We hope your Holidays were filled. with joy, happiness and good will! And. may this New Year be filled with hope. and blessings!

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1 WAGC Oct 2012.docx President s Message By Janet Schulz Contents: Page 3 Next Meeting: Wednesday January 16@ 9:30AM Page 4 Dates to Remember Page 2 Page 5 Growing our Club Page 5 Out and About Page 5-6 Chore of the Month Page 7 Cuttings + Happy New Year! We hope your Holidays were filled with joy, happiness and good will! And may this New Year be filled with hope Our President, Janet, gave each of us gifts of Paperwhite bulbs which I am in the process of forcing to bloom. I ll let and blessings! Our WAGC had a you know how it goesj There are wonderful Holiday gathering last month with so many treats and delicacies. We had a very nice time sharing and spending time together! many interesting and informative programs planned for our Garden Club for 2013! Come join us and see! more on 2

2 Cross Roads We come to that time of year in our lives that we need to look back as well as forward. By looking back we can see where we have been, what we have done and what we have left undone. Did we do what we really wanted? Was it the best we could do? Would we do it again? These are just a few questions we ought to be asking ourselves as we approach the New Year. If we are not happy with our answers to these questions we then have some work cut out for ourselves. Sure we all make resolutions that we really believe will help us thru the year ahead. They usually last a week or maybe two but they re one we ought to be making and keeping. It is to be the best we can be, don t put off doing the things you love to do, accept the things we cannot change, love life and do all this with a smile. You will be glad you did. Happy New Year! Janet 2

3 Upcoming Meeting Next Meeting: Wednesday January 9:30am at McFaul s (Environmental Center) Arrive 9:30am to socialize, program begins at 10:00am. NOTE: This is a morning meeting and at a different location Program: This and That in the Garden Speaker: Janet Schulz Explore the possibilities of art and water in the garden. Janet will share the basics of creating a fountain/water feature for your garden or patio. Also, Janet will highlight adding art as focal points for year round interest and structure. Please Note: This meeting is taking place in the meeting room at the James McFaul Environmental Center on Crescent Ave. in Wyckoff. Hostesses for the January meeting: Sue Gurak, Sally Ditton, Margaret Davies, Deb Fisk, Ginny Fleming Just a reminder hostesses are expected to come early to set up and stay after to clean up. 3

4 + Dates to Remember: Garden Club Board Meeting on Monday January 7, at McFauls Environmental Center Crescent Avenue, Wyckoff Our first Board Meeting of the year. All Board members please attend as there will be many relevant issues discussed. Looking Ahead: Our next meeting will be on February 20 th at 9:30am at McFaul s Environmental Center. The topic is Edible Weeds by Tama Matsuoka, author of Foraged Flavor. 4

5 GROWING OUR CLUB Remember to bring guests to our Monthly meetings! All are welcome. Out and About Holiday Train Show Etiam eu ipsum. November 17, 2012-January Donec ac arcu. 13, at New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx NY All-Garden Pass tickets for the Holiday Train Show start at $20 for Adults and $10 for Kids See January 19- Landscape Design at Skylands See New Jersey - sodales. Botanical Gardens From awaytogarden.com Visit the website for additional information. Chore of the Month the january garden chores: 2013 I M LIKE A KID UNDER A CHRISTMAS TREE, though what I can t wait to sit down on the living room floor and open aren t gifts, but all the 2013 seed catalogs. Their arrival ushers in another garden year and with the browsing comes dreaming (maybe not of sugar plums, but oh, all those new varieties) and also concrete planning involved in getting ready for the season ahead. That s what fills our little list of January garden chores, and yes, I promise, a couple of other tasks like pruning, weather permitting will involve time outdoors. Shall we begin again then officially, together? Happy New Year, friends, and here we go: (continued) 5

6 Wyckoff Area Garden Club Chore of the Month January 2013 One step before any temptation at impulse buying: Take a mental spin through your 2012 garden (or even better, review notes or photos if you have them; if you didn t make/take any, resolve to keep records this year). Make a list of anything you want to do more or less or just plain differently, that you want to keep in mind before cataloginduced temptation (and then spring fever) takes hold. (My garden resolutions list is here.) Some possibilities: Do you want to mow differently (as I plan to), or invite more birds to the landscape (here s how to create a habitat garden), or what about adding water to the backyard picture, whether inground or simply an easy, seasonal trough like this? Is there a season (perhaps winter?) that needs some added interest, or a crop you wish you d enjoyed over a longer time period, not just a single harvest (example: did you need a more heat-tolerant spinach)? Plan your shopping accordingly! seeds FIRST, TREAT YOURSELF to some new catalogs (or their online counterparts), and maybe a new garden notebook or journal, too. NEXT, INVENTORY LEFTOVER SEEDS, whether by checking my Seed Viability Chart and/or doing germination tests, to see what s still viable. Lately I ve been reading up on how not just viability (the ability to germinate) but also vigor (the ability to thrive after that) are at work; STORE KEEPERS of your leftover seed in a cool, dry place. A friend stashes his in the fridge, first sealing in zipper bags with the air squeezed out, then placing the bags in a sealed plastic box rather than have strays get lost among the yogurt and mayonnaise. houseplants KEEP AN EYE OUT for signs of houseplant pests like spider mites, mealybugs and scale insects. If tackled before they get out of hand, nonchemical methods are usually successful: a simple shower, insecticidal soap spray (as directed on label) or with the most tenacious (like mealybugs) sometimes an alcohol swab and Q-tip. Overwatering is the biggest risk to houseplants in winter go easy. I DON T FEED in the low-light months, but by late January or early February, as plants begin to notice slightly longer days, I resume by feeding them weekly and weakly (halfstrength dilute organic liquid every week or so). 6

7 Forcing Paperwhite Bulbs to Bloom: from younghouselove.com. Step 1: Get it together. Need 3-5 paperwhite bulbs- also Cuttings called Narcissus ; some river rocks or pebbles; and a clear glass vase. Step 2: Lay the foundation. Use about half of your river rocks to line the bottom of the vase to create a nice little bed for the bulbs to rest on. The idea is that the rocks will elevate the bulbs about an inch or two so their roots have room to grow. Step 3: Add your bulbs. Add the bulbs to your little rock garden securely. It s important that your bulbs still remain Step 4: Just add water. Add just a bit of water so that the very base of the bulbs (where the tiny roots live) are submerged. The idea here is that the water line just kisses the very tip of the bulb, while the rest of it sits well above the water line on the rocks. Step 5: Wait. Maintain the water line and place your vase in a sunny spot and wait patiently for three to four weeks. elevated, so make sure they re not pushed against the bottom of the vase, which doesn t give their roots any room. Wyckoff Area Garden Club Visit our website: By Anna Abma, member WAGC