There is so much happening in this club of ours!! Everyone should be proud of being a part of such a vibrant organization. Even though there was no members' meeting this month, the committees are all chugging along, filled with passionate and enthusiastic members! Thanks to everyone who are

working so hard!

I hope everyone has explored our wonderful website! If you are looking for “what's happening” in the club, go up to the top of the home page and click on “Meetings/Events/Workshops". A very

complete page opens up, and you can scroll down for descriptions of each speaker for all the members meetings. Keep scrolling, because at the end comes several other events and workshops that are taking place. I, personally, go onto the site frequently just to keep my calendar up to date. Donna Arold does a fabulous job with the entire website.

The 100th anniversary year is upon us, and there is one committee that is working on a members' party at the end of the summer. It will take place at the Old Mill, and will be a casual but fun celebration where everyone brings their own hardy appetizers and drinks and dishes. It will be on Friday, September 13th from 4-6 pm. There is a short program planned, and it really promises to be a

fun party. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

There are more events happening too around this year's centennial. Keep reading this newsletter throughout the next months for announcements on those being planned. One in particular is the Edgartown Stroll – with a special emphasis on our club's history taking place at the Carnegie Museum in Edgartown. This takes place on July 25th. All these activities will be wonderful and celebratory of

our long history.

We will also be featured on an exhibition wall at the Martha's Vineyard Museum in September. Facts about our club, along with pictures of some of our events and people, will be featured. Other print materials are in the works, also, to give emphasis to this special year of our club. -Ty Johnston, MVGC President

Suzanne Boyer

Judy Peterson

Benjamin Gonzalez

Linda Gonzalez

Kristy Rose

Amy Schuster

Jim Aram

Janet O'Brien Aram

Jennifer Jordan

Julie Anne McNary

Michelle Borre

JoAnn Fruchtman

Eileen Sandberg

Members; if you have any questions re: this event, please reach out to either Deb or Trudy. 

CELEBRATE SPRING, Friday, April 5th from 4-6 pm...The island is our garden and we have Pinkletinks@ The Old Mill. Come out and meet them!

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS and for those who are not members that want to join the Club so they can attend this event, JOIN HERE!

Your floral design committee has been busy with events for the membership this year. Thanks to everyone for your support! We are grateful.

The Valentine’s Day workshop on February 10th was a tremendous success.

Floral Design Co-Chairs Jayne Isford and Nancy Cabot organized a fun filled workshop for 16 enthusiastic club members, with flowers from Emily Coulter of Morrice Florists. Floral designers, and club legends Nancy Cabot and Wiet Bacheller (above is one of the arrangements Wiet's created after the workshop) provided instruction to the participants, who then each created a lovely floral arrangement to take home for Valentine’s Day. A magical afternoon of fun, friendship, and flowers! Images from the day are on our website...click here to see them!

The next Nancy’s Challenge will take place at the Membership Meeting on Tuesday, April 23rd . With a theme of “Almost Spring” members will be encouraged to bring an arrangement to the meeting. Nancy suggests that arrangers look beyond the most obvious, daffodils, and add to

them flowering trees/shrubs such as forsythia, witch hazel, shad for examples. Also don’t forget all the beautiful new buds and leaves on interesting, shaped branches throughout the island in April. The spring greens are varied and particularly beautiful.

Off island members are encouraged to participate in Nancy’s Challenge and send a photo of their design to Jayne Isford by Sunday, April 21st for display at the meeting to floraldesign@marthasvineyardgardenclub.org.

We will send reminders to you in the early spring with more details! This is not a judged event, purely for joy and participating with your fellow club members!

Blooming Art Floral Design Planning is well underway, with Debbie Barrett, Fern Vaughan and Jayne Isford as Co-chairs. We will be offering several workshops for our 35 floral designers. A special time to be a floral designer in the Club’s 100 th birthday year. Contact Debbie Barrett at dbarrett141@gmail.com if you would like to be a designer or backup designer for us!

We are planning to offer a Foraging Field Trip with Nancy Cabot on the island in early May for the membership. Stay tuned as this develops!

Our interactive workshops have been very well received. We plan to offer another workshop in the early fall focused on fall floral arrangements, and the annual Holiday Wreath Workshop will be held again this year on Saturday, December 7th at the Wakeman Center.

Keep checking the website and your emails for ongoing updates on all things floral! CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR FLORAL DESIGN PAGE ON THE MVGC WEBSITE!

Let’s fill a car (or 2) bound for the Gardener’s Gathering at NEU, Boston, March 16th.

Contact Laurisa, (of the MVGC Conservation Committee) at

The Trustees LOVE gardens and want to celebrate all things gardening! On March 16, 2024, the 48th Annual Gardeners’ Gathering brings Boston-area growers of all kinds together for a FREE day full of informative workshops, engaging exhibitors, networking, and inspiration. REGISTER FOR THE EVENT BY CLICKING HERE.

