August 2009 Newsletter

August 3, 2009

Summer is filled with exciting activities at the Southeastern Horticultural Society. Emily Johnson, Southeastern Flower Show Chairman, is building her team of volunteers and planning the 23rd annual Southeastern Flower Show that will take place February 4-6, 2010 at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

The Edgewood Community Learning Garden is bursting with excitement. Kids, families and community members from the neighborhood are getting involved and learning about growing organic vegetables and sharing gardening techniques. In the coming months we’ll be creating a water catchment system in partnership with the WaterWorks program. Be sure to pick up the current issue, August/October 2009 of Organic Gardening Magazine, page 15, to learn more about it.

Our calendar is filling up with events and workshops the entire family can enjoy.  We hope you will join us.

Best Regards,

Kate Chura
Executive Director

2010 SOUTHEASTERN FLOWER SHOW

Discover The Beauty Of Green

The 23rd Annual Southeastern Flower Show
February 4 - February 6, 2010 at the Cobb GalleriaCentre

Escape the gray and cold of winter and enter a world of beautiful green environments! Back by popular demand, The Southeastern Horticultural Society will host its 23rd annual Southeastern Flower Show Thursday, February 4, 2010 through Sunday, February 6, 2010.  The Flower Show will once again be held at the Cobb Galleria Centre.

“Discover new landscape and gardening techniques and experience floral splendor at the 2010 Flower Show,” enthuses Show Chairman Emily Johnson.

“This spectacular event will celebrate the beauty of our natural world and inspire innovative designs and solutions for everyone and every place. It will kick off another great year of educational programs and events presented by the Southeastern Horticultural Society” added Kate Chura, Executive Director.

The show will surprise and delight attendees as they meander through the new floor design filled with extraordinary exhibits of plants, environmentally green ideas and tips, interactive workshops for kids, entertaining and enlightening speakers, organic gardening and cooking demonstrations, and eco-friendly products for the home and garden.  There will be something for everyone, from seniors to toddlers and from novice gardener to expert horticulturist.

Date:      Thursday, February 4, 2010 - Sunday, February 6, 2010

Time:      10:00 a.m. through 8:00 p.m. Thursday through Saturday

Location:  Cobb Galleria Centre - located at Two Galleria Parkway in the Northwest Atlanta area at I-75 and I-285

See you at the flower show!

VINCE DOOLEY GARDEN TOUR

Barbara and Vince Dooley Host “A Gardening Experience”
Enjoy a Once in a Lifetime Chance to see the Legend’s Garden!

Benefiting The Southeastern Flower Show and its parent organization, The Southeastern Horticultural Society
Sunday, September 13, 2009
5 to 8 in the evening
Athens, Georgia

Host Committee
Betty & Robert Balentine       Luci & Mack Furlow
Ann & Harvey Cabaniss         Margaret Howard
Lane & Richard Courts         Candy & Greg Johnson  
Mercer Davis                     Lili Ouzts
Barbara & Vince Dooley       Hart Roberts  
Diane & Ed Festa               Marsh & Greg Webb      
Lisa Fiscus                     Ellen & Buck Wiley
Ann & Joe Frierson

Since 1995, when Vince Dooley developed a passion for horticulture, the 2.5 acres surrounding his house have been transformed into a virtual botanical garden, with many rare trees and shrubs. There are more than 100 varieties of camellias and Japanese maples, as well as numerous hydrangeas. The Dooley garden is full of horticultural treasures and surprises. You might easily conclude this garden will become, like its owner, a legend.

Tickets
$50 each, available online or mail check to the Southeastern Horticultural Society, 1705 Commerce Drive, NW, Suite 400, Atlanta, Ga.30318. Each ticket will include a single SHS membership for one year, a $35 value.  See details on our website.

Order tickets early to reserve a place!

Sponsored by:  Savida Sangria

EDGEWOOD COMMUNITY LEARNING GARDEN

Volunteers came out in full force to team up with The Southeastern Horticultural Society, Fiskars and The Home Depot to help create a community learning garden.

The group of volunteers gathered early on a Saturday morning in June to beat the ninety degree heat and begin a neighborhood transformation at the corner of Hardee Street and Mayson Avenue in Atlanta.

Take a corner lot, add lots of volunteers from the local community and the Southeastern Horticultural Society, install plant material donated by The Home Depot, use state-of-the-art tools, donated by Fiskars, to work with and watch the transformation begin by a dedicated group of volunteers, executives and employees. Amazingly, the entire project was completed in just one day!

What stands there now is a beautiful garden filled with annuals and perennials, vegetables and herbs growing in raised beds, and large trees adding shade and greenery.

“There was a real need in this community to get kids interested in nature and help them understand where their food comes from as a part of teaching them about healthy eating,” explained Kate Chura, Executive Director of the Southeastern Horticultural Society.

Although the garden is beautiful to look at and is a wonderful place for neighbors to gather and socialize, three nearby schools are planning to utilize the garden to enhance their current curriculums. The garden will also host child and adult workshops and will be a meeting place for two local senior centers to enable their residents to continue their hobby of gardening.

Fiskars is the brainchild of the Project Orange Thumb Grant program.  Through grants, Fiskars provides community garden groups with the tools and materials needed to reach their goals for neighborhood beautification and horticulture education.  “We hope that this further celebrates the importance of gardening in providing beauty, sustainable food resources and a place of community,” said Paul Tonnesen, President of Fiskars.

The Edgewood community garden is the fifth in a series of national gardening projects for Fiskars.  Past projects have included garden makeovers in the Scarborough Neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one planned later this summer in the Baltimore area.

UPCOMING EVENTS

August 22 - *FREE* Children’s Workshop
9-11 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. Philip
2744 Peachtree Road, NW, Atlanta, Ga 30305
Bring your children out to learn all about pollinators.

September 13 - Vince Dooley Garden Tour
5-8 p.m.  Athens, Georgia
Tickets available through our website

October 10 - Plant Sale at Skyland Trail South
9 a.m.-noon
1709 Clairmont Road
Decatur, GA 30030

October 10 - *FREE* Children’s Workshop
9-11 a.m. at the Cathedral of St. Philip
2744 Peachtree Road, NW, Atlanta, Ga 30305
Bring your children out to learn all about chickens.

October 14 - Edgewood Community Learning Garden Ribbon Cutting
4-6 p.m. at the corners of Mayson Avenue and Hardee Street

November 14-15 Enviro Expo USA
at the Georgia World Congress Center (this event is free and open to the public)

December 2 - Dan Hinkley lecture and book signing
at the Atlanta History Center’s McElreath Hall
130 West Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, Ga 30305

February 4-6, 2010 - The Southeastern Flower Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre

NEW SHS STAFF

Kyla Zaro-Moore is joining the Southeastern Horticultural Society with ten years of practice in small-scale sustainable agriculture with an emphasis on urban gardening and community building through youth-led gardens.  She spent the better part of the last four years as Youth Programs Manager for the Oakhurst Community Garden Project in Decatur, GA, where she developed and implemented garden-based, year-round programming for youth ages 2-21.  She also developed teacher training workshops for using outdoor classrooms, and presented at peer workshops and conferences, including the Georgia Organics Conference and the Georgia Outdoor Classroom Symposium. Kyla has a Master’s of Horticulture in Agriculture from the University of Minnesota, and a BA in Environmental Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.