neighborhood news

Dear neighbors,
I have attached 3 Word documents that have calendars for the summer of all the concerts at the local parks. Many thanks to Katherine Weaver, our neighbor, who put this together. I went to the first LG concert last night at "our" park on Cambridge and it was great! There will be one every Weds evening at 7. Come and look for your neighbors!

I also have a note to pass on about gardening resources - many thanks to Valerie Costa, neighbor, for putting this together!

Interested in a Plant Swap?

 

I have been involved in several informal, small scale plant swaps over the years and have received a lot of great plants. Aside from saving some cash, another advantage is that plants that I get from a plant swap generally grow very well because usually people bring plants that do so well that they have an abundance of them! The plants generally thrive in our local conditions...this can be a great way to add new plants to your landscape while giving you an opportunity to thin out some of yours that may need to be divided.

 

It's fun, free and easy!

 

If you are interested, go to www.plantswap.net. You do have to register but it is pretty simple to do. After you register, near the top, click on Plant Swap and a navigation bar will be on the left.  Under Community, go to social groups and then search for GK Gardeners. Join the group, and then enter what you are looking for and what you have to swap. Maybe someone will have something you are looking for or interested in trying out in your garden! Then, you contact each other and arrange for the swap. I think we could open it up to some friends outside Gwynedd Knoll who live in the area as I think the more people interested, the greater the variety of plants and the greater the possibility of finding what you are looking for. Then, possibly next spring or even this fall, we can try to organize a formal plant swap.  Right now, though, with the end of the school year, graduation parties coming up for many and vacations, I thought it might be too late in to try to get a date that would work for enough people.

 

Happy Gardening!

 Val Costa


And while we are on the subject of gardening...a neighbor passed on this suggestion about the sweet gum trees we have in the 'hood. Might be worth a try if your trees are struggling.
In speaking with our arborist who came out to evaluate the plantings, we were told that the common method of mulching up to a large crown at the base of the trees is putting the sweet gums all around the neighborhood at pretty serious risk.  Apparently the mulch should not be piled up over the root base at ground level as it more or less chokes off the base of the tree.   They said we should use the small fork tool and pull that mulch away from the tree base until we reached the root area.  (Not all trees are sensitive to this practice.)

Thanks and have a nice weekend!
Carol Pfister
gwyneddknoll@gmail.com
215-661-8775