A Trustees Event , "Gardeners’ Gathering" on March 16, 2024. Location is Northeastern University, Shillman Hall, Boston, MA. Must register but the event is free and open to all.

On February 8, the MV Times published a great article about our Club! The backstory is that in late January I sent an 'early history of the MV Garden Club' to the MV Times in hopes that they would print it. I thought it a great way to kick off our Centennial year and garner more interest in our Club. I was thrilled when the Editor reached out to me and said they wanted to expand on the story by bringing it to the present day and noting our Club's civic involvement and dedication to conservation throughout the years. The article ran online via the MV Times on February 7, and was published in the February 8 edition of the newspaper. Below are a few images of the news article with photos (that are hard to see) or you can CLICK HERE to read the online version with a few of the images they pulled from the print copy included. Thanks again, MV Times for honoring our Centennial with such great publicity! Much appreciated!

The Old Mill was built in the 1840s and although it has had several renovations it still has several limitations - no heat

or A/C, no running water, no plumbing. So it is used April/ May through September/October (weather permitting) for member meetings, last Friday meet & greet, the plant sale in May and of course Blooming Art in June. It’s also available for small group events such as floral design workshops and committee meetings. The attic is full of useful things such as benches and plant stands, as well as signs and decorations. In season we have a porta-potty, cleaning services, a landscaper for big jobs and brush removal, and a part time caretaker to help with setup and simple maintenance. Joan Cavazuti’s 'Special Projects' committee provides outside gardening and is always looking for new members.

If you are thinking of having a member event or meeting, please let me know.

I’ll arrange to have the building cleaned, open and set up. Access to the grounds and building is limited (we’ve had problems with squatters) but I can let you in or give you access to our lock box. If you would like a tour, please let me or Susan Hobart know. We’re proud of our Mill and happy to share it with the club.

Happy March to all of you, Garden Club members... It’s the time of year that I start thinking of Blooming Art in June..14,15,16...

Carol Goldstein and I are coordinating Docents again this year. I am hoping that you will volunteer. It is a wonderful opportunity to see the Old Mill, meet some new members and to support our club. We are hoping new members and members who haven’t been involved before will step up and enjoy our talented artists and flower designers. We like to have 3-4 docents per time slot to welcome members and guests, sell art work, and collect entrance fees. It’s fun and easy. You can reach out to me at gaybesmith@gmail.com.

Our schedule for Friday 14th, Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th:

10:00-12:30

12:30-3:00

3:00-5:00 (Friday and Saturday only) - Submitted by Gay Smith, Docents, BA 2024

From Carol Goldstein, Greenhouse Volunteer:

For the benefit of those off island, here are some pics of the new cold frames. The struts are self supporting and the latches are stainless steel so these should be good for a long time. The MVGC extends HUGE thanks to Les Goldstein for his craftsmanship and care in building these for the Greenhouse peeps!

We also need docents to help with the tour, please email Anne at annekushwaha@gmail.com or Deb Daley at deb@thedalys.org if you would like to help with a 3 hour shift that day. - submitted by Anne Kushwaha

To see pics and learn about the Edgartown Stroll, 2023, CLICK HERE

To see Conservation 'Good Reads' shared by the Committee this month, CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE 'CONSERVATION RESOURCES'

~ ~ The next Beach Befrienders Beach Cleanup is ~ ~

March Meeting Program topic is 'CSAs and Their Contribution to the Community'

CSAs and their Contribution to the Community

    •    What does CSA stand for and what does it mean?

    •    How does a CSA operate for the grower and for the customer?

    •    What are the customer’s benefits of joining?

    •    What are the benefits to the community? environment? conservation?

Refreshments and Social Time begins @ 12:30; the meeting/program begins @ 1:00pm at The Wakeman Center located in Vineyard Haven in their Program Room.

​FREE to MVGC Members / Open to non-members @ $10.00 pp

Vineyard Haven members and VP to provide snacks & refreshments.

To read Rusty's BIO, Click Here to get to the Programs Page

With more than $20,000 in donations already, and commitments from Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury to include our requests for $10,000 of Community Preservation funding in their town warrants, we have almost reached our Phase I goal of $80,000 for safety improvements to the Old Mill! The initial work is about to begin! We’ve hired an electrician to upgrade the electrical service and install fans and additional lighting. Hopefully, fingers crossed, you’ll see these improvements for Blooming Art!

Even though it's cold and windy outside, and the gardens are covered with snow, it's time to start planning for the next season of WALKABOUTS! Our walkabouts are a perfect forum to allow an exchange of gardening philosophy and ideas in a VERY informal way. For the past few summers we had members from all over the Vineyard open up their large or small gardens. We'd love to have more

gardens to share this spring, summer, and even early fall!

