May Meeting

May 18, 2006    6:30 PM

Our May 18 meeting will be held at the home of

Bill and Kathy Wright,

821 E. Rea in Marshall.

Note that this meeting will start at 6:30 pm.

This meeting will be our annual plant exchange.  Bring any water plants, flowers, house plants, bushes, yard decorations, flower pots, etc.  Bring the things you don’t need and take home lots of new things you can use.  Be sure to come even if you do not have anything for the plant exchange, we always have lots of plants.

Bring lawn chairs

The program for the evening will be given by Jim Foster from Jim’s Garden Center in Sedalia.  His program will be on fish for the water garden.

2006 Water Garden Tour

Mark your calendar for June 25 and join us on the water garden tour.  Be sure to tell all your friends about the tour.  There will be 10 water gardens on the tour.

This year we will have plant sale by local nurseries with 10% off for tour ticket holders.  We will also have demonstrations at various places along the tour to give visitors a chance to learn more about water gardening.

Your club membership card will give your free admission to the tour.  In the June newsletter you will get the member tour information to use with your membership card.  We are also sending each member four tickets to sell.  Please make a special effort to sell all your tickets.  The high cost of gasoline may deter some persons from attending the tour.  We really need your support to make this year’s tour a success.

If you want to work on the day of the tour for a couple of hours, contact LaDonna Arrowood, 886-8191 or Kathy Wright, 886-6712.

June and July Activities

Our activity for June will be our public water garden tour.  We hope that all members will participate in the tour either as visitors or by helping at one of the homes.

Our July club activity will be a members-only tour of water gardens in the Chillicothe area.  Watch for more information in our July newsletter.

Gardening Hints

By LaDonna Arrowood

A lot of members are having trouble with fish rooting out the water lilies.  This is especially true with Koi fish.  Katye Elsea said to cover the lily pot with chicken wire and crimp it under the pot.  The lily can grow through the wire and the fish can’t get to the dirt.

If you are having trouble with slugs use pepper spray.  A recipe for home-made pepper is crushed red pepper flakes add water and put in a blender. After blending, strain off the liguid.  Put on soil where you see evidence of slugs

Jim from Jim’s Garden Center (our program for the month) said don’t mix Fantails with Koi.  Together it causes road rage.

Greg Speichert of Water Gardening Magazine told Katye Elsea about fertilizing water lilies.  He said to fertilize hardy water lilies only when they start to show floating leaves.  The water temperature should be at least 65 degrees.  Hardies are not able to absorb fertilizer well in cool weather so feeding too soon will contribute to algae bloom without prompting any growth in the lily.

Dear Polly,

I have been told that I must have submerged plants in my pond to help keep the water clear.  If this is true, what plants should I put in my pond?

              Plantless in Sedalia

Dear Plantless,

        This is a question that you should spend some time reading water gardening books or magazines to get the complete answer.  I can give you some general information at may help you.  First of all, be careful what water plants you use in your pond.  Some water plants can take over your water garden and not only ruin its beauty but choke out the desirable plants in your pond.  One of the worst is the common “pond weed”.  Sometimes it can get in your pond by birds or by a small piece in dirt used to pot a lily.  Even “Water Celery” can get out of control quickly in your pond. 

Some of the better plants include “Elodea” and the larger form called “Anacharis”.  These plants are both submerged plants and will generally not get out of control.  These plants are usually referred to as “oxygenating plants”.  This is because they add oxygen to the water but the best thing they do for your pond is to remove unwanted nutrients that will fuel the growth of algae in a water garden. 

 The short answer to your question is that submerged plants are not necessary for your water garden.  However, that can be very helpful in creating the balance in your pond that will improve your water clarity.   Do some reading on the subject so that you don’t get submerged by unwanted water plants.

Polly

To learn more about Polly Ponders and view other Polly Ponders articles, click here.

Kristi Brown’s Salad Recipe

(Special request from the March dinner)

Broccoli Salad        

Ingredients:

4-5 cups of Broccoli flowerets

½ red onion, chopped

1 cup shredded cheese

1 pound bacon, fried and chopped

1 cup raisins

1 cup sunflower seeds 

Dressing:

1 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

 Preparation:

Combine all ingredients except dressing. 

Mix dressing ingredients well.

Pour over salad ingredients and mix well.

Refrigerate at least one hour to chill.

Service Projects

During April, the club did the spring clean up work at the Jim the Wonder Dog Park.  In addition to cleaning the water garden, we raked leaves, trimmed bushes, and added new plants.

We cleaned the water garden at the Indian Foothills Golf Course that was our 2005 project and will be on the public water garden tour this year.

Our club service project for this year is to remodel the water garden and add a filtering system at Butterfield Youth Services.  We plan to do this project in May.

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