2024 Meetings & Events
August 8, 2024
12:30p - 3p
Annual Meeting and Sunny Days Ahead
Farr Center, 5283 Main Street, Onekama, MI 49675
12:30p - 1p: Sign in, name tags, refreshments, and social time.
1pm: Program and business meeting. Business meeting includes nomination of officers for 2025.
Speaker John Sarver will discuss solar power in Michigan -- opportunities, issues, how to assess if it is the right thing for your home, and agrivoltaics, i.e., how solar power and farming can complement each other. He will use a PowerPoint presentation, lecture, discussion, and Q&A to convey his passion for renewable energy!
John spent 35 years at the Michigan Energy Office where he was a program director, managing energy efficiency programs and efforts to promote solar and wind energy. He is a Board Member (and former Executive Director) of Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association. GLREA is a statewide non-profit that promotes and facilitates a greater use of renewable energy.
August 22, 2024
12:30p - 3p
The Lifecycle of the Eastern Bluebird
Farr Center, 5283 Main Street, Onekama, MI 49675
12:30p - 1p: Sign in, name tags, refreshments, and social time.
1pm: Program and business meeting.
Speaker Charles St. Charles, a naturalist and renowned northern Michigan filmmaker, will share select film footage and discuss the challenges of making a wildlife film featuring the eastern Bluebird. His current film is being produced in partnership with the Michigan Bluebird Society.
September 5, 2024
6p - 8:30p
Celebrate Our Balanced Learning
Camp Tosebo, 7228 Miller Road, Manistee, MI 49660
Club members are invited to bring a guest as we mark the close of Portage Lake Garden Club’s 89th year. Camp Tosebo will be the location for this evening celebration. Officers will be installed during a short business meeting.
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Members with last name starting with A through J to bring sweet finger food. Members with last name starting with K through Z to bring a savory hors d’oeuvre to share.
June 13, 2024
11:30a - 2:30p
Landscaping a Nationally Acclaimed Golf Course
Arcadia Bluff South Course
11:30a - Noon: Sign in, name tags and social time
Noon: Lunch (pre-order and pre-pay)
Club’s theme for 2024-25 is balance among the four schools of National Garden Clubs: environmental, landscape design, gardening, and flower show schools.
This meeting focuses on landscape design education. Zack Redman will present information about the landscape design at Arcadia Bluffs, including plant selection, maintenance, and operations as head groundskeeper.
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Business Meeting Includes:
Approval of 2024/25 Budget -- vote
Proposed revision to Bylaws -- vote
June 27, 2024
12:30p - 3p
Plant Swap and
Putting on our Thinking Caps for Flower Shows
Farr Center, 5283 Main Street, Onekama, MI 49675
BRING: Plants for Swapping
WEAR: Any hat to use as your "thinking cap"
12:30p - 1p: Plant Swap - Bring garden transplants, potted plants, bulbs, cuttings, etc to the library.
12:30p - 1p: Sign in, name tags and social time
1p - 2p: Experienced club members will guide all club members in creating sections of a Flower Show Schedule. We will develop content for the Horticulture, Design, Education, Youth/Sponsored Groups, and Botanical Arts Divisions. Results will be used to write a Schedule for an NGC Standard Flower Show to be held at the District 5 Fall meeting in 2025. The theme of that show is Michigan Flora and Fauna.
2p: Short rededication ceremony for the recently renovated Memorial Garden behind Farr Center.
July 11, 2024
12:30p - 3p
Carpool leaves at Noon
Growing Smiles
The Flower Farm at Pierport, 12828 Gear Street, Pierport, MI 49614
231-352-0047
BRING: Bring a sack lunch and a lawn chair. Hostesses will provide beverages and cookies.
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WEAR: Sensible shoes for walking on uneven ground.
Noon: Carpooling from Farr Center
12:30p - 1:30p: Sign in, name tags and social time
1:30p: Learn about the “business side” of flower gardens. Flower Farm owner Colene Greening will discuss her 48 years in the floral industry and how she started The Flower Farm in 2017. Her husband Mark, who retired in 2023 from Consumers Energy, will give a walking tour of the farm. Members have the option to purchase stems and make a flower arrangement from the Bloom Bar to take home. Blooms are priced per stem; Colene will provide a container or you may bring your own.
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July 25, 2024
12:30p - 3p
Balancing your Garden’s Ecosystem
Farr Center, 5283 Main Street, Onekama, MI 49675
12:30p - 1p: Sign in, name tags, refreshments, and social time.
1pm: Program and business meeting.
Permaculture: The harmonious integration of landscape and people — providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.
Residing in Leelanau County, speaker Megan Gilder is a 3rd generation gardener with small farm production experience and an intense passion for preserving the precious lands we call home. Megan created her company, Perma Studio, to use her knowledge of the land and her background in design to rethink how we design landscapes. She is certified in Permaculture Design through Cornell University.
Megan will discuss how she utilizes nature to protect and balance the greater ecosystem in her gardens with native and companion plants to create a gorgeous garden and banish pests. Handouts will be available. Website: permastudio.com