Presidents Message
Maplewood Garden Club’s President Monthly Message
October 2025
THERE ARE SO MANY GREAT THINGS that we do in the MCG that one newsletter is just not enough to cover them all. I want to continue praising our Club. How about the Garden Walk in June! I did not get to go to all the sites but the ones that I went to were very interesting and informative. I really enjoyed going to Sherene Williamson’s small “farm”. I had a lesson on using space more effectively and so appreciated the fresh eggs and plants that she gave the visitors.
THE MGC YOUTH GARDEN was very impressive and it warmed my heart to see what Monika Hannemann, the families, and the children do. Kristopher Butcher’s roof top garden was also very impres- sive. Divya Gupta was very generous in showing us around her garden too. Mindy Greenspan did a great job finding all those gardens for us to visit!
OCTOBER IS ONE OF MY favorite months. The days are still warm but you get to wear all those cozy sweaters and jackets when it is cooler. October is still a good time to work in the garden. You can spread grass seeds, move plants, and add mulch in anticipation of the next growing season. I am going to try to add mulch in the fall because I am so tired of weeding and spring is such a busy time so I want to get ahead of things.
OCTOBER IS ALSO A GOOD TIME to assess what did well in your garden and what didn’t do well. I have to reconsider
Sherene’s chickens where my shade plants are since a tree in my neighbor’s yard died and now they are not in the shade.
I LET A LOT OF THINGS GO THIS SUMMER due to personal reasons so now I have to get going! I had good success with the runner bean seeds that I got from David. The flowers are lovely. There were a lot of bees on them and the beans were plentiful and tasty. I tossed some 3 or 4 year old Amaranth seeds in the veggie garden and they grew so well. I am not sure if I will harvest the grain but the flowers are amazing. This has not been a good year for my raspberries. Maybe I should have watered them more or maybe the canes just got old and new ones aren’t producing yet. My blueberry bush produced a lot of blueberries but I didn’t get to eat them. I covered them in netting but twice a catbird got stuck in the netting and I had to free it. I was going away for a few days so I took the netting off and let the catbirds have a party while I was away. Oh well… birds have to eat too.
I AM LOOKING FORWARD to Liz Demkin’s wreath making workshop and I plan on making some time to weed the garden by the children’s library in Maplecrest Park. Maybe I will even bring more plants to put in the beds there. Remember, we are looking for people to help with our community gardens. Have a great October everyone and keep on gardening.
~ Virginia Nordberg
president@maplewoodgardenclub.org
