January 2019
Established in 1980 
In this issue you will find:

  • Message from the President
  • Upcoming Events
    • Seminars
    • Member Tours & Events
  • Feature Articles
    • GVG's "Plot to Plate" Cookbook
    • "In Your Plot"
    • Tidbits from Club Archives
    • Make a Donation to GVG via AmazonSmile
  • Project Updates
    • Allen J. Ogden Community Garden
    • Arid Garden
    • Desert Meadows Park
    • GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch
  • Committee Updates
    • Membership
    • Spring Garden Tour
    • Art-in-the-Park/Spring Fair
Would you like to submit an article or a photo for the February newsletter? Please submit it to [email protected]  by January 28.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
The end of 2018 saw a remarkable growth in the Green Valley Gardeners membership with nearly 160 new members to date. This is an unprecedented membership surge and one that t he Club's Board of Directors takes seriously about how best to provide programs and activities most desired by not only new members but existing members of long note. With that in mind, the Board has scheduled a Retreat for February 4, 2019 to plan on how to better assign expectations for members of the Board regarding meeting membership interests and needs. I urge all Club members to communicate wi th Board members, including myself, about your interests, concerns and expectations for the upcoming years. Board member contact information can be found on the Club web site. Please, do not hesitate to contact any and all members of the Board. In my opinion, the Club can only be effective and proactive if the membership takes an active interest and involvement with its governance and policy determination. To that end, the Board meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Green Valley Friends in Deed, from 1:00pm to 2:45pm and you are invited to attend .


 
Of special note is the upcoming Annual Membership Meeting and Potluck on January 6, starting at 5pm at the Green Valley Recreation, Las Campanas Social Center, 565 West Belltower Drive. This is a Board By-Law requirement for an annual meeting and you are encouraged to attend, enjoy the many food offerings and add to the dialogue regarding our Club's operation.
 
Thank you for your continued involvement and personal best wishes to you for the upcoming year 2019.
 
Bill Berdine, President
Green Valley Gardeners
UPCOMING EVENTS
Seminars  by Bill Carley
The Elegant Trogan is perhaps the most hoped-for bird sighting in Madera Canyon.

  • January 3 ~ the 2019 seminar series will start with Dr. Glenn Wright speaking on citrus. There is no one better to start the new year!
  • January 10 ~ Doug Moore, Director of Education for the Friends of Madera Canyon will talk about "Birds of Madera Canyon"
  • January 14 ~ Mark Sitter returns for his annual talk on cactus and succulents. 
  • Different day of week, but same time.
  • Different location due to popular demand ~ seminar is held at Quail Creek Clubhouse.
  • January 31 ~ Charlene Westgate, Westgate Garden Design, will tell us how to make use of basins and other earthworks to capture and direct rainwater to plants.
  • As always, seminars are free and open to the public.
    •  The January topics are popular. Members are encouraged to arrive early to ensure seating. 
  • They are held at GVR Desert Hills auditorium, 2980 South Camino del Sol from 9:30 to 10:30.  Doors open at 9:00 for coffee and treats. 
  • Master Gardeners will be present to answer your gardening questions. 
  • Copies of the club cookbook, "Plot to Plate: Growing Tips and Recipes from the Green Valley Gardeners," will be on sale for $15.00 before the seminar starts.
Member Tours & Events

  • January 6 ~ Annual Meeting and Potluck at 5 p.m. at the Green Valley Recreation Las Campanas Center. An e-blast has been sent providing registration information to all members.
  • January 17  ~ Members tour of new propagation facilities at Civano's Sahuarita farm at 10 am. Watch for eblast for more information and carpool details. Also you can find sign up sheets at seminars January 3, 10 and 14.
  • January 24 ~ Board is hosting an 'Roundtable Reception' for new members at Desert Hills Social Center from 9 to 10:30 am. 
Be on the lookout for separate eblasts providing details for each of these seminars and member activities. And v
isit our website for a complete calendar of events
FEATURE ARTICLES
Green Valley Gardeners' "Plot to Plate Cookbook"

With the holidays approaching, the cookbook committee wants to suggest that our gardening cookbook would take care of many of the names on your gift list. If they're into gardening, canning, preserving or just eating it would make the perfect gift. At only $15 Plot to Plate makes a great welcome to the neighborhood gifts for any new neighbors, especially if they're new to gardening in the southwest. 

