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www.dagc.us Newsletter of the Danville-Alamo Garden Club January 2017

The Flower Pot Volume XLIII Issue 5

“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—

A homely home and simple pleasures….” J K Jerome

January----this is the month I do not want to garden! I want to embrace my Danish roots and fully appreciate what the Danes call “hygee”, pronounced hoo-gah. This is an attitude toward life that helps Denmark to be the world’s happiest country. It’s a philosophy, a way of life that the Danes understand of simplicity, slowing down the pace of life. Being kind to yourself and to others, creating warm cozy spaces, enjoying good food, good friends. It’s about simplicity.

A few years ago I read Sarah Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance, a book of essays, one for each day of the year. In her book, Sarah stresses expressing gratitude and urges people to follow the rhythm of the seasons and savor daily life. This resonated with me, as I have always loved (and used on my business newsletters!) a quote by Thoreau—to live in each season and enjoy the blessings of each. Breathnach’s book has been a guide to many, helping them find a way to live a more contented life. Here is an excerpt from the book:

“January—and now let us welcome the New Year, full of things that have never been before. January is the month of new beginnings and cherished memories. Come, let winter weave her wondrous spell---all of nature is at peace. We should be too. Draw hearthside. This is the month to dream, to look forward to the year ahead and journey within.”

Another book dealing with this subject is Plain and Simple by Sue Bender who was intrigued with the beauty of Amish quilts and went to live for a while with an Amish family. She learned about quilts, but more importantly, she experienced the rhythm of their world and how they found simple joy in doing what they do well. She contemplates what really matters in life, what makes it fulfilling.

Simple pleasures—little joys—are so important for it seems they reaffirm the very sweetness of life. It’s good to take stock of these, perhaps keep a daily gratitude journal, or just take time to contemplate the things that bring you “simple pleasures”. As life becomes more complicated and complex , the simple pleasures become even more enjoyable.

Flowers always are a source of pleasure, so I am anticipating the January 12th meeting and floral arranging program by Fringe Flowers. Sarah and Jeanne are two delightful young women who embrace the concept of simplicity by their holistic business approach—using locally grown flowers, recycled and vintage containers. Their creative talent has made them a dynamic presence on the local “flower scene”. Check out their creations on-line, but more importantly, come to the January meeting and bring a friend!

In the meantime, curl up with a good book ( or flower seed/bulb catalog), make a cup of herbal tea, light a candle, listen to music, make a list of simple pleasures. Oh, and I trust that you did plant the green daffodil bulb that was such a delightful favor from the December holiday lunch, given in memory of one of our most beloved members, Jan Hamby. Thanks again to Susan Polk and her team who created such a delightful musical-themed event.

I will leave you with the words from a song written in 1848, “Simple Gifts” by Joseph Bracket, member of a Shaker community. This simple song has been adapted many times by singers and composers, featured in movies. A classical version was recently recorded by YoYo Ma on cello with Alison Krauss as vocalist. A “simple” song indeed!

“Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free, Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.

And when we find ourselves in the place just right, Twill be in the valley of love and delight

Tis the gift to be loving, tis the best gift of all, Like a quiet rain, it blesses where it falls.”

May you find “simple” ways to find solace, comfort and joy.

Remember the words of Robert Bravet:

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may realize they were the big things.”

Rebecca Byrom

Inside this Issue: Page 1 President’s Message Page 2 Program, Social, Tours Page 3 Presidents Pot Pourri, Lunch Bunch, Workshop, Bookworms Page 4 Community Outreach, Product Produce, Food Bank, Plant Exchange, Birthdays, Friends Helping Friends Page 5 DAGC Website help, Facebook Page 6 Horticulture, Directories, Notices, Info. Page 7 Calendar Page 8 Sponsors

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TOURS

We are headed to Ouroboros Farms in Half Moon Bay on Thursday, January 26th. Our tour will be at 10:30 am. Wear comfortable shoes and warm clothing as we are on the coast.

