Regular Monthly Meeting
Thursday, November 8, 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.

How Our Landscape practices affect our local ecosystems - Tora Rocha, speaker

Please join us for a presentation by Tora Rocha, curator of the Gardens at Lake Merritt, on "How our landscape practices are affecting our local ecosystems and how you can make a difference (with emphasis on pollinators)".

Holiday Boutique. Items for Fall, Thanksgiving, or Christmas are Especially Welcomed! Bring your leftover or no longer used holiday decorations or other holiday or fall related items to the November meeting for other members to purchase. Please bring items a bit early so they can be priced. There will not be a mini plant sale so please do not bring plants unless they are holiday related. Remember, you must take home any items you bring that did not sell.

Members are invited to attend a no-host dinner with the speaker at the Oasis Restaurant on Main St. in Pleasanton, at 5:30 p.m. prior to the meeting. Please contact Lori Martin by Tuesday, November 7 if you plan on attending. See the LAVGC Yearbook for Lori's contact information.

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.

2019 Plant Sale - Saturday, April 6, 2019

If you have not heard by now, the Plant Sale date is Saturday, April 6, 2019. At the November meeting, we will have a supply of labels and plastic container in various sizes for you to take home. We encourage you to continue propagating plants for next April, including division of clumps, stem cuttings, and seeds -- young plants to grow over the next several months so that they reach a salable size by next spring. Since Mother Nature should help us at this season, most plants can grow where they get as much sun as possible in the cool winter months ahead, plus some help in the watering department.

We have found people to serve on the Plant Sale Organizing Committee with one large exception. Debra Caldwell, who headed the Plant Assistants for Ornamentals, is moving from our area. Thus we need a person or persons to chair this area. As ornamentals compose over half the number of plants we usually sell, this is a big job, but it can be broken into a number of divisions, hence the call for persons. We usually have the following categories: 1. Annuals, 2. Sun Perennials, 3. Shade Plants (these are mostly perennials), 4. Succulents, 5. California Natives and Drought Tolerant (we usually combine these), 6. Trees, Shrubs, and Roses. On occasion, when we get a large number of plant donations from some other categories, such as Ornamental Grasses, or House Plants, we have created additional categories.

The main duty for the Plant Assistants chairs is to help our customers choose plants suitable for their tastes and garden exposure. They will need to be present during most of the hours of the plant sale. They will also be responsible for helping with the set-up and arranging the plants early on Saturday morning and attending the pricing parties on Friday. This year, Robyn Gade has graciously allowed her spacious back yard to be used so that we can organize and price the plants on Friday and place the plants in the same arrangement that will be used at the plant sale. This should greatly reduce the amount of effort on Saturday morning. Robyn's house is conveniently close to the Amador Valley High School parking lot and ultimately all of the plants will end up in her yard, even those dropped off in Livermore.

If you feel sufficiently willing and knowledgeable about a particular category and can act as a Plant Champion for that category, please come forward. We can combine and/or split up the categories to suit your wishes, Of course, later in the year we will call for volunteers to sign up to work a shift as a plant assistant to help you, but right now we need people to head up and organize the different categories of ornamental 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.

Penny Pines Plantation Donation to Honor First Responders Update

We are very lucky to on average collect an average of $50 a month at our 2nd Thursday evening meetings but have started out our current fiscal year by collecting $57.97 in September and a whopping $81.52 in October. Congratulations on a job well done. Your donations make a difference as shown by our ability to donate 5 plantations to the Mendocino National Forest and 5 to the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

We received a nice thank you from the Ann D. Carlson, the Forest Supervisor at the Mendocino National Forest. She writes:
"I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Livermore Amador Valley Garden Club on the 11th-15th donations in honor of Firefighters and First Responders who fought and helped in the recent California wildfires to the Penny Pines Restoration Program. Enclosed please find the certificates in commendation for your donation to Penny Pines. The Penny Pines donations will be sent to the Districts and utilized to reforest the area that burned in the Ranch Fire of 2018.

We are very fortunate to have you as one of our dedicated groups supporting the Penny Pines Program. On behalf of the Mendocino National Forest, thank you for your interest in the country's natural resources and you continued involvement in our restoration efforts."

In addition to the Firefighters and First Responders we also made a donation to the Stanislaus National Forest in memory of long time member and former club president, David Oakley. This is the 5th plantation donated to the Stanislaus National Forest in honor of the Oakley's and we are honored to make this donation in his memory and to honor the many contributions he has made to our club.

A reminder to club members as the holidays come closer, plantations are a wonderful gift to give family and friends. If you are interested in making such a gift, call or email Jeri Stark for information or pick up an application at our next meeting. (ed. note: think of those impossible people to get gifts for like parents and in-laws that don't need or want anything more around their house. Or a plantation gift to a whole family - everyone taken care of at once! And who wouldn't be thrilled to think they are helping re-forest our lands after the fires.) (ed. note: so remember to be generous when the box comes around!).

Diablo Foothills (Garden Club) District Seeks Board Nominations

The District is seeking nominations for July 2019 - 2021. The positions are: District Director, Assistant Director/Membership Chairman, Recording Secretary and Treasurer. A summary of qualifications is as follows: District Director - should have previously served on the Board of the Directors of the District or have been president of a local club within the District; Assistant Director - should have previously served on the Board of Directors of the District and have been an officer within his/her local club. No qualifications were provided for the Recording Secretary or the Treasurer.

If interested or would like more information about job duties, contact: Mona Dunlop, 925-828-3006, Marlene Kinney, 925-693-0245 or April Mc Beth, 925-516-9191.