Autumn marks a turn in the gardening year but is full of activities, as enthusiasts make their final flower cuttings, prep garden beds, and plant trees and shrubs.  It’s a time of reflection on existing garden health and plans for the next growing season.  And the fall has its own burst of beauty in colors and cold-weather crops.  Our October meeting put all on display.

Eric Wolf from the Shelton Intermediate School spoke about their Gardening Enrichment Program, presenting a timeline and photos of the ambitious and highly successful initiative to introduce gardening and ecology topics to students through hands-on activities.  Shelton Intermediate School now includes an indoor aquaponic system (the combination of traditional hydroponic gardening with a fish enclosure providing fertilization), a greenhouse, and raised bed gardens.  Students participate in all steps of vegetable gardening, from planting seeds through harvesting crops.  Upcoming plans include a butterfly garden.  Shelton’s program has served as a model and inspiration for similar programs in other towns, and we are thrilled to see enthusiasm for gardening beginning within the school system.

The meeting also included a flower arranging lesson led by ORGC Recording Secretary Martha Nosal and Charter Member Claire Norris.  Members learned traditional flower arrangement designs with showy autumn blooms and branches, including asters, mums, sprigs of rose hips, and fronds of evergreen.  The meeting’s decorations and the lesson’s finished arrangements demonstrated that fall has its own unique beauty.