2007-2008:

September: Gardening with water wise plants by Kristen Yanker Hansen

October: Container Gardening – Fall Color to last through the Winter

Brian from Alden Lane shared with us how to plant containers with Fall color that will last through the winter. This was a wonderful demonstration of how to choose plants and containers of various colors, textures, size, and flowers to blend together for a beautiful display.

November: Everything You Wanted to Know About Succulents

Rella, owner of Simply Succulent nursery north of Fort Bragg, gave an informative talk on succulents and how to use them in our garden successfully. She brought many plants and pots of succulents for sale that delighted our members.

December: Herbs and More

Our speaker was Rose Level from Morning Sun Herb Farm in Vacaville where they grow over 500 varieties of herbs and perennials. She had a wonderful power point presentation on the Farm and also brought examples of gifts and teas and other uses for herbs. This was delightful discussion and in the Spring many of us went on a field trip to her farm and had a great time.

January: Garden Structures

Our speaker was Bobbi Feyerabend, a landscape architect with the firm Feyerabend & Madden in Emeryville. Bobbi spoke about garden structures and how they affect the design and use of our gardens. A delightful presentation gave examples of what to do and what not to do in our gardens.

February: Plants for Structural and Architectural Solutions in the Garden

In January we learned about garden structures, this month we learned how plants can be the structure and architectural solutions in our gardens. Our speaker is Aerin Moore who is the owner of Magic Gardens Nursery in Berkeley.

March: Tanzania, Agriculture and McMama’s

Dolores Bengtson, a LAVGC member, told us about her experience volunteering in Tanzania and gardening in this peaceful, but very poor, east African country working hard to join the prosperity of the western world. During Dolores’s visits to the country she noticed how much the health of the children and people depend on the resourcefulness of the women and small agriculture. Tanzania is struggling with great change. The government is striving to effect change without direct conflict with tribal values. The men are trying to find a meaningful role, the women are working hard to educate, feed and cloth children with limited power and resources. The presentation helped us get a glimpse of the country, see the powerful role of women utilizing subsistence agriculture to feed and educate their children, and observe the growth in ornamental horticulture paralleling the rise of a middle class and to support tourism.

April: Urban Bee Gardens

??? of UC Berkeley spoke to us about our native bees and their importance as pollinators of plants in an urban setting. Scientists have discovered 81 different species of native bees in the Bay Area. Ms. ??? brought examples of most of these bees and discussed how many are specialized to specific plants or plant families. As the population of honey bees declines, the role of native bees will be increasingly more important. Ms. ??? gave advice on how to attract these valuable insects to our gardens and how to help with the bee decline happening at this time.

May: Roses from A to Z

Our speaker, Carolyn Parker, the author and photographer of R is for Rose: Reflections from a Passionate Rose Lover gave a delightful discussion of her garden, how she photographed and developed the book and how to enjoy our own roses in our gardens. She is a garden designer and writes a column for The Times newspaper. She lives in Lafayette in a garden filled with roses.

June: Garden Panel Discussion - Questions and Answer Session

Our last meeting of the year included a finger food potluck and question and answer session.
Many of our members have been gardening for many years, are master gardeners and are very happy to share their knowledge. As our monthly meetings are usually full of committee reports, reminder notices, and speaker requirements that does not lend well to a relaxed question and answer exchange LAVGC tries to have a question and answer panel discussion each year to answer many of the various garden and plant related questions we all have.