We Want YOUR State on Flickr

Share your garden club pictures with the world. Send pictures of your Blue Star Memorial plantings and dedications; your flower shows; your daffodil plantings; your civic beautification projects; your aquatic ecosystems projects; your Plantings for Public & Special Places projects; your glorious hydrangeas (President Shirley’s favorite flower); your Arbor Day plantings; the list is long. Be sure to identify the club, district or state and the location.
We’d like a monthly feature of a garden club’s project – so send a series of 6-10 pictures of your club’s project.
Mostly we want your state represented. Our NGC Flickr site has only 22 states and two regions featured – that’s less than half. Get YOUR state on the site. Send pictures to Robin Pokorski at RobinP@juno.com. Then visit the site
(www.Flickr.com/NationalGardenClubs) and find pictures for your newsletters and flyers and ideas for projects and plantings and staging and, and, and – it’s all there for you.





Plantings for Public and Special Places is a 2011-2013 President’s Project. Representing three areas of interest, this project recognizes ALL garden club service to communities when members provide Plantings for Public and Special Places. These plantings can beautify, have environmental value or provide sustenance. Possibilities exist for every garden club, regardless of its size, resources, and energy levels. Clubs, districts and regions will be awarded Certificates of Appreciation and Participation by the NGC President. Details regarding categories and monetary awards will be printed on the NGC website. To receive this recognition, participants are asked to submit an online form, available on the NGC website, along with a before and after digital photo. Check the NGC website under the Special Projects section to review monthly updates and TIPS that will inform and stimulate your creative gardening minds!

Garden clubs may submit online forms for any or all of the three (3) areas of interest listed below. Submission deadlines are April 1, 2012 and April 1, 2013. Plantings for Public and Special Places aligns extremely well with other areas of interests of our garden club outreach: Blue Star Memorial Markers, Habitat for Humanity Gardens, Penny Pines, Plant It Pink, Sage and Roses, and Arbor Day ceremonies, to name a few. Imagine the possibilities!
• Gardens with Edibles: Chairman: Patricia Rupiper (arupiper@bright.net). Have you heard about Truck Farming? This interesting concept has legs (wheels) that offer a mobile teaching tool, right on the spot! Check the NGC website for details.

• Container Gardens: Chairman: Susan Robinson (rerob@mac.com). Think outside of the box! Endless opportunities for teaching children to grow their own greens, right in a pot! Condo dwellers design unique containers and install a unique drip watering system. Much, much more to think about!

• Trees and Shrubs: Chairman: Lissa Williamson (erw510@aol.com) Encourage plantings of shrubs to accent your Blue Star Markers. Research your state tree and promote plantings in your community and schoolyard gardens. Consider plantings for erosion prevention. Endless ideas!
Visit the NGC website www.gardenclub.org to review tips and details regarding Plantings for Public and Special Places. All State Presidents received a fact sheet in their NGC folders at the NGC Convention in Washington, DC. If you have questions, contact your individual State President or anyone listed in this article for more details. Your state could be recognized for outstanding participation. It all starts with you and your garden club!!





NGC President, Shirley Nicolai, has chosen Protecting Aquatic Ecosystems as one of her special projects for 2011 – 2013. As garden club members, we must be educators, advocates, motivators, and participators in order to be effective in the sponsorship of projects to protect our aquatic ecosystems.
Aquatic ecosystems include rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, creeks, springs, marshes, bogs, wetlands, coastal estuaries, floodplains and aquifers. Each one of us can invest in the future by working to preserve and conserve aquatic ecosystems in our local communities, states and regions.

All living things in an aquatic ecosystem share a watershed. A watershed is an area of land over which all water flows to a common body of water such as a lake or pond. Watersheds can be as large as the Mississippi River drainage basin or as small as a farm with a pond. Altering a watershed will affect all the living things within that watershed. Affecting how water flows over the land may cause harmful materials to flow directly into the water, may destroy habitats, or cause certain organisms to cease to exist.
                                           
Water is the most quintessential component of most living organisms. There is more animal and plant life found in water than on land and in the air collectively. Now, more than ever, we are at serious risk of failing to protect our aquatic ecosystems. The amount of moisture on Earth has not changed. The water the dinosaurs drank millions of years ago is the same water that falls on Earth today as rain.
With the exception of the air we breathe, water is the most critical necessity the earth’s inhabitants require for life. 70% of the earth’s surface, 75% of the human body and 90% of human blood is water. Water equals Life.
Of all the water on Earth, 97% is contained in oceans and seas, 2% is trapped in glaciers and icecaps, leaving only 1% fresh water. Freshwater ecosystems cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, but are home to 35% of all vertebrate species. In the United States nearly half of the 573 animals on the threatened and endangered list are freshwater species. 40% of all fish species in North America are at risk. It is imperative that we conserve and protect that precious 1% of freshwater!


In 2008, NGC members adopted a water conservation platform that states: National Garden Clubs, Inc. believes it is imperative that we support and undertake proactive initiatives for the protection, conservation and restoration of the quality of the Nation’s coastal waters, wetlands, aquifers, watersheds, lakes, rivers and streams, through educational programs, conservation efforts, increased advocacy and partnerships with related government agencies, and state and national grassroots water coalitions.
This NGC special project empowers garden clubs with the incentive and strategies to be on the front line of environmental responsibility for our communities, states and
regions.

What are some of the strategies for Protecting Aquatic Ecosystems? The Nature Conservancy suggests that we:
1. Reduce water demand through effective conservation.
2. Manage water within the bounds of an effective ecological flow prescription.
3. Plan for ecological allocations during droughts.
4. Protect source watersheds.

Strategies for Garden Clubs for Protecting Aquatic Ecosystems:
• Create and promote educational hands-on programs for youth (classrooms, Scouts, 4-H,
  Junior Garden Clubs).
• Sponsor seminars, workshops and community education events to foster awareness and
  procedures for protecting aquatic ecosystems.
• Clubs, Districts and/or States adopt an aquatic ecosystem as a project.
• Organize and work with cooperative groups of states sharing like-concerns. (i.e.
  Mississippi River Basin, Great Lakes Group, Dept. of Environmental Quality, Dept. of Fish
  and Game/Wildlife and Ecosystem Survival for Central and South America).
• Appoint a dynamic Water Conservation/Protection Chairman in each state and region.
• Appoint a Water Conservation/Protection Chairman for each club and district.
• Adopt water-issue positions.
• Regional and State Workshops.
• Contact your local extension service to promote careful use of water.
• Learn and share information about the EPA’s role in ecosystem management.
• Educate the public to practice organic gardening at home with handouts of how to make
  organic sprays using household ingredients. (i.e. baking soda, vegetable oil, vinegar,
  composting).
• Access programs on websites for teacher/student activities.
• Educational exhibits at flower shows.
• Become legislatively informed

Check the NGC WEBSITE (http://www.gardenclub.org) for complete information.
Any questions?  Please contact me for help.
Pat