neighborhood news

Please check your family's CD collections and see if you have lost some! (: 
Thanks,
Carol Pfister
gwyneddknoll@gmail.com
215-661-8775

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anne Magowan <anne.magowan@verizon.net>
Date: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 6:40 PM
Subject: Found
To: Gwynedd Knoll Garden Club <gwyneddknoll@gmail.com>

Would you please forward this to the e-mail list:

 

FOUND on the corner of Hancock and Turnbury, a CD container with 60 + CD's and the initials MPV on the front.

Call 699-6210 to retrieve.

 

Thank you,

 

Anne

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

neighborhood news

Dear neighbors,

First a reminder from our young neighbor:
Can you please let our neighbors know that on (Saturday) June 13, from 9 a.m-3p.m there will be a Hazardous Waste Collection at Montgomery County Community College in Whitpain Township. You can dispose of household hazardous waste. Please protect the environment by doing this! 

 Thank you,  Charlie Bromberg

You might find this web site for the Waste Collection helpful : http://www.wsaemc.org/Recycling/Hazardous%20Waste.htm

Secondly, I want to remind you about our efforts to collect money to maintain our entryways. We have received 50 contributions so far - thank you so much to those families! I have received some questions from people wondering about the amount asked for and how many people have contributed etc. I hope the following points will help to explain our need for your contributions.

•  There were 102 donations given in 2007 (54% of the neighborhood), but they ranged in amounts from $25 - $100; the average donation was about $40, resulting in a total of $4400.  (There was not a definitive "invoice amount" at that time, and we expected a higher percentage of donating families and dollar amounts.)
 
•  In 2007/2008, the payments to Sabia Landscaping, who did the major initial work in the Summer of 2007 of removing overgrown bushes, defining the garden area and planting new bushes and flowers, totaled $7000, and Providence Landscaping charged $800 in the Fall of 2008 to clean up the beds and plant Fall/Spring flowers. 

 
•  Since there was no request for donations in 2008, the previously collected amount of $4400 was short of the expenditures; that shortfall as well as anticipated expenditures in 2009 resulted in the approach to issue an "invoice" asking for $80, with the hope that the response rate would be at least as much as in 2007.  It is hoped that donations this year will clear up the deficit and also pay completely for this year's services.  Hereafter, donations will be requested annually.

Lastly, let me remind you that we began this "garden club" several years ago and used to try to take care of the entryways ourselves. It was difficult to do with only a few hardy volunteers and the big cleanup necessary was beyond our scope. All of the decisions over the years have been made by consulting with groups of interested neighbors who have  suggested and agreed with all of the steps taken. Thank you so much for your generosity thus far - the neighborhood is looking great!

If you have not yet sent in your contribution, please see the document attached for the address information. Thank you very much!

Carol Pfister
gwyneddknoll@gmail.com
215-661-8775