leadership
2025 Garden Club Board
activities
Dates to Remember
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| Fridays at 8:am | Chamber of Commerce Greeters. Click for their Calendar of upcoming Events |
| June 5, 9am | Board Meeting at Patty Sorensen’s. All are welcome. |
| June 8, 2025 | It's happening! Garden Tour & Faire!! |
| June 16 | Garden Club Meeting and Luncheon |
| June 21 | Field Trip to the Lebanon Garden Tour |
| July 9 | Field trip to Independence Inspiration Garden. |
June Club Luncheon | Elaine Pollak
The Garden Club takes a hiatus in July and August for travel, friends, and our own gardens so we can return in September invigorated and ready to get things done
At our June meeting on the 16 we will get a preliminary report on the Tour and Faire, vote to pass the budget, install our new Club officers, and meet the recipients of our scholarships.
Then we eat!! No speaker, just enjoying one another. The board is providing beverages. Bring something to share. We hope to see you there!!
Editor’s note: Be Groovy-Consider reducing plastics use by bringing your own utensils.
Presidents Corner
Elaine Pollak
McMinnville Garden Club PresidentThis is my last message to you as president. It has been an honor and pleasure to work with all our wonderful members, those who have been around for close to twenty years and those who have joined us in the last few years.
In 1926, the McMinnville Civic Club formed a garden interest group. 99 years later, we are the McMinnville Garden Club with 90+ members.
Originally, the group consisted of wives of civic leaders, interested in flower arrangements. They didn’t have to work outside of the home. They hosted teas in their gardens, dressed in their best, including hats and gloves.
We have evolved into the service organization we are today, awarding scholarships and creating and maintaining places of beauty within our city.
It has been an eventful two years. We made crafts. We went on field trips. We enjoyed informative speakers. We now have a functioning website. We have made a commitment to conservation and sustainability. The Serenity Garden, while not completed, is already a place to relax, renew and contemplate.
We all volunteered and continue to volunteer to accomplish our goals. All give according to their abilities. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. It is because of the support and dedication of our members, that we have managed to do so much.
I have tried to thank individuals throughout my time in office. If I began to name names here, this message would be way too long. Thank you all for all you have done for the club and continue to do for the club.
happy happy
Birthdays!
congratulations!
Members celebrating March Birthdays this month: June, Thomas, Lisa (Baker), Mary Lou , Margaret
Good Eats!
As served on Mother’s Day by Jen
- 3 C flour
- 1 stick of cold butter cubed
- 1 T baking powder
- ½ C crystallized ginger, chopped 1 t baking soda
- 1 ¼ C buttermilk 2 T sugar
- 2 T melted butter Turbinado sugar
- Whisk in large bowl, flour, powder, soda, and sugar.
- Cut in the cold butter until it looks like a coarse meal.
- Add ginger and buttermilk to form a dough.
- Turnout onto a board and knead lightly.
- Form a flattened disk.
- Cut into 3 pieces and shape each into a flattened circle on parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Score each into 4 wedges.
- Brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes. Freeze well.
Makes a yummy strawberry shortcake!
Shortcake humor:
I’m not sure what’s more crumbly, the shortcake or my life choices.
~ Anon
Membership
Just a friendly reminder: Membership dues for the 2025/2026 calendar year are encouraged to be paid at the May or June club meetings. A table will be set-up next to the Membership sign-in table as you enter the meeting.
We accept Cash or Check. Individuals are $25, and Couples are $40.
If you can’t attend the meetings, please send your check addressed to the:
- McMinnville Garden Club
- PO Box 386,
- McMinnville OR 97128
Thank you.
June Field Trip
Our June field trip will be on Saturday, the 21st to the Lebanon Garden Tour. We will meet at the Baker Creek Community Church parking lot on the Elm Street side at 9 am. The tour costs $20.
There will be seven gardens, all within walking distance of Ralston Park where there will be a Garden Art and Quilt show. “Lunch will be at Hangry Solution.”
There are also two bonus gardens that are not within walking distance.
Let Elaine know if you wish to join us. If you have signed up and cannot make it, please notify us so we do not wait for you.
Spring, a Glorious Time for Field Trips
At the Schreiner’s Iris Display Garden → If you missed it. You’ll have to wait until next year. But put it on your calendar for next year. Here’s the scoop from their website:
“Bloom Season” – In early May each year, we open our 10-acre display gardens and expansive iris fields to the public for about 3 weeks. Make a tour of Schreiner’s Iris Gardens one of your springtime traditions.”
The Field Trip to The Belle Ainsworth Jenkins Estate, located near Beaverton, Oregon. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built starting in 1912, the main house on the property was intended as a summer home. The entire 68-acre estate is owned by the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District.
