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The turnout for our September meeting was surprisingly low for our group. We had maybe 30 ponderers there that wanted to learn about Bog Gardening. This is still a good number for a meeting but for us it is normally almost twice that. Maybe it was the subject or just maybe there were a lot of other happenings that night. Who knows - the important thing is that we had a very good and informative meeting.
Simon Seah, our scheduled speaker for that evening, unfortunately missed his flight from the East Coast to make our meeting. So I lead a detailed discussion of Bog Gardening as well as some other related subjects. I thought it was good meeting but maybe I am a little biased.
Our trip to 7B Ranch was a huge success. We had a lot of people that made the trip up to Webster City and I am certain they felt it was worth a Saturday. Gene Barrick's gardens were spectacular and I had heard several comments that this is an unknown garden that needs to be publicized. If you missed it you can still see the gardens there on Tuesdays. It is open to the public until 10:00 PM that day.
Lots of aquatic and terrestrial plants with some of them are very impressive, unusual plants. I had a great time and I am sure most of the group did also. If that wasn't enough we traveled north to Charter Members Stan and Paula Erickson's Garden. They "laid out the red carpet" to tour their garden right after the 7B Ranch tour. Very unique gardens and lots of unique items in their garden. I want to thank both the Erickson's and Gene Barrick for allowing us the opportunity to see their gardens.
For those of you that missed the member tour, it is possible that you can visit these gardens on your own. Contact me for phone numbers.
With a chill in the air it is a reminder to start preparing to overwinter your water garden. Emergent tropical plants need to be protected from freezing and populations of fish need to be brought under control. These are subjects that I am going to be talking about at our next meeting on Monday, Oct. 14. It is one that you will not want to miss. The exact title of my presentation will be Overwintering Your Water Garden. It will be held at the Alliant Facility in West Ames and start at 7:00PM.
Some of the steps in preparing our ponds for winter will need to have been done before our meeting time -- like the protection of tropicals. But most of the topics covered will be timely.
So, hope to see everybody there and have fun ponding!
The Big Toad, Jamie