2024
February
The First meeting of the year in February was held on a Saturday, Feb. 17, from 11am to 2pm instead of our regular Wednesday night meeting in hopes of more members being able to attend. Along with a business meeting at the end of the day, we held our popular Yankee Swap and had a lunch of chicken tenders, salad and vegetarian lasagna brought in from the Back Room and supplemented by deserts from Diana Proulx and Doreen DeRose. Bonnie Pierce did a program on Cold Sowing Native Plants during the lunch.
Our Annual Yankee Swap
March
Our program for March 27 was Backyard Birdscaping with Steve Hale. We got a large group from the public and Steve was a very informative and interesting speaker. He got a lot of interaction from the audience and it looks like a lot of people are interested in having birds in their yards. To quote Steve "diversifying your backyard with food, cover and water will have the birds in your yard... not in your neighbors."
Steve Hale presenting Backyard Birdscaping
April
Our program for April 24 featured our member Jennifer Kippen who talked about sunflowers and the environmental and social aspects that she found in growing them. She has had sunflower fields at her home for years and started growing them to help pollinate her vegetable garden, as sunflowers attract a lot of bees. During the pandemic she found that it gave a lot of joy to her neighbors to be able to walk by her house and see the sunflowers. The program was open to the public.
Jennifer Kippen on "Why Sunflowers?"
May
On May 2, the first library clean up of the season was held. Several members came throughout the day to help. It was discussed that the area should be broken down into seperate areas in order to make it easier for volunteers to know what to do.
Rodney Streeter of Stone Blossom Design and Landscape was our speaker for the May 22 meeting. Rodney spoke about the importance of the right plant in the right space, how plants should not be grouped close together but can be manipulated to look like a fuller garden, the importance of knowing the PH of your soil, knowing your exact zone and other great gardening tips. He answered questions from the audience at the end of his talk.
Rodney Streeter on Plant Design for Any Size Area
On May 23, four members of the Bridge Committee planted the 52 flower boxes that will go on the Memorial Bridge in Hooksett in mid June to remain until September.
On May 29 the NHFGC held its 91st Annual Meeting. District II, which is comprised of the garden clubs of Bow, Goffstown, Hooksett and Manchester, were in charge of putting on the meeting this year and they chose the Back Room Conference Center as the venue. The Hooksett Club was responsible for creating the name tags and being at the registration desk to check people in as they arrived. They also had to provide a raffle item – which was a chair and a plant to put in your garden. Eleven members of the club attended. Elena Whitfield, a long time club member, was honored with the Silver Star Award.
91st Annual Meeting of the NHFGC
June
June 1 was our Annual Plant Sale, for the second year now at the Hooksett Library. The day was perfect and the spaces were very organized: Perennials, VAegetables, bulbs and herbs, house plants, kids table, Ask A Master Gardener/Membership table, Garden Themed Yard Sale, and the Raffle Table. Thank you to the public Library for allowing us to use their space, to Boy Scouts troop 292 from Hooksett who helped us set up and break down the tables, to Ronnie Proulx who transported the plants to the library and to the many people who donated items for our raffle.
2024 Plant Sale
