Feb 2025

NEWSLETTER

Tewksbury

Garden Club

Tewksbury, MA, USA

Spring Fundraiser is approaching!

Save the date for the Spring Plant Sale! It'll be here soon! Plants will be popping, begging to be divided and repotted for our sale. It's an all club member participation. A Sign-Up Genius will come out closer to the event. You can sign up to be there from set-up 'til breakdown, or in smaller increments. More info as time draws near. Work starts at 7am and finishes a bit after 2pm. The event is held rain or shine on Saturday, May 17th.

Recent Meeting Highlights

On February 12th our artist Marie led us in a fun craft to map out our perennial gardens. She helped us paint flowers and their botanical names on smooth rocks. We'll pick them up at the March meeting.

Upcoming Meeting

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Doors open at 6:30 PM, Meeting starts at 7 PM

Tewksbury Senior Center

Identifying Common Invasive Plants. Susan Young will share her knowledge of invasive plant species to enlighten members about what to look for in their own backyards. Invasive plants compete with native plants and should be removed. We will learn how to recognize and remove these plants.

Be sure to bring ...

Your Name Badge
Your Plant-a-Tree change
Your Food Pantry Contribution: Hamburger Helper

Literary Blooms Arrangements at the Tewksbury Public Library

February's Love is in the Air themed bouquet created by our own Cheryl Petrola

First Annual Seed Swap

The Club's very first seed swap was organized by Laetitia Won and attended by 3 club members. Available for trading were many varied vegetables, flower seeds, including native plant seeds. Next September we'll have a tutorial on seed saving in preparatiion for our 2nd Annual Seed Swap in partnership with the library! Stay tuned!

Highlights from Committee Reports

ACE Committee

Spring is coming ...

Save the dates for upcoming Clean Up days:

April 9th (Library / Muster Park)
April 12th (Town Center)

Flexible times can be arranged to help out even if you're unable to make these dates.

Garden Therapy

Here are the creations made this month ...

Happy Traveler Visit here next month for exciting details of our next adventure!

Sunshine Committee

At our February meeting we all received sweet valentine's goodie bags with yummy chocolate pretzel treats. Thank you!

Dine Out Nights

We had a dine out night at Luna Rossa this month. We're not sure how much our scholarhip fund has been enlarged, but we DO know that we all had some fabulous food!

ART in BLOOM 2026 Anyone?

Are you interested in heading up ART in BLOOM in Spring of 2026? The Library is interested in partnering with us. If you are interested in leading a group to run the event, we will need to obtain funding. Tewksbury Congregational Church has opened their Tariela Grant application period. Let Susan know if that interested person is you! Don't delay!

Club Members

Please welcome our two newest members: Joan Hoeckele and Lainey O'Callahan. Other members who have joined us recently are Jaine Marquis and Laetitia Won. Address labels will be availabe at our next meeting.

Carole Bonfanti has left Tewksbury for Marblehead. Her new address will be availabe on a label for the yearbook at the next meeting.

You might want to give Carole, Amelia, and Tammy a call, text or card to say Hello and brighten their day. Don't forget Roberta who wishes she could be with us. They all miss being with us.

Club member since 1985 and Club President from 1992-1994. Kathleen Donohue left her mark on the club and in the Town where she sold homes to several in our group. She passed away peacefully on January 6th and will be missed.

Tewksbury Community Pantry Food Drive

March 28 delivery 9 AM

Every few years the Garden Club does a bit more to support the Food Pantry. Yes, we collect items each month and we also send a monetary contribution, but it seems now that it's a good time to once again hold an actual drive.

Buy your items at any time.

Buy as much as you feel comfortable.

Our items will be pooled.

If you can't join us at 9 AM at the Community Pantry, no worries, you can drop your food off to me or any other person who you know will be attending.

Items to consider buying:

Small Containers of Fluff

Pizza Sauce (no glass if possible)

Single pack tooth brushes

Floss

Stuffing

Gravy in cans or plastic jars

Olives

Pudding Mix

Pie Filling

Canned meat and fish (not tuna)

Individual fruit snacks

Boxed potatoes

Bagged pasta

Tomato sauce (no glass)

Small bags of flour

Small bags of sugar

Sugar free items

Gluten free items

Salsa (no glass)

Small Mayonnaise

Thank you. Anything is appreciated. A list will be at the meeting. This is separate from our monthly collection.

