President's Letter (10_2021)

Welcome to the 2021-2022 Grafton Garden Club. At the August meeting, the Club voted for the slate of Officers as presented. We have a new President of the Club. Well, she’s not that new to the Club…and technically, she’s not new to the position of President. And I may never get used to referring to myself in the third person. As President, I represent the Executive Board and therefore the entire Club when dealing with Grafton Garden Club Business. I hope to bring my organizational skills and overflowing ideas with me to the position of President. I held this position from 2004 to 2007.

I hope to re-invigorate the Club and to get us back on track after this Covid-19 pandemic. We have planned a lot of meetings, workshops, presentations, and activities for the upcoming year and plan to follow all CDC recommendations that are in effect for each one. I hope some (actually, I hope most, or all) of the activities are of interest to you. Please look through the Membership Booklet and let us know if there are other activities you would like to help us plan and coordinate for this year or next.

Speaking of that, we have two vacancies. The first is for the Annual Meeting planner. This committee member will work with the Executive Board to determine where the meeting should be and what we can do (besides hold our end-of-year Business Meeting). We also feel the Bylaws need to be reviewed and potentially updated. If you have an eye for details and like the idea of bringing our Bylaws into the 21st century, we will create a standing committee for the Bylaws Revision Effort. If you are interested in either of these opportunities let an Officer of the Club know and we’ll add you to the Standing Committee so you can be a member of the Executive Board and attend the Board Meetings. These meetings are quite fun. We go over what is going to be in the President’s Letters, and we talk about the upcoming activities and any issues that have arisen in the committees.

Recently, we participated in Art in Bloom. Members of the Grafton Garden Club created and displayed floral interpretations of the paintings of Bernard Corey. On the left is Elizabeth Weeks and her floral interpretation and on the right is the arrangement from Ava Fantasia.

     

Upcoming is the Wonderous Walk in Williams Woods on Saturday, October 2, 2021 with a rain date of Sunday, October 3, 2021, at 2pm. Williams Woods trail head is 0.1 mile after Rose Lane. Bring your kids aged 10 and under for a 1-hour hike along the trail with our tour guide Rebecca Ahlfors.

On Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 10am, the Grafton Garden Club will be decorating the Willard House and Clock Museum in a Victorian motif in time for Grafton Celebrates the Holidays. I hope that you can join the team and help create the festive atmosphere for the Willard House.

Which brings us to one of the favorite activities each year: on Sunday, December 5, 2021 from noon-4pm, Grafton Celebrates the Holidays! The Grafton Garden Club will have a table upstairs to talk about this year’s Club activities. We also have a table downstairs in the basement to do the kid’s activity. The pinecones are scarce this year, so we are going to try water bottle planting for the kids. If you can spare some time, we need people to help at both tables. All materials and instructions will be provided. You can come for a half hour or the whole 4 hours. Please let me know what works for you. Even if you can’t help, please stop by the Community Barn and the other locations participating and have fun at Grafton Celebrates the Holidays.

On Wednesday, December 8, 2021 starting at 7pm, we are presenting Winter Enchantment with Denise Worden, owner of Sweetbriar Florist and Perennials. This workshop costs $25 for Grafton Garden Club members and $40 for non-members. If you are interested, please reserve your seat by November 5th by sending your payment and choice of boxwood tree or centerpiece to The Grafton Garden Club, P.O. Box 453, Grafton, MA, 01519-0453. Since Denise needs to get the materials , we need to give her a head count ahead of time.

To end the calendar year, on Thursday, December 16, 2021 starting at 6pm, we will be holding our Holiday Party and Yankee Gift Swap at the Willard House and Clock Museum. You can take a tour and see the Victorian decorations. Refreshments will be provided and if you want to participate in the gift swap, bring a wrapped gift worth approximately $10-15. Please let the Chair, Elizabeth Weeks, know if you are coming so we have enough chairs, tables, and refreshments for everyone.

There are more fun things planned for the upcoming year so take a look at your new Membership Booklet. Inside, you will find this year’s planned activities, the Grafton Garden Club Bylaws, and the Ongoing History of the club. Also, all the photos are of member’s gardens and are attributed to the photo provider.

Date Changes: Please update your booklets with the following updated dates and times for these presentations:

  • The Tuesday, April 19, 2022; 6:30pm presentation (top of page 7) is now scheduled for Thursday, April 21, 2022 starting at 7pm with doors open at 6pm for refreshments and to look at/purchase her books
  • The Tuesday, May 17, 2022 2022; (second item on page 11; oops about the duplicated year) 7pm talk is now scheduled for Thursday, May 19, 2022; still at 7pm

In the ongoing quest to provide knowledge about gardening, I would like to present a Tip or Trick to make gardening a little easier in each letter, space permitting. Let me know if you know of a trick you use, and I’ll pass it along to the other members (and give you credit). This letter’s tip comes from the 4/19/21 issue of Woman’s World: Spray your tools with cooking spray (like Pam). Give your metal shovels and trowels a quick spritz before you start digging. This will cause dirt to slide right off so you can dig easily when prepping your garden in the spring.

Deborah Graham, for theExecutive Board