Join us for an educational tour, as this is the largest industrial aquaponic installation in Northern California. We will have our own personal tour with the founder Ken Armstrong who will guide us through the whole process explaining how water and

fish fit together in a truly sustainable and chemical free process.

Everyone will receive a 4 oz bag of salad that was produced on the premises. Of course, there will also be seasonal vegetables to buy and take home.

Check out their website www.ouroborosfarms.com as they were featured on PBS and many news publications. It's really an

amazing operation.

We will car pool, please let me know if you can drive. Details and departure time will follow in an e-mail.

COST: $10.00 ( Make check payable to DAGC)

LUNCH: We will have lunch at Sam's Chowder House-a coastal favorite. Please bring cash for your lunch as larger groups are hard to accommodate with credit cards.

RSVP: Susan Polk. Mail your check to Susan by, Tuesday, January 17th.

Susan Polk & Rhonda Raphel, Tour Chairs

PROGRAMS

The Fringe Flower Company on Newell Avenue in Walnut Creek take their flowers seriously, using locally grown flowers and greens whenever possible. They often work with recycled containers and are earth friendly and socially conscious, composting and delivering left over florals to community groups. Sarah Ellis and Jeanne Walker, founding partners, feel it's good for the environment, good for the community and good for the soul.

The two friends met while working at a local flower shop and hit it off immediately. Both spent their youth outdoors knee-deep in flower and vegetable gardens right here in the Bay Area.

With twenty years of experience between them, Sarah and Jeanne create exquisite floral designs. See for yourself by viewing their floral gallery on their website, fringe flowers.com. They will demonstrate their artistry at our January meeting, and their floral arrangements will be raffled. Lucky us!

Patty Dobbin—Program VP

From the Social VP

Happy New 2017 to everyone! I will be contacting all of you who volunteered to bring goodies for the January

meeting so don’t worry if you can’t remember which month you signed up for….the signup sheets for future

months will be at the meeting.

Just a quick reminder that we are responsible for putting the chairs away at the end of our meetings. All the tables

are left for the janitor to deal with. The Social Team thanks you in advance for your help at the end of each

meeting!

Linda Scotting Social VP

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BOOKWORMS The historical novel, A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London’s Flower Sellers will be discussed on Wednesday, January 18

th.

New York Times Best Selling Author, Hazel Gaynor has written a novel that takes place in Victorian London, where wealth and poverty exist side by side. This novel tells the story of two young Irish girls who struggle to stay alive and support themselves with the small amounts they earn hawking flowers among the street traders in London's Covent Garden. Gaynor explores how Victorian Philanthropy addressed the poverty, neglect, and need that they saw around them in London during the later stages of the Industrial Revolution. Come join the conversation at Jan Anderson’s home. We will meet from 10:00 AM until 12:00 noon. Sign up at the January General Meeting or email Darlene Guzman Space is limited to 12 DAGC members.

Darlene Guzman and Jan Anderson — Bookworm Chairs

JANUARY PRESIDENT’S POTPOURRI

Join me on January 17, 9:30 AM, at Cherubini

Coffee House in Alamo, where we will embrace the

concept of hygee in the cozy atmosphere, have a cup

of hot tea or coffee, and enjoy the social interchange

among fellow gardeners. Since this is the time for

enjoying “indoor” pursuits, such as reading and

sewing—making sachets—I will show you how to

make ribbon roses to adorn sachets, or even use as

pin. RSVP by January 10.

Rebecca Byrom, President

Lunch Bunch Lunch Bunch is always lots of fun! Do sign up and get to know members a little bit more! We shall try again at Almanac on Hartz Avenue in down town Danville. Please call or email me by Monday, January 9th

so I may make reservations. We will go to the restaurant immediately after the meeting.

I hope to see you there!

Joyce M.

I love you once,

I love you twice,

I love chicken soup with Rice!

Author unknown

WORKSHOP

Who knew that zinnias would be hiding right on the bottom side of a perfectly regular pine cone? And the things you could make are ever so many. From centerpieces to wreaths and beyond, they sit perfectly in a bowl. The options are endless.

