November 2024 Newsletter of the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club

Garden Club News

Garden Club: Managing Stormwater Runoff and Increasing Biodiversity with RainScapes

Sunday, November 10, 2:00-4:00 pm
Free Admission

Come learn about how to evaluate your home landscape for stormwater runoff opportunities and what kinds of solutions have worked in Montgomery County! The focus will be on showing predominantly native RainScapes gardens that are managing stormwater and providing beautiful biodiversity benefits too.

The featured speaker Ann English, PLA, ASLA, LEED® AP BD+C, CBLP 1 &2( D+I), has a life-long love of plants and nature. Her design work has been in the private, non-profit and governmental sectors as well as the academic, with focus on plants, designing with plants and how they perform in the environments in which they are planted, with emphasis on stormwater management. She has degrees in American History/ Architectural History (BA, Penn) Regional Planning (MRP, Penn State) and Landscape Architecture (MLA, UGA), is the manager of the Montgomery County RainScapes Program of the Department of Environmental Protection and has been gardening since she first planted tulips and zinnias with her father at age 5.

Light refreshments will be served.

There will be a plant sale table managed by the Garden Club.

PLEASE REGISTER

💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧💧

At the Spooky Workshop members made bows, forms for wreaths and tabletop arrangements, painted and wired pinecones and organized for our Greens Sale products.

🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳

Get your order in TODAY

Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club 2024 Greens Sale
Wreaths, arrangements, tabletop trees, kissing balls, and holiday sprays

Place your order for the SSM Garden Club’s Annual Greens Sale. Proceeds from this event are used to benefit the Museum grounds and gardens. The greens are unique and limited in quantity as they are made by our hard-working Workshop Elves (Garden Club Members and friends). We are accepting pre-orders only. Due to limited resources, some items may sell out early.

Order Form available on the website

ORDER BY NOVEMBER 15: Email form to thatsamohre@outlook.com or bring to the museum.

PICK UP: Sunday, December 8, 2024, 12 PM to 3 PM Payment by check or cash.

TO SCHEDULE ALTERNATE PICK-UP DAY or TIME contact Marilyn @ 240-475-0263 or marilyn38858@comcast.net

TO VOLUNTEER: Contact us at marilyn38858@comcast.net

𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘

Calling all Greens Sale Elves

Collecting the Greens

11/14, 19 and 26 Cutting Greens 10-1 Meet in Museum parking lot at 10

11/15, 16 Picking Boxwood 10-12 Meet in Museum parking lot at 10

11/15,18 Picking Boxwood 2-4 Meet in Museum parking lot at 2

11/14, 15, 16, 19 Place Greens in water 12 until done

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club is an activity group of the Sandy Spring Museum.

Our activities can be found on the Garden Club webpage: https://www.sandyspringmuseum.org/programs-and-events/garden-club/.

October 2024 Newsletter of the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club

Garden Club News

Garden Club: Managing Stormwater Runoff and Increasing Biodiversity with RainScapes

Sunday, November 10, 2:00-4:00 pm
Free Admission

Light refreshments will be served.

There will be a plant sale table managed by the Garden Club.

🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕🎕

The September Program was enjoyed by a a full house.

The Extrordinary Lives of Bees by Phil Frank

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

Come Join Us...

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

The Greens Pre-Sales start soon!!

Order forms will be available at the Museum and on the website

Mark your calendars

We need many Elves to collect greens, then construct the handmade product in our workshops.

Fellowship and food provided!

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

The Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club is an activity group of the Sandy Spring Museum. Our activities can be found on the Garden Club webpage: https://www.sandyspringmuseum.org/programs-and-events/garden-club/.

September 2024 Newsletter of the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club

Garden Club News

The Extraordinary Lives of Honey Bees

How they make babies, honey, wax, fill our dinner plates, and are the smartest insect.

Sunday September 8, 2024, 2-4pm

Learn...

· Why honey bees are irreplaceable (how they are unlike any other insect or pollinator)

· How a colony of 10's of thousands of honey bees behaves as a single animal

· How honey bees make honey (very labor intensive!) and where honey gets its flavor.

· How honey bees make more honey bees (bizarre and always deadly)

· What is killing the bees, and how you can help them

· Loads of fascinating bee facts you can take home to impress your friends... including "No male honey bee has a father, only a grandfather." And you will be able to effortlessly identify the gender of any honey bee you see on flowers in your garden!

Our speaker, Phil Frank, is a science journalist, writer, TV producer, and director of non-fiction films. His programs have been seen on CNN, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Science Channel, A&E, Travel Channel, Headline News, History Channel, TLC, NY Times website, Washington Post website, and international channels. While producing a National Geographic program about mass animal die-offs, Phil became fascinated by honey bees. In 2014, he started his first hive and now has 15 hives on his deck, and one glass walled hive in his kitchen where he studies busy bees year round. Phil developed and runs websites for the Maryland State Beekeepers Association and Maryland’s Montgomery County Beekeepers Association. He designs beekeeping curricula and teaches honey bee biology for beekeepers. After years of study, he earned a Master Beekeeper certification from Eastern Apicultural Society.

Phil recently coauthored and published 'Hive Tour' a photo-rich book showing the extraordinary lives of honey bees.

There will be time for a Q & A.

Light refreshments will be served.

The Garden Club plant sale table will be available.

Admission to this event is free for Museum Members (use promo code memberssm).

