Regular Monthly Meeting
Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

The LAVGC monthly meeting is at the Alisal Elementary School multipurpose room, 1454 Santa Rita Road, Pleasanton, CA 94566.

Succulent Tidbits from Around the World - Peter Beiersdorfer, speaker

Succulents come in many different varieties, such as stem, leave, and root succulents, and are as varied as the places in which they grow. Peter Beiersdorfer will introduce plants from around the world, including regions rarely thought of as being home to succulent plants. He will discuss succulents in habitat from the Rhine Valley of Germany, the Swiss Alps, the Cape Floral Region of South Africa, the highest mountain of Spain, the badlands of Argentina, and islands off the coast of North Carolina. Each region has its own specialty, such as aeonium forests, sea of flowering bulbs, creepy cacti, wildflower meadows, the world's largest quiver tree forest (Aloidendron dichotomum aka Aloe dichotoma), and massive baobab trees (Adansonia digitata). It's a talk not to be missed. Peter will also bring some of his plants for sale.

Visitors Are Welcome!

Please join us at the monthly meeting or contact us at the Contacts link above. Please take a moment to fill out the Membership Application Form for Fiscal Year July 2018 through June 2019. Membership dues for February 1, 2019 through June 30, 2019 are half the regular dues.

For more information about membership or dues, please email Wanda Finn.

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Members Only section

Check out the Members Only section. Click on the 'Members Only' menu selection on any page, enter the Id and password. The Members Only section contains the club Yearbook, speaker video links, club forms, newsletter archives, meeting minutes and more. Members may email the Co-Presidents to obtain the Id and password.

Thanks, thanks and more thanks

Thanks to all who participate in the club workshops, work parties and providing meeting refreshments. > > More

Talks on Video

If you missed our meeting speakers' informative talk, you can see the video of the talk on the club website Members Only section. Most of our recent club meeting talks are on view there.

Day Tour - Calif. Historical Nursery and Shinn Park

Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 9:30 AM - 3 PM. Leave From Raleys Parking lot in Pleasanton

We will visit the California Nursery Historical Park and Shinn Historical Park and Arboretum in Niles/Fremont. The California Nursery Historical Park is a 21 acre remnant of the large California Nursery Company, which was established as an experimental station in Niles in 1865. It specialized in ornamentals, fruit and palms trees. It supplied trees to the 1894 International Exhibition in Golden Gate Park, the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exhibition in the SF, and the 1939-40 Exposition at Treasure Island. We will also see the 1842 Vallejo Adobe, located within the park. The nearby and smaller Shinn Park includes a Victorian house dating from 1876 (we won't be able to get into the house) surrounded by large trees and gardens. Here we plan to focus on the George Kato Memorial Garden, a small Japanese garden surrounded by a protective flying dragon citrus hedge. Between visiting the two parks we will eat lunch in Niles. This local trip will meet at Raley's in Pleasanton (across from the Senior Center), leaving at 9:30AM to carpool to Niles. We plan to be back at Raley's by 3:00.

Please sign up at the meeting or RSVP Gayle Pawloski. For more information, contact Gayle. See the LAVGC Yearbook for Gayle's additional contact information.

Help Still Needed. Can you help out the club?

Reception Committee needs greeters for guests and to take new member's applications.

Publicity and Hospitality need to have backup help with the committees.

None of these require you to get up in front of people or organize things. These positions are so helpful and a great way to get involved on a small scale with the club!

Historian Position Open

The historian may redefine how we keep records in the new world of digital photos and on-line records. We are looking for someone interested in evaluating how we record our history of the year and developing guidelines for now and the future. If you are creative and familiar with the digital and online worlds - this may be just the spot for you!

Please contact Debra Caldwell, Vice President of Meetings and Organization, if you are interested in serving on any of these committees or position. See the LAVGC Yearbook for Debra's contact information.

2019 Plant Sale - Saturday, April 6, 2019

As most of you know by now, Saturday April 6, 2019 has been confirmed for the next Plant Sale in the parking lot of Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton. We will generally follow the same plan and organization as last year with a few changes in specific areas for improvements as suggested by many of you who worked at the 2018 Plant Sale.