Join us on Thursday, January 26, at 10:00 am at the home of Judy Lauper. The cost is $20. Signups at the January meeting or by mailing your check to Judy Lauper.

If you have any questions just email me.

Judy Lauper

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COMMUNITY OUTREACH COMMUNITY OUTREACH WILL MEET ON FEBRUARY 16TH WHEN WE WILL GO TO FOREST HOMES FARM.

YOU CAN SIGN-UP FOR THAT NOW BY CONTACTING CHARLOTTE by Email. SEE YOU IN FEBRUARY if not before!

Charlotte Graham - Community Outreach Chair

PROJECT PRODUCE - PLEASE

NOTE! We will be re-starting our donations to the Food Bank at the January meeting. If you find you bought to much over the holidays please consider donating it.

PLANT EXCHANGE

Are you tidying your garden? Have you found any ‘volunteer seedlings’ that need a home? Our plant exchange starts up again in January, so bring your ‘extras’ in. If you would like to take something from the table but didn’t bring anything, just make a donation. Funds collected go towards the Installation Luncheon. If your donation is not taken by someone else, please remember to pick it up at the end of the meeting and take it home.

Thank you Jan Andersen &

Angie Anastasion

January Food Bank Visit

JOIN US AGAIN AT THE FOOD BANK ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 26TH FROM 1-3 PM.

THE ADDRESS IS 4010 NELSON AVE. CONCORD.

WE WILL TALK ABOUT CAR POOLING AFTER SIGN-UPS. THEY ALWAYS NEED HELP AND WE ENJOY HELPING THEM.

CONTACT CHARLOTTE via email to sign up.

Charlotte

FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS

As part of our Garden Club community we like to be able to help our members

when they are sick or in need of assistance when necessary.

There are members in need of help at present, so if you feel you can spare some

time, please contact Tena Gallagher and offer your services.

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!!! A Happy New Year AND a Happy Birthday to our

January ladies Our Best Wishes go to…….

Jackie Acton, Arlene Chang, Pat Foley, Lorraine Frey,

Kathy Gilcrest, Marie Hill, Victoria Polivka,

Sharyn Rossi, Nancy Schneider,

Jean Struble, Susan Terzuoli,

Helene Twyford, Katie Washom

and Kathy Younse.

Have a fabulous year ladies.

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“What’s Hiding in the DAGC Website?” — Part 5: Final Chapter

By Nancy Norland, Web Administrator

This month's article will wrap up our tour of the website. The last 3 menu selections are Sponsors, Photos, and Contact Us.

Have you checked out the DAGC

Facebook Page?

Last month a Facebook page was created for the club.

We will use this space to post information that you will find

interesting, but not critical. Instead of sending an email blast for garden related topics that are "nice-to-know", we'll

put that information on our Facebook page. Information that is "necessary-to-know", will still be published in our

newsletter and send out via email blast, if appropriate.

If you are a Facebook user, you can LIKE the Danville Alamo Garden Club. If you are not a Facebook user,

you should be able to view most things that appear on that page by following this link or pasting it into the web

address bar:

https://www.facebook.com/danvillealamogardenclub/

Facebook will offer you a screen to Login or SignUp for Facebook, but you can ignore that screen. Enjoy!

Nancy Norland

DAGC Webmaster

Sponsors - Shows a list of the the Garden Centers that generously provide us with free plants for our monthly raffles. You can see their locations and any special offers they provide to DAGC members.

Contact Us - Has links to send email to key people within DAGC. Click on any of the links to start an email that you complete and send from your personal email account:

Club President

Membership VP

Newsletter Editor

Email Coordinator

Site Administrator

Suggestions? Questions?

