Garden goodness, to go Valley club growing good things for sale
Published 8:07 pm Tuesday, April 7, 2009
One might suppose it would be tough for the members of the Snoqualmie Valley Garden Club to part with the veggies, flowers and plants they’ve shepherded through a rough winter and wet spring.
But club president Patty Parker-Gillis said it’s easy enough — club members can just grow more.
The garden club is gearing up for its annual sale, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 9, at the Mount Si Senior Center in North Bend.
The ground may have been cold for months, but members have used two greenhouses to prepare flowering annuals and perennials, such as dahlias, geraniums and petunias, to sell for spring.
“More people are growing their own vegetables,” Parker-Gillis said. Visitors to the sale can buy cucumbers, squash, radishes and other good things from the garden.
Each year, members donate plants that they dig from their own garden, such as a mature shrub or prized flower.
Many such plants are quick to multiply, Parker-Gillis said, so it’s not as if the club’s gardeners are making a difficult sacrifice.
“People are fine with donating, and it’s for a good cause,” she said.
Proceeds from the sale fund college scholarships for Mount Si High School graduates, as they have since 2003.
New this year, the club will make a donation for care packages to Children of the Nations, an international charity that helps orphaned children in the African nation of Sierra Leone.
Snoqualmie Valley Garden Club members meet monthly at the senior center, listen to guest speakers and go on scheduled tours of private gardens registered with the Horticultural Society. The group is seeking new members.
• To learn more about the garden club sale, visit www.gardenclub.150m.com or call Parker-Gillis at (206) 295 8363.