What exactly is a Walkabout? Well, according to the dictionary it is “a short period of wandering as an interruption of regular work”, often used in the phrase “go walkabout” in Australia. Here at the MV Garden Club we use it to describe the fascinating and stimulating opportunities to wander about other gardens. This is a delightful way to spend a summer morning or afternoon, experiencing the gardens of fellow club members who are willing to share the beauty and history of their property and plantings. Often one may glimpse another member with a notebook and pen, jotting down ideas or plant names. This is really a fun and easy way to learn “what works” on the Vineyard, to share our own knowledge

with others, and to get to know others in the club. And it's all free!

As you can see by this newsletter there are many activities happening in the club this year. But these walkabouts are enjoyable and pretty relaxing, so they may be nice to fit into our busy weeks. The first step in this process is getting members to volunteer to open their gardens. What needs to be said is that these walkabouts are casual and non-judgmental. No one expects that the gardens are professional --- some may be mature gardens and others may be “works in progress.” Some may be pristine and beautifully groomed, but most will probably have a wheelbarrow sitting out and tools leaning against the shed! Please consider your calendar and decide if you would be able to offer your little piece of the island for other members and their guests to see in May, June, July, or August. Contact me, Ty

Johnston, at 339-364-1363 and leave a message or email me at tyrene.johnston@gmail.com. I'll compile a list and a calendar and get it out to the whole club.

Join VCS on March 9th at 10 am for the last installment of this year's Winter Walks series, an exploration of the southeastern side of the Edgartown Great Pond, featuring a visit to Slough Farm. It's a fitting conclusion to a series focused on the Island's coastal ponds, the threats they face, and the critical connections with land use decisions in their watersheds.

Another event...attend “Love Song for the Vineyard Lawn” which will be presented @ the Chilmark Library, March 13th at 4:00 pm. Join VCS as you learn about how lawn care choices affects everything from our personal health to our community’s water quality to the global climate.

Anita Christian, past president and long time member of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, has moved to Yardley, PA to be near her family. She will be 96 later this month. I am sending her a birthday/new home card from the MVGClub. I am sure she would enjoy hearing from other members. Her new address is Heartis Yardley, 255 Oxford Valley Road, Yardley, PA 19067.

The Martha's Vineyard Garden Club has achieved their 100 item donation pledge for the Island Food Pantry. Amazingly, twice that, 200 items, have been given in honor of our 100th anniversary. It was a success because of the generosity of our members. Thank you to all who participated.

Every June at the Awards Ceremony  the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club gives a scholarship to an island student planning to major in agriculture, horticulture, or environmental science. This year we will be awarding a second scholarship in honor of our 100th anniversary. Members can donate to the scholarship fund by check or online. Donations to our scholarship fund are tax deductible. -Submitted by Joan Eville, Scholarship Committee 

Please join MVGC member, Peter Norris, Ph.D. who will lead a workshop for a maximum of 5 people [ Donation to the Garden Club of 50$] in a two part workshop at Blueberry Ridge Garden to create an unique rhododendron of their very own - a one-of-a-kind plant that no one else anywhere in the country has!

Here's how it would work.

The group will meet in late May/Early June to discuss the process, view rhododendron hybrids and species in bloom and choose our pairs - seed parent and pollen parent.

Peter will instruct each member on how to perform the pollination, protection and labelling, and then supervise them as they make the cross. This is the end of part 1.

The group will reconvene in late summer after the fertilized pods have ripened, and more work will happen in the greenhouse at Blueberry Ridge.

Contact: Peter Norris ~ Blueberry Ridge Garden ~ peternorris1@gmail.com.

I was thrilled to know that Kathie Gariepy's 'Bulb Forcing' Program inspired our members to do a little forcing of their own this winter!

Here are a few images that members shared with me...as well as a few sweet little floral arrangements that I thought were worth sharing. (Images are below)

Thanks to everyone who brightened my day with your contributions! My hope is that this post will inspire other members or news readers to try their hand at playing with Fall and Spring blooming bulbs and sharing their successes with us through the MVGC news!

A GREAT RESOURCE if you want to purchase bulbs while supporting the MVGC is Brent and Becky's Bulbs! Your purchase will earn the Club 25% of your purchase! Visit www.bloominbucks.com, and select our Club's registered name (which is Martha's Vineyard Garden Club, Inc.) and begin your shopping. They are now selling summer-bloomers so def check out their amazing website. We do thank you in advance for your support of our Club!

In the future, please send your favorite flower pics and your info to news@marthasvineyardgardenclub.org and I'll add your beautiful early Spring bloomers to the next newsletter! -submitted by Donna Arold, Communications

​There is a wonderful listing of Virtual Classes that Mass Horticultural Society is offering now through June. A few of the offerings include Gardening with Natives, Botanical Beach Combing, Creating an Edible Ornamental Garden, Pollinator Gardening and Dahlias 101! CLICK HERE to get to the full list and reserve your spot in class!