This menu choice will open a page on the DAGC website that has a link for the DAGC Photo web-site. Click on that link to open: dagcphotos.weebly.com

The DAGC photo website has its own menu system with these major categories:

Home - returns to the main page of the photo website

Meetings - shows photos from our monthly meetings

Events - shows photos from our club events

Workshops/Tours - shows photos from any club workshops or tours

Community Outreach - shows photos from community outreach activities DAGC Archives - shows photos from the club's past in the 1970's Hold your mouse over any of these categories to see sub-categories. Click on a subcategory to see the photos for that page. You will see a large photo with one or more small thumbnail photos below it. Click on any of the thumbnails to see that photo or click on the large photo to see these icons near the top of the photo:

Click on the Play icon to have the photos automatically advance from one to the next. Click on the Left or Right arrow icons to move to the previous or next photo.

Photos

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Master Gardener Hotline 9 am – 12 noon M-Th Telephone: 925-646-6586 Email: ccmg@ucanr.edu Website:http://ccmg.ucanr.edu Facebook: www.facebook.com/CoCoMasterGardeners Contra Costa Master Gardeners University of California Cooperative Extension 75 Santa Barbara Rd., Second Floor Pleasant Hill, CA 94532-4215

Check out the Calscape.com site from the

California Native Plant Society 344 native plants suitable for the

garden, nicely categorized and with

horticultural information

SUMMER 2017 INSTALLATION LUNCHEON

THANKYOU!

BUT NO MORE CORKS PLEASE

You have made merry and we have collected beyond

our needs. Many thanks and Cheers

Sharon Williams and Sandi Stamates—Installation

Lunch Chairs

Dear Members, If you have articles that would be of interest for our members, please submit them to me by email using our website link, by the 3rd Thursday of the month.

Sharon Townsend—Newsletter Editor

2016-2017

Directories Dear Members,

I still have quite a few directories

in my possession. Please contact

me to arrange pick up of your

copy to find out what activities

the DAGC year has to offer.

If any errors are found, please let

our membership ladies know and

we shall update the records.

Thank you, Sharon Townsend

Directory Chair

Email me using our website

link as shown on page 5.

HORTICULTURE

We have had some amazing rain this fall and early winter. By the time you read this we will have received over a third of the normal

rainfall in Danville. Historically we have gotten most of our rain in January and February, but in the last few years since the drought started

those months have been very dry.

I am currently working on a project in Dublin. There is a steep hillside in the back and a road above the hillside. People can walk by and

look directly into the yard. The owner wanted to screen the yard from the street above with trees. The hillside is so steep, and the owner is

getting older, and so the garden plan had to solve two criteria, long term no water, since it was going to be started with drip irrigation and

inevitably that system fails, and relatively quick fill in growth so that weeds would not overcome the hill, since she no longer can get up

there to clean up the hill.

The man I work with was surprised that I went and bought the trees to plant in November, because he had not hooked up the irrigation.

However, I knew we were going to get rain at least in the fall, and that the roots of the ultimately dry growing trees would connect more

securely with every rain. The ground was already quite wet, and I told him that we wanted to be sure that we didn’t get caught in the

January “dry” of the last few years.

This leads me to tell you that with climate change no one knows what the weather pattern in California is going to be. It seems right now

that the biggest impact on our weather is what is happening in the Arctic. The fact that this fall it was registering temperatures 35 Degrees

above normal is playing havoc with worldwide weather. It is changing the jet stream’s behavior and no one knows what to expect

anywhere. So how can we plan?

Although this is not a sure fire thing my current strategy, besides looking at my weather App 6 times per day, is that as soon as we have

had 5 inches of rain in the fall to start planting. Now more than ever fall is for planting. The soil is still warm, and although you see no

action on top of the plant the roots are very busy growing and developing reserves for the big spring push. Established roots means the

plants don’t need as much water to survive. So this is an ideal strategy when experiencing drought. Other advantages, it is much cooler

and plants don’t transpire as much as they do in the spring.

The hardest part for you as a gardener is accepting that you are not getting that immediate gratification of pretty flowers. But the sacrifice

is minimal when compared to the long term glory you will have in the spring and summer.

