St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church and School
1530 South Main Street, Lake Mills, Wisconsin 53551
920.648.2235

back garden

GARDEN CLUB

Notes from Organizational Meeting

The charter organizational meeting of the Garden Club was held February 21, 2008 at 7 PM in Room 110, St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lake Mills, WI 53551.

Present were: Gladys Arndt, Mona Gieschen, Barb Gulczynski, Marie Heckmann, Shelly Kexel, Sandie Koenig, Traci Lisius (after choir practice), Lisa Tucek, and Becky Winters (after choir practice).

Not present, but expressing desire to take part:  Gayle Berg and Connie Wilson.

he following documents were distributed to all present:

Xeriscape
http://eartheasy.com/grow_xeriscape.htm

List of Wisconsin wildflowers
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/index.php?p=page&
page_id=WI

What are Some Drought Resistant Plants?
www.wisegeek.com/what-are-some-drought-resistant-plants.html

Gardening in the Pinery, A Recommended List of Deer & Rabbit
Resistant Plants – 6/10/2003
www.pinery.org/gardendeer.htm

Growing Plants under Black Walnuts (Ketzel Levine) www.npr.org/programs/talkingplants/why/2002
/walnutguide.html

Black Walnut Toxicity to Plants, Humans and Horses (OSU Extension Fact Sheet) http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html

Invasive Species Photo Gallery: Native plant Species That Can be Aggressive (WI DNR) http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/photos/index.asp?
Type=native&SF=Common

Invasive Species Photo Gallery: Non-Native Plant Species (WI DNR)
http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/photos/index.asp?SF=Common
Meeting Notes

Adopt one of six flowers beds or areas at St. Paul.

  1. Small bed in front of church to west of bell.
  2. Large bed in back of church between gym doors.
  3. Berm south of south driveway along Highway 89.
  4. Berm outside of kitchen and along side of garbage corral.
  5. Bed around sign on south side of north driveway.
  6. Median strip in the north parking lot.

A bed may be adopted by one or more people work together.

The bed is to be maintained for the entire season, from March through October.

The adopters may recruit as many helpers as wanted or needed.

Must bring own tools as there is no place to store tools at St. Paul.

There are NO funds available to buy plants or materials.  Therefore, any new plants or such things as mulch, fertilizer, etc. are considered donations.  Adopters should feel free to encourage others to help withdonations of either the plants or materials or money to purchase such.

The following guidelines should be used when considering what to plant:

  • Water is hard to come by especially at remoter beds.  Therefore, it is recommended that plants requiring little water are planted.  See the list of drought resistant plants distributed.  See also the list of Wisconsin wildflowers since Wisconsin native plants are likely to survive without a great deal of watering.  See also the article on Xeriscape which also includes list of plants surviving with smaller amounts of water.
  • Steer clear of invasive plants.  See lists of native and non-native plants distributed.
  • Try to avoid plants deer and rabbit love to eat so that they do not have to be sheltered or screen in the winter.  See the list of deer and rabbit resistant plants.
  • There is one black walnut tree on the property.  It is near the kitchen berm and still quite young.  However, just in case there might be some trouble with juglone (5-hydroxy-alphanapthaquinone) in the future, two list of plants resistant and non-resistant to black walnut toxicity have also been distributed.
  • In case you may not want to or be able to adopt the same garden next year, please consider than someone else may be caring for it.

The beds were adopted as follows:

  • Small bed in front of church by Traci Lisius and Becky Winters.
  • Large bed in back of church by Marie Heckmann and Connie Wilson.
  • Berm south of south driveway by Barb Gulczynski and Gladys Arndt.
  • Berm outside of kitchen and along side of garbage corral by Lisa Tucek and Shelly Kexel.
  • Bed around sign on south side of north driveway by Gayle Berg and Mona Gieschen.
  • Median strip in the north parking lot by Sandie Koenig.
Other Discussion

Thursday is an okay day of the week for future meetings, but they will start at 6:30 pm.  Future meetings will be determined when we actually see snow disappearing.

We will plan field trips to area nurseries and gardens (Olbrich, Rotary Garden in Janesville, other church gardens, etc.) when the weather gets better.

A web page will be made for Garden Club announcements.