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Carmel Valley Garden Club Welcomes You To Our Club
The CVGC is a nonprofit organization that promotes gardening and education about gardening in our area. We organize various projects in our community throughout the year and make donations to local nonprofits from our Annual Garden Show proceeds to help beautify the community.
Our regular monthly meetings, which are both educational and social, are held on the 2nd Thursday each month (usually at 6:45 p.m. at the Carmel Valley Community Youth Center at 25 Ford Road). Our membership and meetings are open to everyone with an interest in gardening. Join us!
WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING WITH THE GARDEN CLUB?
See updates on past Carmel Valley Garden Club eventsAPRIL MEETING - GARDEN SHOW PREP AND COACHING
Our April 9 Club meeting was well attended, despite starting early due to roundabout construction, with anticipation of the upcoming 55th annual show running high. After our usual social time the meeting got under way. After opening remarks president Patti Burrows introduced show chair Bart Burrows. Bart then proceeded to introduce our Garden Show Chairs 2026, who each had an opportunity to ask the membership for help to fill any remaining needs.
Afterwards Sunshine and Andrea with Wylde Rose Floral provided an outstanding demonstration of the creative and practical steps involved in assembling a winning show floral arrangement. A couple of pictures of them and their work-in-progress are below. Later, this beautiful arrangement was auctioned off to a lucky club member or $75!
Finally, Dianne Woods led a round of discussion and Q&A regarding other elements of the competitive aspects of the Garden Show - there was lots of interaction in this session.
The Carmel Valley Garden Club would like to sincerely thank Wylde Rose for their superb demo. Wylde Rose's contact info is wylderosemonterey@gmail.com, 831-620-2564. MARCH MEETING - ST. PATRICK'S SPRING FLING POT-LUCK
Our St. Pat's/Spring Fling event was a big success, with a sell-out crowd of over 70 members and guests. As promised the Club provided a generous spread of main dish entree items and beverages, and Club members were even more generous with a selection of appetizers, salads, and side dishes. The food and fellowship were both outstanding.
While Club meeting discussion was limited, president Patti Burrows made a few announcements, and Sheri Dodsworth spoke to thank the Club for its support and introduced the new bench in our honor. FEBRUARY 12 - WILDFIRE RISKS AND MITIGATION
Yes it is winter and cool and damp (and sometimes even rainy) in Carmel Valley. But the risk of catastrophic wildfires in our beautiful valley is never that far away. Perhaps that was one reason for the excellent turn-out at the Club's February meeting. After a few announcements by Club president Patti Burrows, including the introduction of four new Club members present for the first time, Ed Morrow introduced the evening's speakers: Matthew Lumadue and Mark Schlegel.
Matt is a Fire Prevention Specialist with the Monterey County Regional Fire District, brings deep expertise in defensible‑space standards and fire‑safe practices. Mark is a retired landscape contractor with extensive experience designing and maintaining fire‑resistant landscapes.
Matt's presentation focused on the not yet quite final state rules requiring a 5 foot "Zone 0" around all homes containing no combustible materials - no mulch, no plants, no nothing except concrete, gravel, and rocks. What about decks? What about pergola's? What about the appearance of my home and property values? Matt's presentation (which you can view here: Zone Zero Landscaping) was followed by a blizzard of questions along these lines from Club members. It was an excellent, informative, and interactive session.
Mark followed up on Matt's presentation with some very specific advice on plant choices in a fire-wise landscape. For example, avoiding drought resistant plants that are oily (e.g. the indestructible rosemary, Italian cypress, etc).
Overall, a very engaging meeting and a likely contrast with the much lighter tone of our March 12 St. Patrick's Day Spring Fling part!
JANUARY 8 - SECRET HISTORY OF CARMEL MANOR
Our January 8 Club meeting was exceptionally interesting with not one but two excellent speakers: Sherie Dodsworth and David Laws. Sherie's presentation concerned the history and evolution of Rosie's Garden (located next to the bridge over the Carmel River on Esquiine Rd in Carmel Valley Village). David, as our headline speaker, covered "the secret history of the Carmel Manor" and its gardens specifically.
Sherie outlined the beginnings of Rosie's Garden in 2001 with local fund-raising, design by former Club president Dianne Woods, volunteer installation, and dedication to her father. Naturally, the garden and its planting aged leading to its recent renovation. Sherie specifically thanked the CV Garden Club for their efforts to maintain the garden over the years. The highlight was presentation of a plaque in honor of Dianne that will be affixed to one of the new benches to be installed in the garden shortly.
Sherie's full presentation can be viewed here: Rosie's GardenRosie's Garden Presentation
Sherie Dodsworth doing her presentation (left), and presenting an award plaque to Dianne Woods (right). David Laws presentation included a fascinating history of the Carmel Manor site, starting with pre-European years, Mexican land grants in the 19th century, and later 20th century property ownership up until the development of the property into what is today the Carmel Manor in 1963.
David then outlined in detail the evolution of the Manor's original mid-century landscaping (lots of lawn), through the (Club member) "Gordon Dill" years with a transition from lawns to drought tolerant landscaping, and most recently "fire-wise" landscaping.
David's presentation had far too much to summarize easily so you can read the full article and photos behind David's excellent material here: David Laws ArticleDavid Laws Presentation
David presenting (left) and a view of Carmel Valley from the Carmel Manor site today (right). DECEMBER 11 - CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY PARTY DELIGHTFUL!