At the October Garden Club meeting we will have a supply of plastic pots in various sizes as well as labels cut from mini blinds. Please take whatever supplies you anticipate needing. We encourage members to continue propagation efforts at home, including stem cuttings of shrubby plants and succulents as well as division of perennials. Another type of propagation is layering of plants that have pliable stems that grow close to the ground. These are partially buried in the soil to develop roots and later severed from the mother plant. All of these propagation methods take time to form an independent plant and to grow this new plant to a suitable size to sell at the Plant Sale. That is why we urge you to start well in advance.

We have retained most of the organizing committee from the 2018 Plant Sale and have added some new members to form the 2019 Plant Sale organizing committee. We still need some people to serve as "plant champions" in one or more of the ornamental plant categories: annuals, sun perennials, shade plants, roses, trees and shrubs, succulents, California natives and drought tolerant plants, and house plants.

Please contact the Plant Sale Chairmen Bill Tallon and Daniel McCright, if you are interested in serving on the organizing committee or if you have questions about the plant sale. See the LAVGC Yearbook for their additional contact information.

Do you want to be a Master Gardener?

What are Alameda County Master Gardeners? They are UC trained garden lovers tasked with spreading gardening knowledge to the public. Do you love gardening whether food or landscaping and do you like to give back, help people, share your knowledge with others in the community? Consider becoming a Master Gardener. The next 16 week training class will start next January. For the first time the classes will be held in the Tri-Valley.

If interested, signup at AC Master Gardener class. Orientation meetings for the application process (only 40 or so are accepted for each class) will start in September.

The City of Pleasanton has allotted the Master Gardener program a parcel to start a new educational/demonstration garden on the Bernal property. Get involved now to become a part of it at the ground floor.

Make A Difference Day - Assistance needed

The club has participated in Pleasanton's Make a Difference Day for several years. The event is held on a Saturday in January at the Pleasanton Library. The Club is provided a table where they may arrange an attractive garden related display as well as printed material telling the public about the Club. Two members usually staff the table to relate to the public and answer questions from 10 until 2 p.m. Set -up begins at 9 a.m. If you believe this is a project you would like to tackle, please step forward. It is a one time a year event that requires some planning, but is not intense. Members have been more than willing to help and staff the table.

Please contact Lois Barber or Dolores Bengtson if you are willing to assume this task or help.

Pleasanton Library Display Case Project Seeks Creative Hands

The club has requested use of the Pleasanton Library display case for the month of March of next year. While we have not been assured we have the case at this time, we hope to hear by the end of the year. The club has placed a garden related display in the library case for two years. It offers an opportunity to highlight the activities of the Club while promoting gardening. We are seeking a chair for this once a year project. It offers anyone with creative ideas an opportunity to use that skill. Other than making sure you provide a place for a Plant Sale sign, the chair and those helping may choose what they want to include in the display.

Please contact Lois Barber or Dolores Bengtson if you are interested in leading or helping with this project.

Penny Pines Plantation Donation to Honor First Responders

Through the years the members of our garden club have been very generous through donations to the Penny Pines box circulated at each meeting. We have purchased 143 plantations in honor of current and former club members as well as donations to honor the first responders for 9/11 relief, as well as others in our community.

We have also participated in the Arbor Day celebration for last two years in partnership with Alden Lane, The California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers, and Davey Expert Tree Company to purchase a plantation for each of eight Pleasanton elementary schools. They are presented during an Arbor Day training session presented by club members.

At our September meeting the club voted to donate 10 plantations to honor the first responders to the many recent fires in our beautiful state. A vote was taken to choose the two forests where we would donate 5 plantations each. By popular vote we decided to send 5 plantations to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Redding, CA and 5 to the Mendocino National Forest in Porterville, CA.

Jeri Stark is chairman and will work with each location to see that the First Responders are made aware of this donation from the Livermore Amador Valley Garden Club made possible by your donations to the Penny Pine box each month. (ed. note: so remember to be generous when the box comes around!)

Diablo College Horticulture Plant Sale

Diablo College Horticulture Plant Sale, October 26 and 27, Fri. 3 - 6 PM and Sat. 9 to 1 PM, 321 Golf Club Rd., Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, parking lot 9. For more info go to DVC Horticulture.

Yearbooks will be available at the October meeting

Don't Forget to Pickup your YEARBOOK at the meeting - or have a neighbor do it! Be sure you get the one with your name on it!

You can also get ones for friends or neighbors that can't attend the meeting and save us postage. It costs almost a dollar each to mail them out so please pick yours up or arrange for someone to pick it up for you at the meeting.