the spring luncheon and installation of officers.  Along the way we will have knowledgeable guides.  Master gardeners, landscape architects and environmental consultants, Gretchen and Bruce Mero ,will help us identify native wildflowers for our club project.  Club members will show us how native and non -native plants can be blended into harmonious garden design.  Nature photographer, Joan Herrmann, will show us how to photograph plants.  We will be stopping to picnic in the New Hartford Town Park where we will collect photographs and information to help us with our project.  We will take two side trips.  As we visit Cornell Plantations and the Adirondack Mountains, we will be able to see native plants in different environmental settings.

          Our projects will be the culmination of our journey. Club members will add native New York plants which will include a serviceberry bush, which at one time was special for me, to the grounds of Hospice.  Members will also label and create legends for native wildflowers in the New Hartford Town Park so this information may be shared with those who walk, hike and bike along its paths.

         We have a year of planting, designing, traveling, learning and serving ahead of us,  a worthwhile journey……...All Aboard!!!

Meg Pfeiffer
2nd Vice President
Yearbook Chairperson