Club Members In the News

Trisha Keddie accepted a community donation on behalf of the Tewksbury Community Pantry, with an article in the Town Crier earlier this month.

Other Club Happenings

In coordination with the Chelmsford Public Library, a Winter Seed Sowing Workshop is happening on Saturday, March 15th.

The Billerica Club is having its Spring Fling on March 11th. Several people from the Travel group are planning to go, so maybe you should, too.

What's Eating My Garden?

Winter edition

It’s cold and you’re hungry. What do you eat? Well, if you’re lucky and the humans in your neighborhood planted the right things, you’re eating seeds and berries. WhoBerry eaters such as robins are know to travel in flocks in the winter and will strip a shrub such as an American Holly (Ilex opaca) before flying off to the next shrub to repeat the process. You might even see bluebirds and chickadees enjoying a berry from your shrub. Squirrels will perform gymnastic stunts to get at juicy berries that are bowing the branches of Cranberry viburnums (Viburnum trilobum).

But berries aren’t the only thing on the menu. Look at the seedheads of goldenrod (Solidago spp) and evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) to catch a glimpse of goldfinches enjoying a delicious meal. They might even alight on the prickly top of a coneflower (Echinacea spp) to pluck a seed. Juncos aren’t only ground feeders. You can catch them plucking the peppercorn-like seeds from a summersweet (Clethra alnifolia).

Seeds and berries that fall to the ground will provide meals for ground feeding birds, rabbits and voles, as well as squirrels. The list below isn’t an exhaustive list of shrubs with berries or plants with seed-heads, nor is the list of birds and other creatures who enjoy a winter meal from your garden an exclusive one.

Who are you helping? Robins, bluebirds, cardinals, bluejays, chickadees, juncos, goldfinches, mockingbirds, squirrels, voles, opossums, raccoons and many other hungry creatures.

Native Plant Suggestions

Red-twigged dogwood
Winterberry
American Holly
Chokeberry
Nannyberry viburnum
Eastern Red Cedar
Cranberry viburnum
Any native plant with an overwintering seedhead

Book / Podcast Recommendations????

The most favorite thing that I've been listening to is birdsong.The alien sounds from the titmice and the peck-peck-peck from the downy woodpecker; the chit-chit from the cardinals, the sad song from the mourning doves, and the bubbly burbles of a carolina wren. The chickadee saying its name. All these sounds and many more make up the wonderful background noise in my backyard. The cars go by but what I really hear are the happy noises of juncos popping around on the ground. Our resident robin doesn't make a noise as they gobble up mealworms but will soon be singing at dawn and dusk. I bet if I listened real closely it would be making 'yummy' sounds now while it's eating up the meal worms. How can I block up my ears with pods when the amazing sounds of nature are all around me and talking to me about Spring. I need to listen. 25 Bird Songs and Calls that Everyone Should Know

Tewksbury Community Pantry Donations

Thank you for everyone's food pantry donations at this month's meeting! We collected 30 pounds of food items for the Pantry. All of the collected items are very much appreciated.

Federation Happenings

Study Group for Design & Horticulture Showing held on March 4 from 10 am - 11:30 am at Coolidge Hall 207 Boston Street on the Topsfield Fair Grounds. email fleming.3patricia@gmail.com if interested.

"A Story of Gardening" Flower Show is being held March 7-9 in Essex Junction, Vermont.

Organic Landscaping by Jim Agabedis of Minuteman Landscaping, Inc. on March 7 from 6 pm - 7 pm via ZOOM. Register here

The Arts in Bloom at the Arlington Robbins Library on March 7 from 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM Tickets $40 Sponsored by the Arlington Garden Club

"Dance Through Design" Flower Show is being held April 10-13 at the RI Convention Center in Providence.

Monthly Board Meeting

All members are invited and encouraged to attend the monthly board meetings.

Please contact the person holding the meeting to let them know you'll be there so we have enough chairs. Let Susan know if you have a particular topic for discussion so it can be added to the agenda, or if you just want to listen in.

Our March meeting will be held on March 5th starting at 6:30 PM at Jenni Kenney's home.

Newsletter Submissions

Post committee updates on our Facebook member's page so we can pull content from there and images are easy to grab.

Submit all info/pictures for inclusion in future newsletters to tewksburygardenclub@gmail.com by the 27th each month.

Thanks for all you do, and for contributing to this publication!