3pm to 7pm Saturday, September 18 see Directory for address BIG IDEAS for small spaces Our "Covid-19" project through the spring and summer of 2020 was completely relandscaping our property around our 1907 Georgian Colonial home. I've had a love of gardening from an early age. I grew up on a farm in Ohio where there was plenty of land for experimenting with various types of flower beds — and plenty of space to grow food (veggie gardening being more exciting to me now than as a child). From the age of 10 or 12, I was competing with 4-H projects in landscape design. By 16, I was working alongside my mom who managed a garden center advising customers on what to plant where. I didn't pursue a career in horticulture but I'm an enthusiastic hobbyist, always excited to learn and try new things. It was exciting to treat our Montclair property as a nearly "clean slate" to design new garden spaces on each side of the house, each with their own character. Last summer, we moved nearly 100 plants and planted several hundred new ones — including many trees, shrubs, and perennials. We installed a pool that is as much a water feature as it is for swimming fun. We love the European way of blending modern with historical, and have incorporated a more modern design in the landscape juxtaposed with the plantation railings and stucco of the Georgian Colonial. We upgraded our square foot gardening boxes to a formal kitchen garden design "French style" with boxwood hedges and small walking paths. We took out sections of sparse grass to build a garden walk in a limited color palette and light tones for enjoyable nighttime viewing from a large covered porch. We created a 'cottage style' all-season perennial garden on one side for experimentation (can't resist new plant finds!). We designed the space to be highly flexible and frequently adapt the configuration for entertaining seasonally. We're still endlessly battling trumpet vine the prior owners left with us when we bought the house 11 years ago.

Good Morning! We have an opening for two provisionals to participate in next week's Garden Therapy at Canterbury Village in West Orange. We will be assisting senior residents in creating windowsill succulent gardens. We will be meeting at the facility on Thursday, September 23 at 10am to set up (event begins at 10:30) and should be all cleaned up and gone by noon. The address is: 33 Mt Pleasant Ave, West Orange, NJ 07052. I know many of you work so this won't fit your schedules but for you who can make the time it is a great opportunity to fulfill your Garden Therapy requirement. Please shoot me an email if you are able to come! Sarah Olson & Susan Dumont Garden Therapy

Our friends at the Essex Chapter of The Native Wildflower Society of New Jersey have let us know about the plant sale at Saturday, Sept 18* from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Founders Park, 265 Valley Street, South Orange. See their Facebook page for more details as well as other great events planned this weekend.

The votes are in...Garden Therapy is going to move forward with providing a floral arrangement each month to the stressed-out, over-worked, and under-appreciated nursing staff at Mountainside Hospital. We're waiting to hear back from them as to whether there is a particular day they would like to receive them or any other details we should know about it. The flowers will be covered by the GT budget. Any volunteers for September?

The Open Garden of Marilyn and Peter Zaret see Directory for address 3:00 to 6:00, Sun. & Mon., Sept. 12 & 13 Marilyn writes .... ARCH de TRIOMPHE After twenty years of relentless designing and digging around our quirky 1760 home, we relented and sought the sage advice of Montclair's landscape designer extraordinaire, Chuck Baum. That was the day I became a Baum girl, like many of my garden club sisters before me. Now that's Baum, not Bond and Chuck, not James. Shaken, not stirred, both men approach their life's work with creativity and calm confidence. It has taken two years to complete my favorite project: a functional tree swing that mimics an ancient gateway and forms a 30-foot-high organic picture frame when viewed from the west end of the pool. In August of 2019, Chuck stood on that spot and drew a sketch of his vision. Months later, concrete was poured and steel pipes were installed. Meanwhile, on the trunk of my beloved pine tree, trumpet vines flourished, competing with climbing hydrangea and wisteria, spilling over with no limbs to climb. CJ Miller, my artistic arborist, returned with his bucket crane to weave bamboo stalks and twisted limbs through an arch that connected the tree columns, as Chuck gave detailed guidance from the ground. Completed this past week, our tree swing has magically morphed into a nearly identical image of that drawing from two years ago. This is the eighth Open Garden of 2021 and a blessing that so many of our members continue to host and dozens more continue to embrace these warm afternoons of beauty and bonding. With little chance of soon returning to our traditional gatherings, I'm hopeful that there will be more Open Gardens this year. Consider choosing your own day before winter separates us again. Friends and families of our club members are welcome. Masks are optional. Contact Marilyn at marzaret@comcast.net if you wish to host this fall.

