Okay, so I said I would tell you what I learned at the first meeting of the Green Thumbs and Greenhorns Gardening Club. Actually, it's more like I'm going to tell you what was talked about at the meeting. It was great to sit around with all these gardenings and listen to them share about their successes and failures and tips they have learned.

Perhaps the first most important information for a gardener is to find out what Zone they live in. This helps you in choosing plants that you have a better chance of having success with, though it is no guarantee. We are in Zone 4a. Here is a great site with a Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Plants and seed packets often have information on them about the hardiness zones.

Another important peice of information is the last frost date. This date determines when you should plant seeds both inside and out and also when you should transplant them to the outside. According to the gardeners gathered at our first meeting the last frost date for our area for this year is June 22. Ihave no idea how they know that. That's something I'm going to have to learn more about.

That's all I have time to share right now but there was lots more discussed. I'll get around to sharing more as soon as I can. These two bits of information can guide you in choosing plants as you peruse through gardening catalogues and books and start planning your garden.

Happy garden planning!

Yeah! It worked! For some weird reason the posts I wrote way back in October also got posted with the last message. Weird - but wonderful. :-)

So...., I'm starting again. I am so excited. It's far from time to start gardening here in Newfoundland - with snow still piled high on our lawns - but it's never too early to start thinking and planning.

I've started thinking about gardening again thanks to encouragment from a very dear friend - Jim. He claims to be a gardener wanna-be like me but I think if the truth be known he's hiding some very green thumbs to help me feel more at ease.

Jim and I are on a committee together. He noticed my column in the paper last year and was always very encouraging to me, and thus started our gardening related dialogues. One of the projects of our committee is to help landscape and care for the property for a youth camp Camp Mettabesic, on Davies Pond. When he saw my gardening column last year Jim decided that this was a project he and I should work on. We didn't do much except talk about it last year. Earlier this year Jim suggest that the building of the youth camp would be a great place to hold meetings for a garden club, if there was any interest in such a thing. An added benefit would be that the members of the club could help us in landscaping and caring for the property. We decided to make a list of people that may be interested and see what would happen.

Jim called everyone we had listed and set an intial meeting for March 27. Though it was cold and windy outside it was beautiful inside. We had a great response for a first meeting. The fire was roaring in the fireplace, as the wind howled outside. The coffeetable was covered with gardening magazines and catalogues that people had brought to share. Someone even brought a cold frame he had made to show us how easy it was to build one. Everyone sat around on the couches and chairs, coffee or tea in hand, and chatted about their successes and failures and exchanged gardening tips. It was a great time! And thus was born the Green Bay Green Thumbs and Greenhorns Gardening Club.

The next meeting of the Garden Club is set for Sunday, April 3, at 2pm, at Camp Mettabesic. Everyone that is interested is welcome to come along and bring a friend. It is sure to be a very relaxing and enjoyable time.

One day soon I'll share with you some of the great things I learned at the first meeting. I can't wait for the next one!

Okay, I'm trying again. I tried to add some posts way back in October and for some reason or another it woudn't work. There are some exciting things happening now that I'd like to share but I want to make sure this is working first - so this is a test post.