McKenzie Garden Club News

The McKenzie Garden Club met for its April meeting at the lovely home of Mona Batchelor. Marlene Kreuter gave the devotional and chose as her topic the Cactus Flower, and using Isaiah 35:1 as her reference.

Marlene spoke about how the cactus stores water and sunlight to ensure they continue. They not only survive but thrive. She shared the qualities of one cactus with a beautiful flower that blooms only once, and at night. The magnificent bloom opens in hues of peach, gold and green, and flourishes, but only for one night, then fades and droops by morning. Our lives are much the same – fleeting – but what we do with them is important. Like the cactus, we need to store up nourishment that we receive from Gods word to get us through our desert wanderings and hard times and help us flourish, not just survive.

Following the devotional, Mona treated all the members to a lovely light luncheon, after which the meeting began.

There were corrections made to the minutes of the previous meeting; they were then approved as was the financial report.

Correspondence chair Marcia French reported on birthday and get-well cards sent throughout the past month. No activity for the past month was reported from the Civic and Conservation Committee. The phone committee was thanked for their reminder calls to all the members. Photography and Scrapbook committees had no new report.

Victoria Ard reported that a date in May was chosen for a workshop at Lakeside Senior Living Center to help the residents put together small mixed planters for their rooms or balconies. Several members have volunteered to help with this project. Marie Lozinsky reported that she and Karen Forrester are still gathering information to make and take planters to the local nursing homes for the patients there. She is hoping to start with seven to ten planters, but the project is still in it’s planning stage. Brenda Smith reported the check designated for Habitat for Humanity was ready to be received, and volunteers will be available to put in the plants we are buying for the project.

With no New Business pending, Mona Batchelor gave her program about her experience with Raised Bed Gardening.

Raised Bed Gardening is not a new concept – it came into vogue fifty or sixty years ago. Mona and her husband decided to try it as an alternative to chasing Bermuda grass. They began with a 6 x 6 cedar bed that they planted with iris, sedum and zinnias. The iris grew exponentially, but the bed fell apart. She told the group that two years ago, they chose to replace wooden beds with metal ones. Her friends and neighbors first mistook them for cattle troughs! The metal beds come in pieces. After working with them for a few years, Mona presented her comparison of the two growing experiences:

The advantages Mona saw in the metal beds included better control of the soil, and she reported to the group that she had fewer weeds to pull. The beds can be configured for aesthetics and are ergonomically better because they are high enough to work in without as much bending and stretching. The metal beds can extend your growing season, and voles cannot reach the plants they contain.

The disadvantages include cost. Metal beds are pricey compared to constructing your beds from wood. Because of their shape, planning the shape and location of your bed needs to be considered and well as the building and installation. Metal beds also need to be watered more frequently.

Metal beds are bottomless. In filling them, you need to add wood, straw, or other materials to the bottom, and then equal parts of sand, humus, and good soil.

Raised bed gardening always includes a learning curve, with several decisions: Whether to use wood or metal; choosing flowers or vegetables; growing perennials or annuals. Mona finished her presentation by encouraging each of the members to discuss their experiences with raised bed gardening, and then took everyone out to see her metal beds as well as the lovely iris that she propagates. In returning to her home, the members recognized those celebrating birthdays in April with lovely potted flowers and the singing of Happy Birthday. The meeting was closed with the reading of the Collect.