News

 Posted October 27, 2022

 Ocala Gazette

Fall is a wonderful time of year to be outdoors, to enjoy nature and to work in your yard and garden. Members of the Pioneer Garden Club have been looking forward to this season and all our related activities. We are planning another daylily planting in the Pioneer Garden at Tuscawilla Art Park as part of our community partnership with the City of Ocala. Our Silver Springs Committee and members from all four circles will decorate the entrance to the Silver Springs State Park for the holiday season. We will use live poinsettias around the fountain, hang wreaths on the ticket booths and add decorations to the areas nearby.

Fall is a beautiful time to make a flower arrangement for your own home. On Sept.  13, members of the Pioneer Garden Club attended their general meeting to begin the club year. Member Barbara McGhee gave a program about making floral arrangements using a few purchased flowers and greenery clippings from her yard. The results were simply stunning!

To create your own floral arrangement, start by looking around your home for an interesting container. You can use traditional glass or ceramic containers or things such as baskets, teapots, pitchers and bowls. There are several ways to hold flowers in place. Florist oasis (a foam material that fits in the bottom of a container) can be purchased at local hobby stores or floral shops. There are two types: wet and dry. Use the dry oasis for dried plants that do not need water. Use the wet oasis for live plants and flowers that need water. Soak the oasis in water for the time specified on the package as needed, then  place it inside your container. You can trim it to fit.

Then begins the creative process of putting together your arrangement. Find some colorful flowers in your yard, at a grocery store or florist. Remember to cut the stems at a diagonal and put them in water for some time so they can soak up the water and stay fresh. You only need a few. Complement the flowers with cuttings from the plants in your yard—hedge branches, ferns, foliage cuttings and the like. Try to mix up the textures of the greenery to add interest. Place your main flowers in the oasis. Then add the greenery around the flowers. Be sure to place plants and greenery on all sides of the container so it will look nice from all angles.  

Enjoy your own beautiful arrangement in your home. You can change out the flowers as they start to fade. When the next holiday comes, you’ll be ready to try again. 

Pioneer Garden Club of Ocala members used their flower arranging skills recently while hosting the Fall Florida Federation of Garden Clubs (FFGC) District V Meeting at the beautiful Barn at Bellemoor on Oct. 14. Members from District V attended including clubs from Brooksville, Citrus, Crystal River, Floral City, Four Seasons, Gainesville, Homosassa, Inverness, Lake City, McIntosh Seedlings Garden Club, Newberry and Pioneer. In addition, representatives from FFGC also attended. 

Our Gloriosa Circle Members provided floral arrangements for the table and room in keeping with our “Autumn Splendor” theme for the event. Members headed to Cannon Farms in Dunnellon where they harvested fresh sunflowers, zinnias and sun hemp to make creative table decorations. Ashley Cannon of Cannon Farms was helpful and had great suggestions on gathering the blooms from the fields. All members of Gloriosa Circle contributed plants and greenery from their own yards and designed the arrangements. They used plants such as firecracker, magnolia leaves, ginger, African orchid leaves, pin oak branches stripped, berries from a tree, mother-in-law tongue, crotons and more. The decorations turned out to be lovely and reflected the beauty of fall colors. 

Pioneer Garden Club often offers Fun with Flowers workshops that are open to the public to learn more about making flower arrangements. Check the Pioneer Garden Website for more information: www.pioneergardenclub.org. 

Fall is the time to enjoy nature’s bounty. Gather your containers, buy a few fall flowers from a store, collect some pine cones, trim some greenery in your yard and make a beautiful display in your home. Bring the splendor of autumn to your home by making flower arrangements to enjoy during this pleasant season in Florida.

Trees provide beauty, wildlife habitat, flood and erosion control, and promote health and the well-being of our community. They are also living air conditioners which clean and cool the air.

The Clean Air Act of 1970 identified chemicals and particulates in the air which harm human health, wildlife, and plants. Although these regulations have significantly improved air quality in the U.S., human activity continues to release unhealthy amounts of these harmful substances into the air. 

Trees remove pollutants in two ways. First, leaves take up sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide directly through their stomata and retain them inside the leaves in various forms. Second, leaf surfaces and bark can trap airborne particulates, which cause lung damage, asthma, and other conditions.  It has been shown that a significant increase in tree cover in areas with high airborne particulates reduces childhood asthma by as much as 29%. 