  How to purchase:
  • Members and non-members can purchase copies online for $15 per copy, as well as at our seminars and at member events. Copies purchased online can be picked up at club seminars, Desert Meadows Park on Wednesdays or the Arid Garden on Fridays. The books will not be mailed. 
  • Click here to purchase your cookbook from our online store and view details for pickup options.
Please support this important club fundraiser and help your garden thrive!
 
Thanks to the Cookbook Committee, comprised of Marilee Crumley, Rena Duffy, Lorna Mitchell and Christa Ryan, for their hard work and dedication to make this valuable resource a reality.
Try a kale and chard salad from your plot
"In Your Plot"   
by Lorna Mitchell

Pleasant days and cool nights have been the norm the last three months in the garden. Fall has been mild: pipes haven't burst, and harvests are coming in. Life is good! Kale, Swiss chard, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, baby carrots and beets, and turnips are growing very well and hopefully some of them dressed your Christmas dinner.  
 
January maintenance in your plot includes pulling little weeds before they become big weeds, checking and wrapping water connections, watching for aphids, and harvesting. Soil is the foundation of gardening and if you have bare ground now is a good time to ensure nutrients for your plants later by digging in composted steer manure, peat moss, "veggie slurry" from our kitchen scraps, and balanced granular fertilizer. Keep the ground moist but not heavy wet.
Now is the time for searching seeds catalogs to discover a new variety of vegetable you want to try. Choose varieties that do well in desert heat to avoid disappointment. Having those seeds in hand by the end of the month allows you to grow summer transplants for yourself (tomato, peppers, and eggplant) which is very economical, and you have the exact kind of plant to suit your needs. Start seeds the end of the month indoors in small pots or yogurt cups, just keep them moist and warm (so don't put them on the tile floor). Make holes to allow for drainage and use fine textured potting soil or peat which is moistened well before planting. Transplant those babies into bigger pots as they grow so they are strong by early April to go into the garden. Consider sharing a seed packet with a fellow gardener.
Those are my plot thoughts for now,  Happy Gardening!
Tidbits from Club Archives

To assist with club projects, The Men's Garden Club of Green Valley in 1982 formed the "Women's Auxiliary". Dues for the ladies was 25 cents
per meeting, or $3.00 annually.

Shop AmazonSmile and Benefit the Garden Club  

Green Valley Gardeners is now listed on AmazonSmile. When you shop Amazon, log into AmazonSmile, use your existing personal account login information, select Green Valley Gardeners as your non-profit of choice. The club will receive a small donation for each qualifying purchase you make. Thank you!

To shop AmazonSmile go to  http://smile.amazon.com/ .
PROJECT UPDATES
Allen J. Ogden Community Garden  b y George Stone  

As we begin 2019 the Green Valley Gardeners' embark upon a year of exciting possibilities. Yet, as we leave 2018 behind, we cannot overlook the progress that has been made. For one, our membership has soared to over 400 gardeners. That alone is an accomplishment reached by very few garden clubs. Year 2019 brings excitement but it also brings challenges for our club. So, if your late in making some New Year's' resolutions please think about becoming more involved with your club. I guarantee you will never regret it.

On December 3rd seven club members were invited to attend the beginning of Copper View Elementary school's onion fund raising project. No, they are not competing with our club's onion fundraiser held in May, for the school will be selling to the students' families. Second grade students planted 1,000 onions in less than 20 minutes. We all were amazed and Bill Berdine, club president, told the principle he wanted to hire all of them.

Students planting onions at Copper View Elementary School

Our onions are in the ground and are doing quite well. With that said we are gearing up for our annual onion sale the first week of May so to those that have volunteered in the past, be expecting my call sometime soon.