There is a $10 fee for nonmembers.

Please register at www.Sandy Spring Museum.org

or call 301-774-0022

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Upcoming Events

Managing Stormwater Runoff and Increasing Biodiversity in the Home Landscape with RainScapes

Sunday November 10, 2024

2pm – 4pm

Come and learn about how to evaluate your home landscape for stormwater runoff opportunities and what kinds of solutions have worked in Montgomery County! The focus will be on showing predominantly native RainScapes gardens that are managing stormwater and providing beautiful biodiversity benefits too.

Bio: Ann English, PLA, ASLA, LEED® AP BD+C, CBLP 1 &2( D+I) has a life-long love of plants and nature. Her design work has been in the private, non-profit, governmental as well as the academic sectors. Her focus is designing with plants that perform well in the environments in which they are planted, with emphasis on stormwater management. She has degrees in American History/ Architectural History (BA, Penn) Regional Planning (MRP, Penn State) and Landscape Architecture (MLA, UGA) and is the manager of the Montgomery County RainScapes Program of the Department of Environmental Protection and has been gardening since she first planted tulips and zinnias with her father at age 5.

Light refreshments will be served.

Hosted by the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club, a plant sale will be held concurrently

Free admission with registration at www.SandySpringMuseum.org

Or call 301-774-0022

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Summer Wildlife in Our Gardens

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Montgomery County Fair

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

August 2024 Newsletter of the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club

Garden Club News

Christmas in July

In preparation for our December Greens Sale, our elves made itty bitty bows and medium sized bows, hurricane bases and wreath forms. Look for more fun projects at our Spooky Workshop on October 20th.

💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮

Looking Ahead

The Extraordinary Lives of Honey Bees

How they make babies, honey, wax, fill our dinner plates, and are the smartest insect.

Sunday September 8, 2024, 2-4pm

Learn about:

· Why honey bees are irreplaceable (how they are unlike any other insect or pollinator)

· How a colony of 10's of thousands of honey bees behaves as a single animal

· How honey bees make honey (very labor intensive!) and where honey gets its flavor.

· How honey bees make more honey bees (bizarre and always deadly)

· What is killing the bees, and how you can help them

Phil recently coauthored and published 'Hive Tour' a photo-rich book showing the extraordinary bees.

Light refreshments will be served.

The Garden Club plant sale table will be available.

Admission to this event is free for Museum Members. There is a $10 fee for nonmembers.

Please register at www.SandySpringMuseum.org or call 301-774-0022

💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮

Eat your weeds!

Common purslane, Portulaca oleracea, is a highly variable, weedy plant in the purslane family (Portulacaceae) with a wide distribution. Although it is likely native to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, it had reached North America by pre-Columbian times and was in Europe by the late 16th century. It is now naturalized in most parts of the world, both tropical and temperate – equally at home in flower beds, cultivated fields, and roadsides or other disturbed or waste places. It has been grown for more than 4,000 years as a food and medicinal plant and is still cultivated in many places today.

Common purslane is a low-growing plant with succulent leaves.

It is considered quite nutritious because it is unusually high in omega-3 fatty acids (found mostly in fish and flax seeds) and contains significant amounts of vitamins A and C, as well as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium and antioxidants. It also contains high amounts of oxalates (just as spinach does) so should not be consumed excessively by those susceptible to forming kidney stones. It is sometimes used as fodder and is fed to poultry to reduce egg cholesterol and was also used traditionally as an ointment for burns. Some other common names include garden purslane, little hogweed, pusley, and wild portulaca. It’s called pourpier in France and verdolaga in Mexico.
Purslane is a fast-growing herbaceous annual with succulent leaves and stems. Even the oblong cotyledons (seed leaves) are succulent. The multiple smooth, reddish stems originating from a single taproot are mostly prostrate, forming a mat covering up to 3 feet in diameter. Depending on the amount of moisture available, the plant may be quite low-growing or more erect up to 16″ tall.

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/common-purslane-portulaca-oleracea/

💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮💮

Goldfinch eyeing the zinnias for a tasty treat

* The flower in the August photo above is a Brugmansia arborea or Angel's Trumpet

July 2024 Newsletter of the Sandy Spring Museum Garden Club

Garden Club News

The SSM Garden Club Greens Sale

Every year in December the Garden Club holds a fundraiser to fund our many activities at the Museum, support facility improvements and maintain the lovely courtyard and entrance gardens. The gardens provide a backdrop for weddings, concerts, games, and garden parties.

There are many steps to preparation for the Greens Sale:

Inventory evaluation and purchase of needed items
Christmas in July - Our first "workshop". A fun gathering of members and friends who enjoy a few hours in which we prepare the foundations, make bows and decorate natural items for our final products.
Spooky Workshop - Another fun-filled event to finish our preparations.
Orders - Products for the sale are advertised to the SSM membership and volunteers call the recipients of past orders.
Greens Cutting - Several dates in November when small groups of members go to various homes in the area to cut the greens - white pine, cryptomeria, boxwood, umbrella pine, holly, arborvitae and chamaecyparis.
Preparing the Greens - All those cut branches need to be cut into usable sizes and put into containers of water outside the building.
Greens Workshops - Two weeks in November/December filled with daily workshops led by skilled members, each workshop making a specific item. New and experienced members are encouraged to help.
Greens Sale - The final products are available for pickup.
Clean Up - Containers need to be emptied and washed, supplies organized.