2023-2024

Club Meetings and Programs of the Longfellow Garden Club

Theme: Celebrating our 100th Year!

Members are encouraged to attend meetings and all activities in bold print. Please take note, the start time of meetings change.

Refer to our “Poet’s Corner” newsletter for activity details. Guests and prospective new members are always welcome.

Inclement Weather: If Portland schools are closed, the Longfellow Garden Club’s activities also will be canceled.

Physical meetings are planned; however, if necessary, meetings may take place via ZOOM. Log in information will be sent via email.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Nancy Gribble-Tay’s backyard, 48 Montrose Avenue, Portland

1:00 Short Business Meeting Welcome New Members

1:30 Our first “Design Challenge”
Our canvas is Nancy’s large, city backyard. It’s a blank slate with the fence around it. Bring any resources you have such as names and info on your best performing, best looking plants, and your best landscaping ideas. This promises to be a fun collaborative process full of potential.

Thursday, September 21, 2023

National Garden Club Fall Board Meeting, Virtual

Thursday, September 28, 2023

GCFM Open Garden #3, Cape Neddick

Tuesday October 3, 2023

Saco Heath Preserve, Route 122, Buxton Road, Saco

1:00 Meet at the Heath Parking Lot
Over years, two adjacent ponds filled with peat and created a raised level bog ecosystem where the surface of the peat is above the level of the ground water, creating a domed bog. The Heath hosts rare plants and animals and is reached by a trail through woods leading to a boardwalk over the bog.

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Sustainability Project for the City of South Portland: “100 Resilient Yards” The city of South Portland Sustainability Department launched a “100 Resilient Yards” program during the summer of 2023. The purpose was to provide free technical expertise and resources to transform participants’ yards into resilient, organic landscapes founded on healthy soils. Julie Rosenbach, Sustainability Director, will share the results of this statewide program.

Tuesday, Wednesday, October 10-11, 2023

New England Garden Clubs, Inc. Annual Meeting

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

GCFM Fall Conference “Gardening for the Soul”

Augusta Civic Center, 76 Community Drive, Augusta

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth
1:00 Business Meeting
2:00 Connections: LGC and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC)

Presenter: Julie Chase, SMCC Foundation. SMCC and the Longfellow Garden Club began a partnership in 2021 to provide scholarships to students in the SMCC Horticulture program. We will learn more about the stories behind the students who have received our scholarships as well as an overview of the SMCC Horticulture degree program.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth
10:00 Business Meeting
11:00 Winter Ikebana Workshop with Sandra Leonard. Sandy’s training is in the

Ichio School and is free style. This is a hands-on opportunity to make a special arrangement. Look for your Ikebana Kenzan (Flower Frog) now.

12:00 Holiday lunch. We will serve chili, chowder, dessert and coffee/tea.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Virtual Zoom Program
No Business Meeting/Necessary Announcements only.

6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Sharing session on native plants. What worked? What was not successful? What books on native plants do you recommend? Everyone is welcome to talk about their planting experiences, a favorite garden book, best practices, landscape design, or native plants and trees. It’s a great time to get together in the midst of winter without traveling.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Virtual Zoom Program
No Business Meeting/Necessary Announcements only.

6:30 - 8:00 p.m. Middleton Place: America’s First Landscaped Garden in Charleston, South Carolina. The historic preservation work and interpretation of history at Middleton Place focuses on major contributions of the Middleton family as well as the enslaved Africans and African Americans who lived and worked here. Presenter: Karen Rea, member and GCFM President is married to a descendant of the Middleton family.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth
1:00 Business Meeting
2:00 Beginning our 100th Year. A member originated program on reflections, history, and discussion of events during our year’s celebration.

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Stroudwater District Annual Meeting

Italian Heritage Center, 40 Westland Avenue, Portland

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth
1:00 Business Meeting
2:00 Unique Container Gardens for Every Environment. Speaker Janice Davis, owner of the local business “Beauty Boost,” will show us elements of making successful containers through a demonstration and hands-on program.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Longfellow Garden Club Annual Meeting

Skyline Farm, 95 The Lane, North Yarmouth Please note the change in time and place!

9:30 Coffee
10:00 Business Meeting
12:00 Luncheon
1:00 Carriage House Tour conducted by member Sylvia and her husband, John

Sowles, whose father started the farm’s living carriage museum and its collection of antique carriages and sleighs. Skyline Farm is a unique place where history and nature are joined for learning and recreational programs based on the role of horse-drawn transportation in the cultural, social, and economic development of New England.

Saturday, May or June 2024

Annual Plant and Garden Accessories Sale

Place to be Determined
7:30 Set Up Rain or Shine 9:00 Sale begins
11:00 Clean Up

Sunday - Wednesday, June 2 - 5, 2024

National Garden Club Convention, Denver, CO

Thursday and Friday, June 20 - 21, 2024

GCFM Annual Convention “Gardening for Tomorrow”

Buchanan Alumni House, 160 College Ave, Orono

2022-2023

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

12:00 Welcome Back! Bring a sandwich, we’ll provide drinks and dessert.

