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PCL Garden Club
PCL Garden Club is an intergenerational gardening club at the library. Together, we will help our garden grow! Kids, adults, teens, and families! All are welcome to drop in to help. We are giving back to the community in a new partnership with Plant A Row!
Don’t let the summer slip away! Do something meaningful with your family. There are a couple of sessions left!
Special thanks for making this program a success to the Parkland Garden Club, Allentown West Rotary, and the Allentown West Rotary Green Thumbs Garden Project. All programming is sponsored by the Friends of the Parkland Community Library.
Week 13
August 29 was the season wrap-up of the PCL Garden Club.
More to come!
While this was the final meeting of the summer, participants are interested in continuing the club year-round to learn about fall garden clean-up: composting, fall crops, pumpkin harvest and decorating, and seed starting for next season.
300lbs Donated!
Karen Fitzpatrick from Plant a Row was very thankful for all the help with the garden. The kids did a terrific job! She reported that the PCL Garden Club harvested more than 300 lbs. of produce this season!
Harvesting Carrots
Last night, we finally had the opportunity to harvest carrots! The kids were so surprised to learn that carrots are root vegetables and, therefore, they grow under the soil.
Other Vegetables
We also had a huge harvest of tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, and kale. There were a few hot peppers ready for picking. No volunteers to try them!
Week 12
The PCL Garden Club met on August 23. Everyone’s hard work in the community garden has paid off!
We enjoyed picnicking and snacking on homemade, garden-fresh recipes with our bounty! We had marinara and pesto from our tomatoes, basil spread on a fresh French baguette, and salsa verde made from our tomatillos and jalapeños! We were happy to share with our new special friend, Anna, an exchange student from Denmark who joined this past week!
Plant A Row
Donation made
We harvested a nice collection of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and tomatillos for Plant a Row. Participants started the fall cleanup of some plants that had finished producing for the season.
The Bounty
Trying new things
We enjoyed picnicking and snacking on homemade, garden-fresh recipes with our bounty! We had marinara and pesto from our tomatoes, basil spread on a fresh French baguette, and salsa verde made from our tomatillos and jalapeños!
A Special Visitor
Welcome, Anna!
We were happy to share with our new special friend, Anna, an exchange student from Denmark who joined this past week!
What’s in store for the future
This Wednesday, August 30, will be our final weekly meeting for the Summer Garden Club. However, we have plans to continue monthly gatherings through Fall and Winter. There’s always something to do to prepare for next season!
Topics to look forward to:
- Pumpkin harvest and decorating
- Putting our garden to bed
- Composting
- Learning the importance of what is in our soil
- Seed starting
- Preparing the garden beds for our new plants
- Starting all over again!
We’re looking forward to “growing” our Club as successfully as we developed this season’s garden!
Week 11
August 16’s group harvested seeds for the next season.
Karly, a special guest from the Parkland Garden Club, joined us and showed the participants how to collect seeds from tomatoes and cucumbers that they could put away for next year’s garden.
Tending the Garden
Seed Saving
Tomatoes and other vegetables were collected and carefully cut to expose the seeds. The kids also planted some seeds for fall crops!
The Bounty
Fresh Produce!
Check out the beans! We also harvested cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, and tomatillos!
Make Salsa Verde!
8/23/23
Next week, we will be snacking on Salsa Verde made from the tomatillos we harvested this week.
Week 4
On June 29, Wednesday’s group had the opportunity to harvest some vegetables and herbs—kale, basil, and radishes.
The club participants are pleased with the progress of the plantings. Gardeners could taste arugula and cilantro, an herb popular in Latin American, Caribbean, and East Asian dishes. Enthusiastic gardeners tied up the tomato plants and trained a zucchini to climb a cage!
Karen Fitzpatrick
From Plant a Row joined us and discussed where the veggies we grow would be delivered to help people in the community.
Special thanks to Karen for her dedication and enthusiasm! Thank you for bringing pumpkin plants for our gardeners! We look forward to sharing their progress.
Drop by Wednesdays this summer.
Our club is growing! We hope that you will join us for our next meet-up! We meet in the library on rainy days to craft, discuss, and plan.
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar Update:
The black swallowtail caterpillar we spotted last week ate most of our dill plant. So we planted more seeds. One of our members brought the caterpillar home to a habitat where she raises other butterflies. If you are interested in attracting black swallowtails, plant dill, parsley, carrots, fennel, and rue. These are all host plants for black swallowtail butterflies.
Taste test
Training zucchini vines
Learn about vegetable gardening
Donations:
Plant a Row is a passive program: a cooler will be placed in the library’s foyer on Wednesday afternoons.
Drop-off will start at 4PM on Wednesday afternoon and ends at 8PM on Thursday evening.
- The season opens June 11 and runs through October 12, 2023.
- The last collection is October 12, and ends at 8PM.
This program encourages local backyard gardeners to donate one row in their existing gardens and donate the produce from that row to local food pantries and free meal centers. Benefits go to our neighbors in need in the Lehigh Valley.
If you do not have to have a garden to donate, we gladly accept produce purchased from farmers‘ markets and the grocery store.
Contact us with any questions!
PCL
Adult Services
610-398-1361 ext. 117
adults@parklandlibrary.org
Plant A Row
Lehigh Valley Chapter
610-530-7728
info@plantarowlv.org
What’s going on a PCL
Check out our programs for patrons of all ages!