Our annual Christmas/Holiday party lived up to and beyond expectations with a capacity crowd of 70, great food and beverages, and wonderful fellowship with club members. Excellent teamwork and plenty of volunteers ensured that the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church hall was beautifully decorated, the bar area was well stocked and set-up, and our caterer, Woody's did their job well. Oh, yes, and we cleaned up afterwards!
Several club members contributed numerous photos of the event, which have been organized into an album that you can view view here as 2025 December Holiday Party. Please do take a look!
NOVEMBER 13 CLUB MEETING - OWLS TO THE RESCUE
Despite a sort of depressing day of substantial rain (about 1.25" near our meeting place in the CV Youth Center) attendance at the meeting was excellent. Maybe folks just wanted to get out and about after the rain stopped?
The November meeting was essentially Part 2 of our September meeting which was focused on destructive critters in the garden including rats, gophers, moles, voles, etc. At our November meeting club members Dean Hatfield, Bart Burrows, and Greg Thompson took us through their experiences building and mounting owl boxes which included some incredible footage of what goes on in an owl box as eggs hatch and the chicks grow up and move on! Owls are the natural predators to most garden pests in the rodent category and can be an effective tool in their control.
All three presentations were outstanding and equally all three speakers did a great job presenting and managing time. Questions from the audience were numerous - this was a very engaging meeting.
If you were unable to attend the meeting, here are links to each of the three presentations. With many pictures and more than a few videos, the files are large, so be patient as they might take a minute to download. Also note that these presentations use Microsoft Powerpoint, so unless you have that application you may not be able to view.
Bart Burrows Presentation - Download
Dean Hatfield Presentation - Download
Greg Thompson Presentation - Download
Enjoy!
OCTOBER 9 CLUB MEETING -Growing Veggies in Containers
Our presenter, Priscilla Du,had a wealth of advice on the techniques, tips, and tricks to productive growing in containers. Like many of us Priscilla is space constrained and seeks to have as much veggie production in limited space as possible. And with academic training in agriculture at Cal Poly and employment in the Monterey County agriculture department, Priscilla is well-equipped to provide advice.
The meeting was led by past president Dianne Woods, substituting for president Patti Burrows. After some brief club business and our new quick Q&A session (example: Question "can you grow basil in winter?" Answer "No, basil is heat-loving summer plant.") Priscilla began her talk.
She brought with her a sample container plant and used that to illustrate the key points of her talk. Some of those included:
- All plants need light, air, water, and soil.
- Container plants can be very water efficient, especially important here in our water expensive and scarce Monterey County
- Container plants are vulnerable to root over-heating, hence the need for a double-walled planting container.
- Priscilla suggested a larger outside container (e.g. 5 or 15 gallon black plastic recycled pot) with the plant root ball inside in a fabric potting bag, with perhaps 1/2" spacing between the pot and root ball bag. No need for fancy decorative pots.
- The fabric root ball bag is further supported and water conserved by a layer of heavy plastic sheeting. So it is outside to in pot-space-plastic liner-fabric root ball.
- Soil fill can be commercial potting soil, but Priscilla recommended using your own compost and soil blend as she does.
- Care must be taken to water with care, and given the plastic liner: enough but not too much as well.
Many great questions followed. Thanks, Priscilla!
SEPTEMBER 11 CLUB MEETING - Blow Out Success
Our kick-off Club meeting for the 2025-2026 season was a big success. Huge turn-out, almost 'standing room only' and with many new members in attendance. Food and drink were excellent with sandwiches, salads, chips and beverages - and desserts provided by Club board members. And with the huge turn-out, we almost ran out of food!
Our excellent program had the theme of "Pests in the Garden - Creating a Defensible Space." Before the program began, Club president Patti Burrows introduced the 2025 board members as well as the many new members in the audience.
Judy Tschirgi led the program off with a presentation on rats and mice on behalf of Ed Morrow, who was unable to attend. Judy then made her own show regarding voles. Following Judy, former Club president Dianne Woods led a good show-and-tell discussion regarding a common nemesis - gophers - and how to trap them. There was plenty of audience interaction and lo and behold it was 8:30PM!
So a command decision was to move the outstanding materials by Bart Burrows and Dean Hatfield on owls as part of the solution to these garden pests to our November meeting.
You can access Ed's presentation here: Rats and Mice, and Judy's here: Voles.
Saving the owls material until November!2025 ANNUAL GARDEN PICNIC WAS GREAT!
The weather was beautiful, the food and drink excellent, and the company even better. Over seventy club members and their guests gathered at the beautiful home and garden of Doug and Lisa Steiny, who once again hosted our picnic. We can't thank them enough!
With gardens this spectacular, what better venue for a garden club picnic?
Enjoy a few photographs of the event below.
Picnic 25 Photo Galley
IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE 54TH GARDEN SHOW!Thanks to all our member volunteers for their countless hours making this year's Garden Show such a resounding success. Despite the wind, the cold, and yes, even the RAIN, it was a terrific show. As usual, our community's hard work, good spirit, tenacity and willingness to pitch in wherever needed is an inspiration. Every year you make this great event happen to benefit our larger Valley Community. Thank you one and all.
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