Kristin Yanker-Hansen —Horticultural Chair

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Dates & Times Events Details

January 5, Thursday 9:30 am

DAGC Board Meeting At the home of Sandi Stamates

January 12th, Thursday 9:15am

DAGC General Meeting Alamo Women’s Club

Join us for ‘Flower Arranging’ with Sarah Ellis & Jeanne Walker of the Fringe Flower Company, in Walnut Creek. See page 2.

January 12, Thursday Following the DAGC Meeting

Lunch Bunch

Join us at Almanac on Hartz Avenue in downtown Danville. Please call or email me by Monday, January 9th so I may make reservations. Joyce Michalczyk. See page 3.

January 14, Saturday 12:00pm

Sloat Nurseries

Seminar: Fruit Tree Pruning 101

Danville (Diablo Rd)

Elizabeth Ruiz, garden designer, aesthetic pruner and teacher. It’s important to know how / when to prune for disease resistance and fruit production. Elizabeth’s classes are a must for all skill levels. Register in advance. Free for Rewards Members. $10 for nonmembers (membership is free!) 925-743-0288.

January 17, Tuesday 9:30am

Presidents Pot Pourri Come see a Ribbon Rose Demonstration at Cherubini Coffee House, Alamo. RSVP by Jan 10, to Rebecca. See page 3

January 18, Wednesday 10:00am-12:00pm

DAGC Bookworms

At the home of Jan Anderson where the book A Memory of Violets: A Novel of London’s Flower Sellers will be discussed. Please contact Darlene. See page 3

January 18,Wednesday 10:30am

Orchard Nursery Lafayette You CAN Garden For Life!

Do you love to garden and don’t want to give it up? This seminar educates gardeners on how to modify their gardens, adapt their tools and re-think how and when they garden, enabling them to garden for life without pain. The seminar is free, but please call 925-284-4474 to reserve your seat!

January 26, Thursday 10:00am

DAGC Workshop

Pinecone Flowers

Join us at the home of Judy Lauper to make Pinecone flowers. Cost $20. Signups at the January meeting or by mailing your check payable to DAGC to Judy Lauper. For any questions, please email Judy. See page 3.

January 26, Thursday 1:00-3:00pm

Community Outreach Helping at the Contra Costa

Food Bank

Once more we will visit the Food Bank. Please sign up for event by emailing Charlotte Graham. See page 4.

January 26, Thursday 10:30am

Tours Come tour Ouroboros Farm, Half Moon Bay, to see Aquaponic Farming. See page 2. RSVP by Jan 17th to Susan Polk

January 28, Saturday 8:00am-11:00am

Ruth Bancroft Garden Botanical Photography

Become an expert in botanical photography. Bring your camera, tripod (if you have one) and camera manual. Free for Members of the RBG- please call the office to register. $20 General Admission. Check RBG Website for further details

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The Flower Pot

Sharon Townsend ~ Editor Danville–Alamo Garden Club P.O. Box 920 Danville, CA 94526

Please support our sponsors! Remember, our commercial sponsors donate the

door prizes, and/or offer discounts, and they

support us with speakers for our general meetings.

Please support them!

Joan Hines, Joanne Nelson, Jenny Offringa

Sponsor Reps

Our Sponsors

Ace Hardware

3211 Danville Blvd., Alamo, CA,94507 (925) 837-2420

Annie’s Annuals & Perennials

740 Market Ave., Richmond, CA 94801

510-215-3301 or 888-266-4370

Armstrong Garden Center

7360 San Ramon Road, Dublin, CA 94568

925-551-0231

Lucky Garden Dublin Hydroponics

7071 Village Pkwy, Dublin, CA 94568

(925) 828-4769

Orchard Nursery

4010 Mt. Diablo Blvd.,

Lafayette, CA 94549

925-284-4474.

Regan Nursery

4268 Decoto Road, Fremont, CA 94555

510-797-3222

Ruth Bancroft Garden

1552 Bancroft Road,

Walnut Creek, CA 94598

925-944-9352

Sloat Garden Center

828 Diablo Road, Danville, CA 94526

925-743-0288

800 Camino Ramon, Danville CA 94526

925-837-9144