Upcoming Meetings

Swallowtail & Ironweed

Skipper & Lantana

Monarch & Lantana

THANK YOU, CAPERS, for coming out in droves to support our annual Plant Sale fundraiser — We are so grateful for your support!!!   Your loyal support despite the muddy field moved all of our 5 varieties of Milkweed during and after the sale, along with all our perennials & annuals for sun and shade.
THANK YOU for your generous and continuing support!

We always accept empty plant pots, red solo cups, and *plastic* venetian mini-blinds to cut up for plant tags for use in our plant sale.  Please drop either anytime in the driveway at 1121 River Bay Road.  Thanks for helping us to reduce and reuse!

Sunday, October 21st, 6pm: Annual Harvest Dinner Potluck Dinner

Tuesday, November 13th, 7pm: Arranging Garden Materials Workshop

Tuesday, November 27th, 7pm: Evergreen Wreath-Making Workshop + Gift Exchange

All meetings are held in the Cape St. Claire Clubhouse meeting room (1223 River Bay Road, 21409) unless otherwise noted.  Questions?  Phone Catherine at 410-212-1944 or salca01@comcast.net, or reach us at capegardenclub@gmail.com.  New faces always welcome!

Read more about our year’s events and speakers.

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September 2018: Members Sharing Garden Stories Slideshow

Members gathered after our summer break to catch up and hear each others’ news.  In addition, we are proud to have the Garden Club go ZERO WASTE, thanks to the efforts of our hardworking Member Tracy, who volunteered to lead the effort!

 

Click to see our entire slideshow!
Sharing Garden Stories Sept 2018 + Zero Waste Plan

Nibbling Caterpillar Video from Audrey’s Science slide is viewable here + info on Swallowtails cocoons here

Bay-Wise Challenge is On!

This February, we had speakers from the Bay-Wise Program (A project of the Maryland Extension and Master Gardeners), who showed us simple steps we can all take while gardening at home, to protect our precious Chesapeake Bay.  All the steps serve the larger goal: to reduce pollutant flows into the Bay by soaking in and filtering rain water from our yards.

Some of those easy steps  that we learned are: Mowing our grass high with a mulching mower, picking up pet waste daily, keeping storm drains clear, directing downspouts into flower beds so the water soaks in, adding rain barrels or rain gardens, planting groundcovers to decrease erosion, watering at dawn or dusk to reduce evaporation, reducing pesticide use, using slow-release or organic fertilizers and compost.  You can read more at their website or see the entire checklist online.

Club Members enthusiastically took up a challenge to get more gardens certified Bay-Wise, and to help spread the word to our neighbors about gardening Bay-Wise.  Our Clubhouse Committee even got the beds at our neighborhood Clubhouse certified.  We are so excited about contributing to the CSCIA efforts to manage stormwater run off in our community, and to help spread the word to residents that they too can contribute right in their own gardens.

Our waterways contribute such joy and quality of life to all of us here in Maryland, so please join us in protecting our waterways!  Visit the Bay-Wise website or see the entire checklist online.  Thanks for reading!

Clubhouse Committee gets Bay-Wise certified!  

 

 

 

 

Larry & Margarette get certified

Kari gets Bay-Wise certified

Larry & Margarette, and Kari get Bay-Wise Certified, and Carol and Kathy as well!

 

Kathy gets Bay-Wise certified

Carol gets certified Bay-Wise

 

Jeanne M gets certified!

Barb W gets certified!

 

Jeanne M, Barb W, Jeanne K, and Audrey & helpers get Bay-Wise Certified!

Jeanne gets Bay-Wise Certified!

Audrey & helpers get Bay-Wise certified.

2018 Secret Garden Tours

Thanks to Garden Tours Chair Paula Brand for setting up another year of beautiful gardens for us to visit.  We saw many gorgeous plants, novel foliage, colorful fruits, a beautiful rain garden, and elegant stone paths.

Special thanks to our hosts, the Perrys, the Holoskis, and the Ridgeways, for sharing their gardens and even edible fruits from the vine for us to nibble while we toured — delicious and delightful!

Such a sassy group of gardeners!

We were invited to taste so we did. Delicious!

So many edibles at the Ridgeways!

Hypericum, beautiful & delicious

Beautiful border at the Perrys’

Catching stormwater never looked so good!

Admiring the Perry’s Garden

Admiring the Holoski’s serene oasis

Beautiful while Growing Food at the Ridgeways’ Garden.

