Photos

On Thursday April 24, the Garden Club gathered at the Museum Garden to reflect on the life of the late Elaine Rajcula, longtime member and two-term president who passed away in January. We were joined by several members of Elaine’s family as we dedicated a brick in the path to her memory. Happy stories were shared, and some tears were shed. Elaine was a presence in the club and in the town. She will be sorely missed.

On April 17, the Garden Club welcomed Brookfield resident and former club member, Deirdra Wallin to give us a presentation titled “Local Birds and How to Support them in our Gardens”. Deirdra is a UCONN Advanced Master Gardener and a Connecticut Audubon Society Master Naturalist. With wonderful photos Deirdra brought us into her backyard, introducing us to the wonderful visitors that return to her bird-friendly garden year after year. And she equipped us with handouts full of helpful information so that we could try to re-create the same welcoming space for our feathered friends. Thank you Deirdra! As usual we also had great fun with our artistic and horticultural exhibits. A real sign that spring is in the air.

Seed Starting Tips and Tricks. That was the program at our general meeting last Thursday. Heartfelt thanks go to club members Cotille Davis, Dianne Mariano, and Carol Pierce who shared both their common and unique approaches to starting seeds for vegetable and flower gardens. Displaying the types of equipment and material they use, demonstrating some of their techniques, and showing example photos of their successes and failures helped germinate our own desires to ‘get gardening again’ in earnest. Thank you Cotille, Dianne and Carol for putting together this program. Everyone had fun, too, with presenting artistic and horticultural exhibits as well as selecting from a garden-themed table at our drawing.

Thank you John and Deisy from Hollandia Gift and Garden Center for speaking at our February meeting about the selection and care of houseplants. You brought an amazing array of plants, answered a lot of questions from our group, and demonstrated the making of simple mixed-plant basket. Many notes were taken. Thank you, too, for your lovely donation of two items for our drawing. Congratulations on Hollandia’s 60th anniversary.

The Garden Club of Brookfield ended the calendar year 2024 with a Holiday Social on December 12.  We began the morning with an engaging presentation by Jeffery Eleved of Li’l Plant Shop titled Holiday Hat Trick: Poinsettia, Christmas Cactus and Amaryllis. Members contributed goodies to our feasting table, submitted creative arrangements for our People’s Choice contest and enjoyed a fun drawing of holiday-themed items.  A special thank you goes to member Jeanne Futter for turning our needlework submissions into a lovely quilt for the club that we can proudly display at our meetings. The Garden Club wishes to extend a profound thank you to Newbury Congregational Church for allowing us to use their community room for our meetings for so many wonderful years.  We will miss the great relationship we have had with you.  We are grateful to Valley Presbyterian Church for opening their doors to us for our meetings beginning in January 2025.  Happy Holidays everyone!

The club met for another fun-filled morning of decorating door wreaths for various town buildings and to construct the large wreath that goes over the Town Hall entrance. Energy and enthusiasm were in high supply! Keep a look out for these gorgeous wreaths as they are put on display. Happy Holidays everyone.

On October 17 the Garden Club met for its annual meeting. Officers and committee chairs provided reports on the great activities we had throughout the year. Member Anne Marie Meehan was recognized with the club’s 2024 Outstanding Service Award and member Betty Ziegler was presented with a lifetime membership to the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut. Following the meeting, members engaged in a ‘botanical arts’ craft activity transferring images of leaves from our gardens onto muslin in pretty autumn colors.

The September general meeting of the Garden Club began with a presention on Putting Your Garden to Bed – the Pollinator Friendly Way given by Michele MacKinnon, UCONN Advanced Master Gardener with a certificate in Organic Land Care. We learned lots of great tips to apply to our fall garden work.

This month’s general meeting of the Garden Club included a presentation on Identifying Native Trees and Shrubs in Connecticut by Felicia Millet, Plant Diagnostician at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.