The Fishing Creek Herb Guild kicked off their 25th year with speaker
Michael Gadmonski in March. His film, “Wild Pennsylvania”, showed
the beauty and diversity of our commonwealth’s natural flora and fauna
from the tidal marshes near Philadelphia to Lake Erie’s shores and state
parks and wildlife areas everywhere in between.
Spring was celebrated with masses of potted pink geraniums lining the entrance and stairs leading to the meeting room. The table decorations of purple leaf shamrocks were the take-home favors for the meeting, provided
by president, John Shott. Garden tote bags with a logo celebrating the
Guild’s anniversary were available to members.
Ginseng, its uses, its remedies and its harvesting in the wild was
presented by Leona Phillips.
Other topics briefly discussed included making tea from goldenrod leaves
and flowers and two remedies for many gardens’ arch enemy, the slug:
Slug Gone wool pellets from England now available in the U.S. and the
home solution of an overturned grapefruit rind with a cut- out ‘slug hole’.
Ten new members were welcomed and guild yearbooks were distributed.
The Guild continues to welcome prospective members to attend a meeting
as our guests during April to explore herbs and gardening with fellow enthusiasts. Membership is open until the May meeting.
Sign-up began for the guild’s annual bus trip for June 24-26 to western Connecticut historic homes and garden. The bus trip is now open to the
public as of April 1. Information is available on the website.
The next meeting will be held April 24, the fourth Thursday of the month,
at 7 p.m., a change in date due to the Easter holiday. Charlene Samsel and friends will speak and display “Fairy Houses: The History, the Creation
and the Myth”.
Members were urged to begin to pot up plants for the May 15 plant auction. Bobbi Fleming and Brenda Aucker will coordinate the plant listings and sale. Only members who have paid dues by that date are eligible to attend and purchase plants.
Joan Silver, Guild member and master gardener, will present two of the free gardening programs at Berwick’s McBride Memorial Library. “Intensive [Square Foot] Gardening” will be held May 20th and “Tomato Diseases and Pests on June 10th.
A book, The Romantic Herb Garden, will be donated to the Bloomsburg
Public Library in memory of recently deceased member, Dawn Stackhouse.