If you missed the field trip. . . No Problem, it’s only a 45-minute drive. Invite a friend or two and go for a summer jaunt.
Garden Tour & Faire Updates
This is it…the final countdown! The push now is to sell tickets. Tickets are for sale at Incahoots as well as Kraemers. Sharalie has tickets, if you need any more. Questions can be directed to Sharalie, Lisa or Bonnie.
There is a need for volunteers to sell tickets in the afternoon at our Garden Club booths at the Faire. Mike has requested volunteers to help vendors set up in the morning and take down at the end of the Faire.
A volunteer ONLY pre-tour will take place Saturday June 7 (the day before). We will meet at Baker Creek church parking lot to car pool at 9:15. Please remember to return all paraphernalia belonging to the Garden Club and used for the tour to Baker Creek church after the tour (unless you have been directed to return items to a different person/location by your chairperson).
We are grateful to everyone who has worked so hard over the last few months to make this event come together.
Garden Tour Yard Signs
Purple & Green: PLEASE bring back your green & purple yard signs to our June Meeting on June 16, 2025. Many Thanks, Betty Ballentine.
Red & White: PLEASE retrieve your red & white road signs on the day of the tour or on the following day. Return them to Christine Pritt’s home on Monday June 9 from 10:00am-1:00pm or call to make other arrangements for other days/times. Many thanks, to all you Valliant Roadsters.
News From Our Nominating Committee
The members will be voting during the May meeting. Installation of officers will take place at our June meeting. Executive committee nominees are as follows:
- President-Rita Canales
- Vice President-Dorothea Lee
- Treasurer-Linda Hansen and Lisa Binner
- Secretary-Norman Jean Williams
Arts and Crafts: Back in October
This Rumbling Rockslide of Crafting Fun will be back in October.
Conservation & Sustainability Committee
Sustainability: The month of May focused on the 4 Sustainability Principal, REUSE. Several members bought samples of REUSE items. One great example came from Linda Hanson who brought felted wool dryer balls. Take heart all despondent ironers: dryer balls are not only reusable; they allow you to spend less-or-no time ironing because they naturally soften wrinkles by creating friction while tumbling in the dryer, they are a reusable, eco-friendly, cost cutting alternative to dryer sheets and liquid fabric softeners.
Collection Event News: Zero Waste McMinnville had another collection event on May 3rd. They collected 62 55-gallon bags of plastic. The February event collected 128 40-
gallon bags. The Garden Club members collected and turned in about 20 bags, compared to 46 in February. Were less bags collected because of four collection events instead of three? Or are people using less plastic? Hopefully, a lot of the latter!
Good News: The August 2 recycling event will collect Styrofoam. For our members who are volunteering at the collection events, each one can bring 3 bags
to donate for free, which would save our club some money. Lisa also wanted to remind the Club that they can drop off their clean and sorted plastic that doesn’t go to Recology at her house over the summer. We have one more meeting in June that you can bring your plastic.
Plastics Legislation: On Tuesday, May 27, the Oregon Senate approved SB 551, which will go to the governor for signature. The bill bans the use of “reusable plastic checkout bags” at restaurants, grocery stores and retail stores statewide. These are the reusable plastic bags, designed for multiple use and are made of durable plastic that is at least four mils thick. Hopefully. As things go now, these bags will be banned as of January 1, 2027
Community Beautification Projects
The post office sure looks great now!
Be sure to check it out and to thank Mark Freeman for heading up this project. Mark’s motto must surely be: “Never turn away any help offered”.
In line with that motto, Mark reported that he was delighted when a person who is currently homeless, stopped by to offer his help for a while.
Yard of the Month Recognition
Yard of the Month takes a break during the Month of June to allow our 5 fabulous gardens on the Garden Tour to take all the glory. As usual, we thank Starla Pointer, intrepid News Register reporter for a 2 page *article, including several photographs, featuring Abraham and Sara Hanson’s lovely garden, #2 on the McMinnville Garden
Club Tour.
*Friday, 5/29/25 issue, pages 9 & 10.
Serenity Garden
On Tuesday, May 20, several people (not all pictured) showed up to help with sprucing up the Serenity Garden. One club member couldn’t be there so she sent her gardener in her place!
Horticulture | Christine Pritts
I attended the Serenity Garden’s May spruce up event. Weeding turned out to be interesting because I soon came across a worm snake. By the time I was done weeding for the day, I counted 9 worm snakes, so I took a moment for some research. Turns out Western Worm Snakes are native to Oregon, are harmless, and are not considered an invasive species. They feed primarily on earthworms (hence the name?) but may also eat other elongate invertebrates. To read more, see the full post here.
Newsletter Submissions
Please send your articles to Christine HERE by the 25th of each month.
Resources
