Embedded Files
February
The First meeting of the year was held on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at our new meeting place, the Hooksett Congregational Church.The program for this meeting was “From Seed to Sprout: Growing Indoors for a Thriving Garden”, and was presented by HGC member Brianna Bowden. She came prepared with everything she needed to demonstrate three different methods of seed sowing – Winter sowing, which is planting in plastic containers and put directly outside during the winter; using cell tray; and for larger plants, planting directly into pots. At the end of her demonstration she raffled off her supplies to members of the audience. Brianna has had a lot of experience with seed starting and gave an interesting and informative presentation and gave many tips on her sucesses and failures as well as product recommendations. The program was open to the public. After the program the business meeting was discussing upcoming programs and this years plant sale. We also had member Patricia Brown show how to make "garden mushrooms" using recycled glass.
On February 2, Rachel Sweeney, Paula Harris and Carolyn Taylor, members of the Bridge of Flowers committee, met at the Bella Flora greenhouse to plant the pansies that will go on the bridge in April.
March
Our annual Yankee Swap was held this year in March instead of February. Its always a fun meeting.
April
The April meeting was a field trip to Frizzhomme Gardens in Bedford. Owner Jeff Frizzhome gave a talk on the history of the greenhouse and also an overview of the cactus and succulent greenhouse. After a brief business meeting and refreshments we were allowed to tour the 13 greenhouses filled with beautiful flowers on our own and even to purchase plants.
May
Instead of a program for the May meeting, we used the time to plan for our upcoming plant sale.
The pansies that were planted in February went on the bridge in April and and were looking really beautiful in May.
We also had pansies at the library in the urns at the front steps.
June
We held our annual plant sale the first Saturday in June and it was a great sucess. It was held at the Hooksett Public Library and that has been a wonderful venue for us, for we get not only people who are planning to go to a plant sale but library patrons who happen upon a plant sale. All of our plants this year were donated by members with the exception of a few dahlia bulbs that were purchased. Bonnie Pierce did a great job as Plant Chair and we had a lot of help from members, some spouses and Boy Scout Troop 292 from Hooksett.
Brianna Bowden planted and has cared for the new planters at the entrance to the Lilac Bridge and on the other side in Veterans Park.
The petunias are on the Hooksett Memorial Bridge and looking wonderful.
Our Hooksett Public Library site in June.
July
On July 23, in lieu of a garden club meeting, we did a field trip to the
Big Little Garden in Nashua. Gardener Barb Young has created an outdoor oasis that is a deliberately designed and nurtured refuge full of indigenous plantings. She selects plants that have symbiotic relationships with insects, providing them with a native food source. She is all about restoring the natural balance and wants the bugs. Insects are integral to natural systems, first as a food source for birds, but also as processors of organic material and soil engineers. By embracing nature, she has created a beautiful sanctuary full of native birds, bees, moths, butterflies, and mammals. She gave us a tour of her gardens, identifying all the plants and why they were there, and also provided refreshments.
Exit 9 decorated for the Fourth of July.
August
Although the club has been to Hip Peas Farm several times, it is always a treat to go there and see what is blooming. At the end of August the garden is filled with many types of flowers, especially Dahlias of all sizes.
The Bridge flowers continued to look wonderful even at the end of August despite the lack of rain.
September
For our September meeting, we were back at the Hooksett Congregational Church, our field trips being over for the season. We were happy to see Josh Gagnon and Nick Brattan from Blue Violet Botanicals who presented an in depth program on the growth and care of dahlias.
New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs Fall Gathering on Golden Pond
On September 24, the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs, of which we are a member, held it annual fall gathering this year at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness, NH. You could attend a variety of events: a garden tour, boat tour, live animal and nature tour, lawn and table games, and lunch. This is a much more informal meeting than the one held in May. In the afternoon, a Memorial Service was held to honor those members of the NHFGC that had passed in 2025. We had photos of Nancy Barrett and JoAnn Hughes on the Memorial Table. Six members of the Hooksett club attended.
Some of our beautification sites in September – The Point, taken care of by Karen Derie; The Trough, taken care of by Jean D'Espinosa, and Exit 9, taken care of by Rachel Sweeney, Diana Proulx and Christine Estes.
October
The October meeting featured speaker Fran Bader on "Climate Resilient Gardening". Fran is a lifelong gardener with 38 years of experience in the floral and plant industry and completed the UNH Master Gardener course in 2023. The program was on ways to prepare and adapt to our climate changes and more extreme weather events and the impact it is having on our gardens. At this meeting we also turned in our wreath sale orders and collected warm pajamas and books for Kids Kloset in Hooksett under the direction of co-chairs Paula Harris and Jocelyn Scarpetti.
On October 23, our friends at Blue Violet Botanicals invited us to join them for a hands on Dahlia Dig at Hip Peas Farm. Three members, Bonnie Pierce, Patty Brown and Donna McDowell went and learned the hands on techniques of digging up and storing the dahlias for the winter.
November
The Saturday after Thanksgiving is our traditonal wreath pick up day. This year it was held at the Hooksett Congregational Church. Although it was a very cold day, the process went smoothly and quickly and we were completely finished and gone by 10:30. Irene Bergeron, as wreath Sale Chair did a wonderful job of organizing the entire process, from taking the orders to making sure they were delivered.
December
For the past several years, Hooksett has held a “Light Up the Village” event right before Christmas, put on by local volunteers and held in the historic village area around Robie’s Country Store. It was held this year on December 6. This year there was a new addition to the festivities, the Festival of Trees. Local businesses, organizations and citizens were asked to sponsor and decorate a tree that would be raffled off. Proceeds from the raffle will help light up the village for next year. Bonnie Pierce, our new President and Karen Derie, our new Vice President, asked members of the HGC if they wanted to participate. Members voted an enthusiastic YES to pay the $250 cost to sponsor a tree. The trees were donated by Beloin Tree Farm in Colebrook. The theme our club chose was “Sustainable Beauty”, using all natural items from our gardens to decorate the tree. Items such as dried hydrangeas, seed pods, pinecones, dried oranges, ect. were collected and dropped off at Karen’s house. No lights were used. Kudos to Bonnie Pierce, Karen Derie, Patty Brown, Diana Proulx, Paula Harris and Donna McDowell, our members who did an awesome job decorating! At this point we have no idea who took home our tree but hope they loved it.
Going above and beyond, Bonnie, Karen and Patty Brown also helped to decorate the Lilac Bridge which was lit up for the holiday, again using only natural products.
Also in December, as we do each year, members of the club rang bells for the Salvation Army at Bass Pro Shops in Hooksett. Connie Snair was Chair for the event. Ringing from 10am to noon were Caragh Doyle and Susan Carvalho; from 12-2pm were Bonnie Pierce and Karen Derie; from 2-3pm was Valerie Heidorn; from 3-4pm, Jean and John Espinosa; and from 4-6pm was our second husband and wife team of Bill Kirmes and Doreen Hamblett.
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