This month's schedule: Postings are closed. Dahlia — 1 cut stem, disbudded, a minimum of 1 set of leaves Rosa — A single, disbudded flower OR spray with at least 2 open blooms and several buds in various stages of development with a minimum of 2 sets of 5-leaflet leaves Flowering Annual — 1 cut stem if large, 3 if small.

“PHS LandCare: Transforming Vacant Lots into Community Assets" Samir Dalal, the planning manager of the LandCare program, run by the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, will share with us how more than 12,000 empty lots in low and moderate income neighborhoods in Philadelphia were transformed into green spaces. These transformed lots have become community assets, benefiting the local ecology as well as the health of those living nearby, and have spurred economic growth in these neighborhoods. A truly inspiring story!

Lauren Calenda and Deb Hirsch are co-chairing this year’s Autumn Plant Sale which begins this coming Thursday evening, September 9th and continues through Sunday afternoon. Looks like we are in for a span of beautiful weather for the event. However, we are in desperate need of volunteers! If you have any time available beginning Thursday evening (members only event) through late Sunday afternoon, we would be most appreciative if you would volunteer your time for a shift or two. Click here for the sign-up form. The Van Vleck fundraising events would not be possible if it weren’t for our wonderful volunteers. Thank you very much!

Welcome to the new Garden Club of Montclair website. It would not have been possible without the glorious photos taken by members, especially Claire Stepleton, Michele Tomasik, Susan Yu, Barbara Baletti, Sandy Sorkin, and many others. Read Florence's welcome to 2021-2022, check out the calendar, find a member in the new lookup directory, or click on the green navigation bar to wander through all the pages on "What We Do" and "Who We Are." Don't forget to visit the slideshow of the May annual meeting, under "Galleries." This is a work in progress, so email Sue Young with suggestions and corrections.

If you have been reading your Potpourris, you know that we have been involved in a project at Watchung School to create an outdoor classroom, “The Connected Courtyard." A number of members have helped with the plan and Cynthia Corhan-Aiken spent a good deal of time on it and drew the final plan. The school received a $10,000 grant in March from Sustainable Jersey for Schools for the project, but to realize their full vision, they need to raise another $15,000. Please consider donating to this project (feel free to contribute at any time, even though there is a closing date on the site.) And watch the video, below, to learn more.

On August 4, at the end of a hot day's work in Avis Campbell Gardens, members gathered to say goodbye to Jacklyn Kling who — alas for us — is moving to California. Deborah Hirsch told us all what a quiet and constant force Jackie has been to the Club over the years — more than 40 of them as a bed captain in the garden. In 2017 she was awarded the Bauer Horticulture Award in recognition of her achievements, both as chair of the horticultural committee and for all the knowledge she has shared over the years with members, old and new. Good luck in your new life, Jackie! You will be sorely missed.

For the first time in over a year, members got together at Avis Campbell, vaccinated, maskless, sporting a multitude of hats against the hot sun, and really not very socially distanced at all. It was wonderful. See pictures of the event.

The Crane House and Historic YWCA landed in 4th place in 2020 USA Today’s 10 Best Historic Home Tours, because of the decorating efforts of the Garden Club of Montclair. Thank you to everyone involved in keeping this beloved tradition alive. What an amazing way to end such a challenging year. Read the article in the Montclair Local and watch the YouTube video, below, for a virtual holiday tour.