At Ogden we continue to develop an agenda for "George", our Sulcata tortoise. We obtained George (his real name) on December 5th. Our friends and fellow gardeners at Desert Meadows Park graciously volunteered to build his habitat house. I have attached a few photos for those that would like to see him. 

George the tortoise, not to be confused with George Stone, so called George Jr.

Mica and Nammie feeding George Jr. fresh lettuce from an Ogden plot

Building the habitat ~ L to R, Mike Jensen, Steve Curtis and Dave Kean

George Jr.'s new home at Ogden ~ 90% complete
"Spooky" cactus climbing through Palo Verde tree while cold-protected in frostcloth covering . . . at The Arid Garden
Arid Garden 
by Mary Kidnocker 

Returning winter volunteer Hans Hohle with hula hoe and rake has again been working on the removal of weeds outside the garden wall along Camino Encanto. This is an on-going job of county land, but making the area around the garden look a lot neater sets the expectations for our potential visitors. Therefore, a general cleanup benefits the garden as well.
 
During the past few weeks, volunteers Jim Campbell and Bill Carley have been checking each of the garden irrigation systems and accompanying emitters. This is a tedious and time-consuming though important job that must be done periodically. Additionally with seasonal temperatures varying considerably, cold protection of faucets and hose is done on an "as needed" basis.
 
Prominently blooming at the garden this month have been Brittlebush, Texas Olive, Desert Lavender, Autumn Sage, Damianita, Fleabane, Globe Mallow, Verbena, Barberry, Bahia, Chuparosa, Rosemary, Guardiola, Desert Marigold and False Poinsettia.


Desert Meadows Park  by Chuck Parsons

Green Valley Gardeners' has now completed 5-years of stewardship on this project. That completes our first 5-year license agreement with Desert Meadows I POA. Our license now reverts to an automatically renewable 3-year agreement, the same as we have had for several years at The Arid Garden.

I thank all members that have contributed their time and talent to this project. We have accomplished more than was expected of us on this project. And, in the process have created a wonderful park for area residents and visitors.

The board has approved our 2019 budget. In the following two charts you can see how the funds are allocated and where they come from. 
We have a rain gauge in the garden at the park. We have been recording the rain since 2014 ~ our first year of stewardship. We've recorded an all time high this year of 21-inches! That is nearly 2 1/2 times what we received in 2017. The trees that have been planted have all shown excellent growth as a result, as have many other plants.

The park did enjoy mention in a recent episode of Arizona Illustrated thanks to Linda Gregory. Linda contacted the PBS station in Tucson suggesting they visit the park. If you have not yet seen the clip, you can access it on YouTube by clicking below:

Desert Meadows Park
Arizona Illustrated Video Link

Don't forget park volunteers maintain an herb garden for use by club members. It is located in the center of the garden area ~ two large black raised-beds. Help yourself to fresh herbs. Volunteers also propagate plants for sale. These are located in the "orphans nursery" near the greenhouse. Look for James, Elissa or Chuck to make a purchase. 
 
GVG Gardens at Historic Canoa Ranch (HCR)  
by Raydine Taber, Bill Carley, and Jack Davis (emeritus)

We want to wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR. May 2019 bring you bountiful crops, beautiful flowers, grand trees, happy cacti and all of your leaves green. Appears that our beginning to 2019 will be colder than we like. Get out the frost cloth and protect all those tender plants.
 
 
 
For those of you who did not get to see the HCR, Junior House holiday decorations, the above photo gives you an idea of how festive we can be. Additionally, we have a little red wagon outside the Grijalva House decorated for our holiday season.
 
Looking forward to 2019, we will continue to expand our presence at the ranch. As, mentioned last month, we will be taking on, at least, three new gardens. For us this is a rather large undertaking. We visualize most of the new gardens will be done in phases extending over a period of several years. As with our present gardens, you will find a variety of gardening venues. We have vegetable and herb gardens, a butterfly garden, an orchard, outdoor ornamentals for the courtyard and indoor plants. Roses will be our newest gardening venue. Whatever your gardening interest, you will find it at Historic Canoa Ranch.
 