Trees are an important cost-effective tool in moderating pollution. Preservation of older trees has significant benefits as larger trees contribute far more to pollution reduction than smaller, new trees. A 30-inch diameter tree removes about 70 times more air pollution than a smaller (less than 3-inch diameter) tree. 

It also became apparent in the 1970’s that carbon dioxide levels were increasing in the air due to the burning of fossil fuels, causing an overall incremental increase in earth’s average temperature. This warming trend increases the need for energy to cool homes, offices, and other places where people gather. Trees help to cool the air, and they do so in two ways. First, trees transpire water through their leaves, creating a cooling of the air within the branches and areas beneath the trees. Air in the shade of trees can be several degrees lower than temperatures in unshaded areas due to transpiration. The denser the canopy, the greater this effect. In addition, shading of heat-absorbing impervious surfaces such as pavement and buildings by trees can significantly lower urban ambient temperatures, reducing the urban heat island effect. This cooling reduces energy use and indirectly, the pollution resulting from energy production. Trees also sequester carbon, pulling in atmospheric carbon dioxide and fixing it in the tree structure through the process of photosynthesis. Adding tree cover helps to slow the rate of global warming by increasing the amount of carbon captured in this manner.

The trend in the U.S., however, has been a reduction in tree cover and an increase in heat-retaining impervious surfaces. Florida ranked in the top 3 states for annual average loss of tree cover, and in the top 3 for annual average increase in impervious surfaces for the years 2009-2014.   A campaign initiated by National Garden Clubs Inc., a not-for-profit educational organization, hopes to fight climate change with its “Plant America with Trees: Each ONE Plant ONE” campaign. Each of its 165,000 clubs are asked to plant one tree. The Pioneer Garden Club is the local chapter.   For more information on the club’s activities, visit the club’s website www.pioneergardenclub.org . 

Consider increasing the tree cover in your yard and encourage others to do the same. Keep existing tree cover, especially large, healthy trees, and add new, long-lived native trees with lower maintenance requirements. Winter is a great time for planting trees in Florida. 

Submitted by Kristine Switt, M.S. Env. Sci, Member-at-Large, Pioneer Garden Club of Ocala

Ocala Star Banner - Feb 2, 2020  Real Estate section- pg 2

     October is Florida Native Plant month.  Fall is a wonderful time to stroll through a garden and reflect on the creative nature of our existence on earth.  In March I wrote about time spent in the garden with granddaughter, Havens Ann and my friend, Deborah Curry, President of the Marion Big Scrub Native Plant Society.  Wandering beneath the live oaks we identified flowers that thrive in the moist, rich, acidic soil; requiring no special attention or care. The Viola sororia and the Oxalis corniculata L. a member of the Woodsorrel family were both in bloom at that time. I learned from Deborah that the flower of the Viola sororia is edible, so let’s explore edible Florida Natives just a bit as we approach the Thanksgiving time. 

Now that Fall has arrived, Florida Native plants in the garden offer a different array of interest than in the spring. The ripening of Florida native persimmons during the fall and early winter brings the color orange to the garden. The plum sized fruit is sweet and slightly tangy. Visit your local farmer’s market this month to explore locally grown varieties that can be used in jams, chutneys, sorbets, baked goods and other dishes. This Florida Native is an excellent addition to any garden. 

     Deborah enjoys sharing her research almost as much as being outdoors doing the fieldwork. She routinely shares her findings at the Marion Big Scrub 4th Monday monthly meeting at the Belleview Library.  Carefully foraging her own yard and those of friends she has found a variety of Florida Natives that might be edible. How can one know if something from your natural garden is edible?

A few simple rules to follow:

1. Never eat a plant in the wild before checking with a local expert. The Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) is a perfect place to find an expert.

2. After proper identification of a wild plant by an expert, try only a little the first time you partake. What agrees with one person might not be agreeable to another. Such is life.

3. Foraging is very seasonal. Make sure it is the right time of year to consume a particular wild plant.

4. Check out the growing environment of the wild plant. Is it growing in the right place; are the soil and water source free of pollutants? These are the same criteria we look for in our food choices that come from the market.

