AUGUST 2010 MEETING REMINDER:

The August  21 meeting will be held @ Carol Cadles, 104 N Red Hill Rd, Martinsburg.  Melanie Files, Master Gardener, will give a talk on "Composting".  Coffee will be available ~ 9am with the meeting & speaker to follow.  Please remember to bring snacks, lawn chair, coffee mug, name tag & any living plant exchanges you might have.

Directions:  from I81, get off  the King St exit, exit 13 (by Shoney's), go towards downtown/historic district.  After going through the traffic light, you'll pass one street & the next one is S Red Hill Rd.  Proceed 1 block to the north end of the street; Carol's home is on the L, a 2 story stucco with red shutters.

July meeting info:
Pat Grinnan, chair, opened the July meeting by thanking Ellen Cotton & Terry Thorson for conducting the June meeting @ Hillbilly Daylilies, in her absence.

Pat & Charlie Brown hosted the July meeting @ their Shepherdstown home & provided a tour/talk re their gardening efforts, rain barrel, etc.  Their garden was lovely & in spite, of the drought, was quite profuse with blooms!  The Brown's were very gracious & everyone enjoyed the visit.

Terry Thorson has been working on website changes & plans to do a presentation @ an upcoming meeting to provide detailed information.  She will also set up a meeting with Bob Smith re our current site.  It was also suggested that we actually print out a members directory with contact information.

A variety of current garden questions were addressed & answered, including what to do about leaves turning brown:  use "Wilt Pruf" @ a lower doseage, due to drought; what to do about ants on vegetable plants:  per Eldon Winston, use ant traps @ the base of the plant, or another suggestion was to spray aphid poo.  For juvenile squash bugs:  use Rotoene power on the bottom of the leaves.

Lori Robertson,  Licensed Bodyworker/massage therapist & gardener was our speaker.  Lori has an office in Winchester, VA & one in Shepherdstown.  She does structural based work, going to the soft tissue.  She recommends that we do our garden projects, such as weeding, directly in front of us, rather than rotating to the side, then we can step side to side to complete the task.  Per Lori, when picking up soil, rocks, etc, make sure the object is close to your body & then lift with the arms, bending the knees.  She notes that our front legs & arm muscles are always stronger & that we should go with the flow of the motion.  Many members had specific questions & it sounds as though Lori will be booked solid for many months to come!  Her phone # is 540-336-4737, if you'd like to schedule an appointment.

Priscilla Deem is lookingl for Larkspur seeds; if you have any to share!

Hope to see you all on Sat, Aug 21!