March 2025

NEWSLETTER

Tewksbury

Garden Club

Tewksbury, MA, USA

Major Club Event

The Plant Sale Committee held its first meeting and is working hard on the details of another well executed event! Share the flyer and on social media to spread the word.

Next plant sale preparation events:

April 24 @ 6:30 PM at Marie Luciano's home. The Plant Sale Committee will be preparing painted rocks for selling at the plant sale.

May 3 @ 9:30 AM at Muster Park - dig and divide day lilies for selling at the plant sale.

Recent Meeting Highlights

Another great meeting with Susan Young presenting tips on how to identify those pesky invasive plants in our yards and gardens and how to remove them.

Jennifer Balch-Kenney wrapped up the invasive talk by telling us about her many-years battle with the dreaded Japanese knotweed. It’s amazing what this plant can survive!!

Upcoming Meetings

Vegetable Gardening 101

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Doors open at 6:30 PM,

Presentation starts at 7 PM, meeting to follow

Tewksbury Senior Center

Master Gardener Gretel Anspach will present different types of vegetable gardens and discuss layout, variety choices and various growing techniques.

Our Community Food Pantry donation request for this month is Condiments.

Literary Blooms Arrangements at the Tewksbury Public Library

This Month's "St Patrick's Day" themed floral design created by our own Joanne Aherne.

Highlights from Committee Reports

ACE Committee

Spring is coming ...

Save the dates for upcoming Clean Up days:

April 9th (10 AM Library / 10:30 AM Muster Park)
April 12th (10 AM Town Center)

The containers get filled with pansies for the Spring. If you're interested in helping with that, we'll be at the Town Hall, Library and Senior Center at 10 AM on Saturday the 5th. Come on down!

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

Arbor Day Plans

The Club's Arbor Day program with the third graders at the Center School isn't happening until May 9th due to a conflict with school vacation. We hold a poster contest, give nature related books, as well as a white pine.

Some members of the Club are involved with the Town's Arbor Day event. Come see us on April 25th at 11 AM in the back of the library as the Town dedicates a flowering dogwood tree and some Virginia tea shrubs to celebrate Arbor Day by continuing to create a native tree and shrub arboretum.

Garden Therapy

Here is the creation made this month ... Everyone's eyes were smiling at Bayberry!

Bayberry creation

Happy Travelers

We look forward to hearing about the afternoon tea experience and museum trip that our members went on this last weekend. What a wonderful way to brighten up a gloomy day.

Upcoming Event in conjunction with the Tewksbury Senior Center: June 20th - Newport Flower Show, Rosecliff Mansion in Newport RI. Cost - $145.00, includes transport, flower show admission, visit to Bowen's Wharf, bus snack and bottled water. Please contact Diane Dunlevy at the Tewksbury Senior Center for additional information.

Sunshine Committee

Sunshine was passing out the luck of the Irish at our recent meeting by gifting us a lovely poem and an Irish shamrock pin to bring us luck. Maybe someone was fortunate and found a pot of gold!

Dine Out Nights

We had a dine out night at Salvatore's Riverwalk in Lawrence. Despite a computer glitch, some members were able to enjoy a delicious Italian meal.

Our next event is at Luna Rossa on April 8th for Dine In Only - print and bring flyer. Thanks to Lisa for setting this up!

Club Members in the News

We weren't in the news yet but we did have a wonderful outpouring of support from the Club at our recent food drive for the Tewksbury Community Pantry. Thank you to everyone who participated. Many people who donated aren't in this photo. The generosity and kindness from this Club is always heartwarming.

The Club is in the recent edition of the Mayflower published by the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. Check it out!

Federation News

The Garden Club Federation of Masachusetts has a lot of news.

Follow this link for their for their recent Monday Memo.

Looking For Board Members!

We have 2 vacant seats on the Board. One is for 2nd Vice President, the other is Recording Secretary.

The 2nd Vice President works with the 1st Vice President (and the other Board members) to develop programs for the upcoming year. We already have a few programs set.

The Recording Secretary takes attendance and records the happenings of the Club meeting and the Board meeting. The Club must have a Recording Secretary as this position essentially tracks what happens in our Club and is maintained.

Please contact Susan if you would like to sit on the Board. The term can be as short as 1 year. We will hope to have our election as planned at our April 9th meeting.

Pruning Quick Tips

Prune late winter / early spring before growing starts

If the shrub has set blooms, do not prune until after blooms have gone by
Prune before flowers have set if the shrub

develops berries

Cut out dead branches
Remove dead branches at the base of the branch
Clip branches that rub against another
Cut back to a side branch to thin a shrub
Cut a large branch to decrease the height of a shrub
Cut at about a 45◦ angle to the branch
Cut away from the branch collar (where the branch meets another branch or a trunk)
Cut a branch with leaves that grow opposite to each other ¼ to ½ inch above the leaves
Cut a branch with leaves that grow alternating up a branch ¼ to ½ inch above the leaf growing toward the outside of the shrub
Never remove more than 1/3 of the shrub each year
Don’t just cut from one side – move around your shrub

Can’t I Just Shear My Shrubs?

Some shrubs can be sheared if they have healthy branches growing from the inside
Yews and Boxwoods can usually tolerate shearing
Shearing causes the growth to occur at the cut tips

Podcast Recommendation:

Let's Argue About Plants

A provocative title for a channel that provides "fine gardening" information with no arguments or judgment. You'll find many episodes that have interesting information on native plants: Uli Lorimer from our local Native Plant Trust has a talk about High-Impact Native Plants. Other interesting episodes include Deer Resistant Plants, Great Houseplants, Most Beautiful Flowers, Favorite Succulents and Silver Plants. There's something for everyone on this station. Take a listen, learn, enjoy. You can find Let's Argue About Plants on your favorite podcast streaming app.

Tewksbury Community Pantry Donations

Thank you for everyone's food pantry donations at this month's meeting! The contributions of Hamburger Helper were brought to the Community Pantry. The donation amount couldn't be weighed, but a large amount of noodle mixes were brought to the Pantry.

Monthly Board Meeting

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

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

Our April meeting will be held at Christine Demers' house on Wednesday, April 2nd at 7 PM.

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!