Passing Along the Gift

When local kids ask to learn about Plants and Pollinators, we gardeners get super-excited.  It’s wonderful to see the next generation of gardeners learning and planting and caring about our pollinator friends.  When Arnold Girl Scout Cadette Troop 2259 asked if we had any plants leftover from our sale, we were happy to donate over $400 worth of plants, 10 full flats, for their new Pollinator Garden at Magothy Middle School.

At their request, we also spent some time together, discussing how pollinators are indispensable to our own food supply, how to lay out their planting design, and how to enrich each planting hole with compost.

We are so pleased to support their efforts, thanks to our loyal neighbors, who came out to shop even in the rain and muck.  Your generous support made this possible — Thank you!

Cadette Troop 2259 of Arnold Maryland display the best-size spade for digging planting holes, tags that explain the mature height of their plants, and all the pollinator-friendly flowers they’ll be planting at Magothy Middle School this summer.

Cadettes hard at work, planting Sun Drops & Bee Balm — pollinator favorites!

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ will provide nectar in the autumn. Go Cadettes!

Dear readers, please stop by Magothy Middle School and see the fruits of their labor, on behalf of our pollinator friends!

THANK YOU Supporters & Members!

MANY MANY THANKS to our loyal supporters who came out in droves to support our 2018 Plant Sale, despite the misty rain, the muddy field, and their busy schedules that included flooded basements and faltering sump pumps.  We are so grateful for your support through thick and thin!

Look at all those plants!

Our loyal neighbors came prepared for the weather

Thank you, neighbors!!!

We have sold all the milkweed and leftover plants, also thanks to our loyal supporters.

Because of your generous support this year, we were able to donate over $400 worth of plants to local Girl Scout Cadette Troop 2259, who will plant them at their new Pollinator Garden at Magothy Middle School.  At their request, we also spent some time together on delivery day, discussing how pollinators are indispensable to our own food supply, how to lay out their planting design, and how to enrich each planting hole with compost.  We are so pleased to support their efforts, thanks to our loyal customers — Thank you!

And finally, we want to say THANK YOU to our hard-working Members, who worked Friday evening through the rain and all day Saturday, smiling all the way.  You all made our sale a huge success with your hard work and positive attitude.  What an uplifting group of wonderful gardeners — Thank you Members!!!

Setting up in the field

Smiling through the rain!

Showing the Milkweed Pride with our new T-shirts!

Special thanks to Matt of Blk Ankr Industries for donating the layout and setup of our beautiful milkweed t-shirts, and to Graul’s, Blue Rooster Cafe, Dunkin Donuts, and Trader Joes for donating refreshments to feed our hard-working volunteers during their shifts.  Thanks also to Online Labels for donating our snazzy new plant labels, and to Kelco Maine for donating a wreath machine.  We’ll give it a go this December at our annual wreath-making workshop, when we make several holiday wreaths to share with other community organizations.
We are so grateful for the community support!

2018 Plant Sale Preview

Feast your eyes on these beautiful native perennials we’ll have at our Plant Sale on Saturday, May 19th, 8am-2pm, in the field at Cape St. Claire Road and Broadneck Drive.

FIVE varieties of milkweed, tomatoes, veggies, & herbs, tough Cape-grown perennials for sun and shade, free mosquito dunks and compost, Master Gardeners to answer all your questions — come chat with your neighbors, support our annual fundraiser, and beautify your garden all on the same day!

We thank you for your continuing support!!!

 

Anenome canadensis

Aquilegia canadensis

FIVE varieties of Milkweed in 2018

Asclepias ‘Hello Yellow’

Aster ‘October Skies’

Aster ‘Woods Pink’

Helenium ‘Tiny Dancer’

Heucherella ‘Stoplight’

Monarda punctata

Echinacea ‘Green Twister’

Chrysogonum / Green & Gold

Heuchera ‘Carnival Watermelon’

Helianthus ‘Low Down’

Tradenscantia ‘Sweet Kate’

Sisrinchium ‘Lucerne’ / Blue-Eyed Grass

Pycanthemum flexuosum

Lonicera ‘Magnifica’

Polysticum / Tassel Fern

Heliopsis ‘Summer Night’

Spigelia marilandica / Indian Pinks

Penstemon digitalis

Tiarella cordifolia

January 2018 Seeds & Rocks

Members paint garden markers

Ready to go into the garden!

Seed-Sowing & Rock-Painting

Four Lauras all at once!

And read all about our upcoming February Meeting on Bay-Wise Gardening!