From the President:
Dear Ladies:
Outside, it’s snowing, and there are a multitude of little footprints around my feeder: squirrel, sparrow of all kinds, junco, cardinal, and chickadee. And darting in and out and consuming great quantities of seed are the greedy blue jays and flickers. A typical active, barren, winter scene. Inside, at the GCBB Greenhouse, however, it is abuzz with growth and greenery. All manner of plants, with the attentive nurturing of the GH committee, are actively prepping and primping, 
readying themselves for their Big Day in the limelight – Plant Sale Day, May 11. It will be a very busy spring for all of us, starting with a shortened Backyard Botany, April 23-25; the Plant Sale, May 11; and the GCA Post Trip May 20 and 21. If you haven’t 
already signed up to volunteer for the Post Trip, please do so at www.gcamerica.org. Sign in, click on “Zone Pages” then click “Zone I.” Scroll down to “AM 2019 Zone I Volunteer Resources” and click on “AM2019 Volunteer Registration Link.” If you’ve already signed up you can view or edit your registration at “My Registrations” under your name at the top. Many committees have meetings ahead, and after all of May’s activities we get a breather before convening once again before summer at our own Annual Meeting, June 20.
Ruth Jolliffe
Calendar
March
Tuesday, March 5 — 10:30 a.m. Gardens Committee (Civic and Boxwood combined) meets in the Coach House at RJD. We will update our garden maintenance plans and our role in GCA visit to RJD gardens in May.
Wednesday, March 6 – 10 a.m. GCA Post Trip meets at Carolyn Willards, 32 Grinnell Rd., South Dartmouth. Questions, call Ellen Christie.
Tuesday, March 19 – 10:30 a.m. after GH, Executive Committee meets in Coach House
Tuesday, March 19 – 10:30 a.m. Plant Sale Committee meeets, location TBD.
Thursday, March 21 —10:30 a.m. Monthly meeting at the Southworth Library, Dartmouth. Mark Rasmussen of the Buzzards Bay Coalition will speak. Guests are encouraged.
Tuesday, March 26 – 10:00. Program Committee meets in the Coach House.
Wednesday, March 27 – 10:30 a.m. Committee Chairs, Coach House
April
Wednesday, April 3 – 10 a.m. Garden History and Design Committee meets in the Coach House
Tuesday, April 16 – 10:30 Executive Committee meets in Coach House
Thursday, April 18 – Monthly meeting is a road trip to Arnold Arboretum. Details below.
Monday, April 22 – 9 a.m. Backyard Botany orientation.
Tuesday — Thursday, April 23-25 — 9 a.m. to noon, Backyard Botany program. Tours for New Bedford fourth graders. Sign up on line.
May
Wednesday – Friday, May 8-10 – Plant Sale set-up at St. Mary Church Hall.
Saturday, May 11 – 9 a.m. Plant Sale at St. Mary’s Church Hall, Dartmouth Street. South Dartmouth.
Tuesday, May 14 – 10:30 Executive Committee meets in Coach House (Tentative)
May 20 and May 21 —CGA Annual Meeting Post Trip. We will be hosting 35 GCA members as they relish in the glories of the Southcoast. Dinners in members’ homes, transportation, etc. will be our responsibility. Details to come.
Horticulture
Horticulture Committee will meet several times in April and May to work on the GCBB New England Native Terrain Container garden for the GCA annual show. Stay tuned for dates/times.
—Susan McLaren
From Program
The GCBB April 18 meeting will be a visit to the Arnold Arboretum. Our speaker is Rosetta S. Elkin, a registered landscape architect in the Netherlands. She is currently Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and Faculty Associate at the Arnold Arboretum. Much of her work relates to innovative ecological responses to climate change. Transportation to the Arboretum will be on your own. Please get together with other members in your area and plan to carpool. In the interest of those of you who cannot drive or are not interested in driving into the city, Christine Dole will be making car pool
arrangements. Please contact Chris at christinedole@comcast.net or 508-221-4865 if you would like a ride. If you are interested in hiring a van, they are available for 7 or 10 people, but be prepared, they are pricey! Let Chris know if you would like to hire a van.
Founder’s Fund
At the GCBB March meeting you will be asked to vote on a Founder’s Fund project. The GCA Founder’s Fund Committee provides monetary Grants to projects in local communities proposed by GCA member clubs. Grants are given to 3 worthy projects consistent with the mission of the GCA in the areas of Horticulture, Education, Conservation, Civic, Historic Preservation and/or Research. The grants are funded through generous gifts from clubs and individuals. One grant is for $30,000 and two additional grants receive $10,000 each. Each member club has the privilege of voting for their finalist choice. In 1985 GCBB was awarded a grant of $15,000 to build the civic garden and woodland walk. Please check the GCA Bulletin or the GCA website for a complete description of the finalists projects and be prepared to vote for your first, second and third choices.
—Chris Dole
Editor’s Note: Part of the funds we raise at the plant sale every year goes into our grant program, where we give small grants, most in the $300-$500 range, to local organizations to promote the club’s goal. Our Sisters’ School has received several grants; the first to establish its garden beds.. The following article shows how a little bit of money can go a long way.
Gardens grow and grow at Our Sisters’ School
by Betsy Lawrence
Many of you are familiar with Our Sisters’ School (OSS), a grade 5-8 tuition free school for low income girls from New Bedford. The school has an amazing and dedicated faculty that rely on donations and grants to enhance their curriculum. In the past two years the school has built an “outdoor” classroom, so that the outdoors can be a big part of their focus, and this has been a great success. Both the students and their families participated in the preparations for and construction of the outdoor space and gardens, along with volunteers and the faculty. This past year at OSS, the outdoor classroom, as well as the science and art classrooms have benefitted from one of our grants, and they recently let us know of their progress.
OSS is of course, only in school Sept-May for the most part, not a huge part of the growing season, so they wanted to make the most of the time they have to plant in the spring. With our funds, with their amazing science teacher Jocelyn Mitchell leading the effort, they were able to purchase a small, portable “greenhouse” from a kit, and row covers. They were able to start plants from seed that they then transferred to their outdoor garden as they grew and the weather warmed up. Ms. Mitchell has really wanted them to be able to experience the scientific life of a plant from germination, and they were able to do this with this added equipment, and purchased seeds. In addition, cucumbers grown in the OSS garden were made into pickles by 8th graders learning about fermentation. The 7th grade planted an excellent crop of kale and lettuces in the spring, started under row covers. All the girls, not just those in the” OSS Garden Club” have the opportunity to work in the garden during lunchtime in warm weather- what a gift!
OSS also replenishes their garden with plants leftover from our May plant sale. Much of the contents of the OSS garden has come from GCBB! Our donated perennials are the cornerstone of the garden and any leftover annuals we supply them are planted in spring and grow all summer and keep the campus entryway bright and cheery! Ms Eugenio, their indefatigable art teacher even used dahlias and other plants in the garden as drawing subjects last fall.
The relationship between GCBB and OSS is a continuing one, and they are so grateful for the ability to build and grow their city garden, and learn, with the help of our crucial funding. The school encourages all GCBB members to stop by the school anytime and check out the Outdoor Classroom/gardens. OSS is located at 145 Brownell Ave, but the entrance and parking lot is actually on Hawthorne Street at the back of the Tifereth Isreal Synagogue. It’s worth a trip to have a look!
*****
From another grant recipient, the Buttonwood Park Zoo, come photos of
the installation of its “Charlie’s Place” a child’s sensory garden, named in honor
of the late Charles Winterhalter.