Want to be a part of our garden restoration, join us, on our Tuesday's gardening adventures at "the ranch". We meet at 8 a.m.; at the Sr. House Herb Garden. You are welcome to join us at any time.      
COMMITTEE UPDATE S
Membership
 by Mark Thompson

A new record has been set! Membership increased 16% this year. We ended 2018 with an amazing total of 514 members of record.   This includes 154 new members joining since January of 2018. New members joining in December were:
 
            Maryann Akers
            Lynda Campbell
            Michelle O'Brien-Palmer
            Jan de Kok
 
All 154 new members in the class of 2018 will be invited to a special roundtable reception on Thursday, January 24 at 9 AM to meet with the project managers and board members.   More information on this roundtable, to be held at Desert Hills Recreation Center, will be sent to them shortly. Save this date.


 
It is officially membership renewal time. You can renew your membership for  2019 in three ways: 
  • The preferred way is to go to our website, click on "membership" and then pay using a credit card. 
  • Or you can mail a renewal check to GVG, PO Box 86, 85622. 
  • And, you can renew with a credit card, check, or cash at any seminar. 

If you have any changes in your contact information, please email me at [email protected].

 
Don't forget to get your fresh herbs from the Desert Meadows Park Community Garden or pick up another plant at their greenhouse. 
Spring Garden Tour

The Green Valley Gardeners' Spring Garden Tour will be 
Saturday, April 13, 2019 from 9 until 3.  We need your help to make the tour a success.   This is a great opportunity to become involved in the club, to meet new people, have fun and help with this important fundraiser.
 
We need Greeters.  Each garden on the tour has two greeters.  They are seated at the entrance to the garden to welcome visitors, check off their tickets, and hand out surveys.  The greeters work two-hour shifts.  
 
We also need Hosts.  Each garden is assigned two hosts.  These are typically knowledgeable gardeners.  The hosts work with the homeowners a few weeks before the tour. They work on identifying the plants in the garden and compiling a list. Other club members are always willing to help with plants that are difficult to identify.  After being given the signs with the plant names, the hosts place them in the garden.  Hosts are present at the gardens during the entire tour to answer visitor questions.  We also need Relief Hosts.  Each relief host works at one of the gardens from 11 to 1. During that time the hosts each take a one-hour break and one host remains with the relief host. So there is always a host present who is familiar with the garden. The Hosts and Relief Hosts are critical to the tour.  In addition to helping the club, you will have an opportunity to work with homeowners who are passionate about their gardens and to interact with visitors to the gardens.
 
We need Ticket Sellers.  Tour tickets are sold at the weekly seminars, at the spring plant sale and at specific vendor sites in town beginning in February.  
 
If you are able to help in any capacity with the tour, we need your help.  Please contact
either Stacie Meyer at [email protected] or Cynthia Surprise at [email protected] .
Art-in-the-Park/Spring Fair
by Gene VanDyken

This event takes place at Desert Meadows Park in conjunction with the Spring Garden Tour. Same day, Saturday, April 13th. This will be our 3rd year for this event. We have already had several past vendors sign up for 2019, and we are getting requests from other vendors now that the event has had success ~ should be a nice selection of products this year.

In addition to art and plant booths, we will have the silent auction, food trucks and a jazz group for entertainment. Should be a great experience for folks touring the gardens to stop at the park for lunch, music and shopping!

If you would like to help organize one of the venues or volunteer to help on the day of the event, please contact  Chuck


MEMBER PHOTOGRAPHS
If you have some favorite photos you've taken at one of the club's projects, please submit them prior to the 28th of the month to be included in the newsletter for all to enjoy.

Celebrating the fifth anniversary of Desert Meadows Park. 
Submitted by Linda Gregory.



Editor: Chuck Parsons  (acting ) | Green Valley Gardeners |chuck @greenvalleygardeners.com   | www.greenvalleygardeners.com
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