5. Be knowledgeable about how to prepare the wild edible. 

Bon appetite is the essence of our existence on earth. Deborah suggests a simple salad as a good starting point for enjoying what you have foraged after following the five simple rules.

Simple Salad Recipe: 

Mix together

¼ cup pine nuts

¼ cup olive oil

2 Tbl chopped fresh sage leaves (Salvia coccinea flowers are edible but may cause stomach ache)

2 Tbl balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove minced

3 qt mixed tender salad leaves

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Judy and Deborah hope you find the wild garden of Florida engaging and nourishing.

Visit the Pioneer Garden Club of Ocala Website for information about getting involved with a Gardening Circle and current club activities and programs. www.pioneergardenclub.org

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Reference Materials for the Article include: FNPS Website and Marion Big Scrub Presentation “ Edible Florida Plants” by Deborah Curry, Persimmons in Florida, Edible Northeast Florida by Camille Cassella, You Can Learn to Forage for Wild Edibles, Eat the Weeds and other things, too Blog by Deane.

Judy Greenberg and Deborah Curry are members of the Pioneer Garden Club of Ocala and the Florida Native Plant Society. Deborah currently serves as President of the Marion Big Scrub Chapter of the FNPS. 

Ocala Star Banner - Nov 3, 2019  Real Estate section- pg 2

Ocala Star Banner - Oct 6, 2019  Real Estate section- pg 2

Join gardening enthusiasts in celebrating National Garden Week during June 2-8, 2019. This is an opportunity for citizens to support the National Garden Week objectives of beautification, education of environmental efforts, and gardening. Tens of millions of Americans grow a garden of some size. This week is a great opportunity to tend your garden, start a garden project, or just enjoy a garden’s peacefulness and beauty. 

National Garden Week is sponsored by the National Garden Clubs, Inc, a not-for-profit educational organization comprised of 50 state garden clubs and the District of Columbia with approximately 165,000 members. The history of National Garden Clubs dates to January 1891, when it was founded by the Ladies Garden Club of Athens, Georgia.

Gardening has some surprising benefits to your health. It provides a fun physical activity to keep you moving and increases hand coordination and strength. Gardening is good for your mental health. It nourishes your spirit, provides stress relief, and increases your cognitive functions. It also helps people enjoy eating more fruits and vegetables. 

Here are some ways you can celebrate National Garden Week:

· Plant a garden at your home. You can use containers to grow a large variety of herbs and flowering plants. There are beautiful examples of container gardens in the downtown area of Ocala planted by the City of Ocala horticulturist, Suzanne Shuffitt.

· Share a bouquet of flowers from your garden with a friend. 

· Volunteer to help in a community garden.

· Visit the Belleview Library to see a native plant garden maintained by the Big Scrub Native Plant Society.

· Visit public libraries to learn more about all kinds of gardening. Pioneer Garden Club will have a display at the Marion County Headquarters Library during National Garden Week.

· Visit the National Garden Club website to learn about these types of gardens: pollinator gardens, wildlife gardens, xeriscape gardens, and container gardens.

· Enjoy a local garden. Some suggestions are the gardens at Silver Springs State Park, Rainbow Springs State Park, Fort King Historical Park, Mom’s park at Jervy-Gant Park, Shalom Park, Veteran’s Park, and the Fallen Soldiers Garden at the Marion County Government Complex.

· Pioneer Garden Club will be planting daylilies at Tuscawilla Art Park later this summer. Get some hands-on experience with planting. Look for more information in the July Pioneering advice column in the newspaper.

Please enjoy a garden activity during National Garden Week. You might just discover a true love of gardening and a new hobby for yourself.

In honor of National Garden Week, Pioneer Garden Club is hosting a Garden Appreciation Event for local community organizations that support the gardens at Silver Springs State Park on Friday, June 7, 2019 from 10:00 am – 12:00 noon. 

Jacqua Ballas, 2nd Vice-President of Pioneer Garden Club of Ocala and member of the Daffodil Gardening Circle. Visit the club’s website for more information: www.pioneergardenclub.org

References:

National Garden Clubs: www.gardenclub.org/projects/national-garden-week.aspx

Reader’s Digest article, “10 Surprising Ways Gardening is one of the Heathiest Things You Can Do”. https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/health-benefits-of-gardening/

Ocala Star Banner Article