1:00 Business Meeting

Welcome New Members

2:00 Forest Therapy Talk and Walk with Hughes Kraft, Counselor, LCPC, LADC and Certified

Nature Therapist Guide. Hughes Kraft is a psychotherapist, nature therapy

guide, outdoorsman, photographer, husband, and father.

This is a “hybrid” program: inside talk, followed by a guided nature therapy walk. Guided

Nature Therapy walks are a profound way to welcome health and wellness.

Remember to wear walking shoes!

Tuesday, October 11, 2022 Inn by the Sea, 40 Bowery Beach Road, Cape Elizabeth

Please note the change in time and place!

10:00 Gardener Derek Daly will give us a tour and talk about the gardens he has created and

maintained at the Inn by the Sea

There will be a pre-registration for this.

No business meeting.

Optional lunch together (based on weather and interestJ)

More information to follow.

Tuesday, November 8, 2021 Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Grasses: Cindy Carroll, O’Donal’s Nursery, will share information all about grasses

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

10:00 Business Meeting

11:00 Mary Morin: Creative Holiday Décor. A hands-on opportunity to make a holiday

arrangement

12:00 Holiday lunch. We will serve chili, chowder, dessert and coffee/tea

Tuesday, January 10, 2023 Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

1:00 Book Discussion: Everyone is welcome to talk about a favorite garden book -- fiction or

nonfiction, flowers, best practices, famous gardens and gardeners, landscape design,

perennials/annuals, trees or your favorite topic. We had great feedback last year offering

this informal meeting for a book discussion. A great time to get together in the midst of winter.

No business meeting.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Tom Witwicki: Why using peat harms the environment and how to avoid using it.

Tom is President of the Cumberland County Master Gardeners

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 Maine Audubon, Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Karen Rea: Straw Bale Gardening. Time to start to think about your planting and

gardening plans! Karen will be sharing information about how to plan and plant a straw

bale. This is an easy and inexpensive solution to growing plants!

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 Maine Audubon, Gilsland Farm, Falmouth

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Nancy Atwell: Flower Arranging

Tuesday, May 19, 2023 Maine Historical Society, Congress Street, Portland

Longfellow Garden Club Annual Meeting

9:30 Coffee

10:00 Business Meeting

Annual Committee Reports

12:00 Luncheon

1:00 History of Maine Historical Society and the Longfellow Garden

Talk/walk Longfellow Garden Tour

2020-2021

September and October meetings will be available only through ZOOM.

Physical meetings November-May will be contingent on COVID 19 and Maine Audubon guidelines. If this is not possible, they will take place via ZOOM with the same link, password and meeting id listed below.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 This meeting will take place via Zoom. If you do not have Zoom downloaded on your phone, iPad or computer, please do so prior to the meeting.

1:00 Business Meeting, Annual Committee Reports

2:00 Colleen Griffin, registered horticultural therapist practicing in Southern Maine. “Horticultural Therapy”, an age-old practice, utilizing plants and gardening activities as a therapeutic tool to reduce the influence of stress in daily life

Tuesday, October 13, 2020: This meeting will take place via Zoom.

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Rayne Hoke, owner of Flora’s Muse, “The Slow Flower Movement”

Tuesday, November 10, 2020: This meeting will be available via Zoom. Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines.

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Katrina Bussiere-Venhulzen, Senior Environmental Educator,“ECOMaine, How Does it Work?”

Tuesday, December 8, 2020: Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines

10:00 Business Meeting

11:00 Creative Holiday Décor, facilitated by LGC member Mary Moran: Creating Holiday Boxwoods

12:30 Holiday lunch to be served including chili, chowder, dessert, coffee/tea

Tuesday, January 12, 2021: Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines.

No regularly scheduled business meeting

1:00 Committee meetings if desired

Tuesday, February 9, 2021:Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines.

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Ted Carter, Inspirational Landscapes: “Incorporating the practices of feng shui, geomancy, and earth energies to design a thoughtful landscape design that is in harmony with the land”

Tuesday, March 9, 2021: Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines.

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Carolyn Snell, Snell Family Farm/Carolyn Snell Design: The Growing of a Flower Business

Tuesday, April 13, 2021: Maine Audubon, 20 Gilsland Farm, Falmouth to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines.

1:00 Business Meeting

2:00 Eric Topper, Director of Education, Maine Audubon and Portland Educator will present Update and Review of Grantee Work

In partnership with Maine Audubon, Longfellow Garden Club supports a Portland teacher through a grant to develop curriculum that is gardening related.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021: Portland Country Club, to be determined per COVID 19 guidelines, 11 Foreside Road, Falmouth

Longfellow Garden Club Annual Meeting

9:30 Coffee/Registration

10:00 Business Meeting

Annual Committee Reports

12:00 Luncheon

1:00 Program to be determined

Saturday, May 22, 2021: Annual Plant, Pie and Garden Accessories Sale

Woodford Congregational Church, 202 Woodford Street, Portland

8:00 Set Up Rain or Shine!

9:00 Sale begins

11:30 Sale wraps up for another year