September 17, 2024
Jennifer MacLaren, Dew Collective
Decorating with Flowers & Plants by Season
Jennifer MacLaren launched her company, Dew Collective, in the fall of 2023. She brings a 20-year career in management consulting and a passion for flowers, home décor, and community. Dew Collective is a modern florist and events company that creates artistic floral arrangements and sells contemporary and artisanal fine art.
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Jennifer will give us a guided presentation to teach us to think outside the box by utilizing fresh flowers, artificial, artisanal fine art, and home décor items to create an inviting space for you and your loved ones to enjoy any season of the year.
October 15, 2024
Bob Dale, Center for Wildlife
Seacoast Habitats & Coexistence Native Life
Bob Dale of the Center for Wildlife will teach us about the many habitats in the Seacoast Region and the abundance of wildlife that call those habitats home. This presentation, featuring live Center for Wildlife ambassador animals, will teach how to better coexist with wildlife and create communities that balance the many needs of humans, habitat, and wildlife.
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As a resident of the Seacoast, Bob has an intimate knowledge of the many natural spaces and wildlife species that can be found throughout our region. Bob's presentation will look at both current conservation efforts conducted throughout the Seacoast and provide insight into ways healthy habitats can be promoted in your backyard.
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November 19, 2024
Jean Stefanik
Orchids All Around Us
Jean is an Educator and Naturalist who enjoys traveling and photographing orchids and other plants and animals in nature. She enjoys becoming fast friends with people near and far including the polar Arctic tundra in Canada, the Olympic Peninsula in California, New England and the Maritimes, Arizona, Florida swamps, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and New Zealand. During these trips, she gives talks, does judging, and spends time with other orchid enthusiasts. A theme that permeates her presentations is that conservation of native orchids means conservation of native habitats.
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Jean serves as the Conversation & Education Chair for the New Hampshire Orchid Society and is an accredited judge.
January 21, 2025
Melissa Law, Bumbleroot Organic Farm
Building a Sustainable Small Farm
Melissa will discuss the joys and challenges of starting a small farm business from scratch. She’ll share the mission and ethos of Bumbleroot Organic Farm as well as some of the nuts and bolts of how the farm operates and the markets they serve. The focus will be on building a sustainable farm business from a holistic perspective–for the land, the community, and the farmers themselves. She’ll discuss how Bumbleroot has grown and evolved over the past ten years, where they have found success, and what obstacles stand in their way as they look to the future of farming in New England. Melissa Law grew up in Bedford, New Hampshire, graduated from Boston College, and now co-owns and operates a small organic vegetable and flower farm with her husband and business partners.
February 18, 2025
Dave Anderson, Forest Society
Maple Sugaring: Myth, Magic, & Reality
​Dave's talk will take a humorous look at the dark (amber) side of maple sugaring at Meetinghouse Hill Tree Farm...also known as "the quest for the $15,000 pancake".
The romance of backyard maple sugaring led Dave to construct a post & beam sugarhouse on his property in South Sutton from timber cut and milled on-site. He operates the old-fashioned way: gravity-fed and wood-fired, a slower process. Learn how he strives to improve the process in light of changing weather, new technology, and even climate change. The family sugaring hobby connects all of us closely to trees, woodlots, home, the future, and the annual circle of seasons.
March 18, 2025
Laura Brown, Fox Point Oysters
From the Bay to Your Belly & Beyond
Laura Brown, owner and operator of Fox Point Oysters, will share the fascinating process of growing and harvesting local oysters.
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Learn about where some of the delicious oysters in our Seacoast restaurants come from along with the challenges and rewards!
April 15, 2025
Briget Shannon
Nowadays Flowers
The Language of Flowers:
Expressing Speacial Meaning Through Arrangements
Bridget Shannon, owner of Nowadays Flowers, will give an insightful talk and demonstration on how blooms can convey deep emotions, messages, and symbolism.
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Nowadays Flowers is a cut flower farm and design studio on a mission to bring joy and beauty to the community. They grow local, seasonal flowers keeping their blooms free of toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Christie Higginbottom
September 21, 2021
Tips from the Past for the Modern Gardener
The kitchen garden played a vital role in the diet and landscape of 1800s New England households. Christie explores traditional garden plans and cultivation practices featuring the historic vegetables, fruits, and herbs favored by our ancestors. Christie will highlight garden practices valuable for today’s family kitchen garden such as inter-planting and succession using garden frames and creating homemade tools.
David Epstein
October 19, 2021
Gardening & Weather Heading Into Winter and Thinking Spring
David Epstein has been a professional meteorologist and horticulturalist for three decades. He spent 16 years on-air at WCVB in Boston and currently is a meteorology professor at Framingham State University Colby College. In 2004, Epstein founded Bloomscapes, a landscape design company. In 2006, he founded GrowingWisdom.com, an online video website for homeowner-gardeners and landscape professionals.
Jana Milbocker
November 16, 2021
The Magic of the Winter Garden
Jana Milbocker is the principal of Enchanted Gardens, a lecturer and garden writer. The garden can be a magical place – even in the winter! Jana’s lecture provides inspiration and tips on designing your garden for winter interest, choosing the best trees, shrubs and perennials, and grouping them to create arresting vignettes.
Elaina Hatsis
January 18, 2022
Ikebana, Japanese Art of Flower Arranging
Elaina Hatsis fell in love with Ikebana from the first time she saw pictures of it. Elaina has been a member of the Kittery Point Ikenobo Ikebana Chapter since 2007 and has served as its president from 2017-2019. In her demonstration, she will make a few different styles of Ikebana that will give a sense of how its evolved over the last three centuries and the unlimited expressions of each style.
David Moore
February 15, 2022
Harvesting Sap & Producing Syrup from Maples, Birches, Walnuts, and other Species
David Moore is a Ph.D candidate in the Ecohydrology Lab at the University of New Hampshire. His research focuses on winter-dormant-season sap flow and syrup production from deciduous hardwoods found in New England. He ran The Crooked Chimney (https://www.crookedchimneysyrup.com), a commercial birch syrup business in Lee, NH for 6 years prior to graduate school. David has experience making maple, birch, walnut, beech, and sycamore
2019-2020 Programs
Vince Cirasole
March 15, 2022
Garden Procedures which Mimic How Plants Thrive in Nature
Vincent Cirasole is a Master Gardener, a commercial vegetable grower, and an organic growing enthusiast from Rochester, NH. He is also the author of How to Grow a Vegetable Garden That Will Not Fail. Vincent’s talk will cover these topics:
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List of processes nature uses to produce healthy, vibrant plants and which of these can gardeners copy.
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Some important techniques which can help gardeners become more effective.
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Contrasting this natural system with techniques advertised in popular media.
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Why are commercially promoted techniques so popular if they are “unnatural”?
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Some impacts of these “unnatural” practices.
November 17, 2020, 10:00 am Virtual
Botany for Gardeners
Jonathan Ebba, Field Specialist with UNH Extension
Why do we pinch geraniums and not spruce trees? How does soft new growth on a tree become hard and woody? Why can we propagate plants but not people from cuttings? As gardeners, sometimes our experience and learning give us an intuitive sense of how a plant will grow, what it needs, and how it will respond to our interaction with it (pruning, trellising, fertilizing, mulching, etc.). Jonathan will explore some of the science and mystery behind why and how a plant does what it does.
Canceled
May 19, 2020
Getting Dirty in the Garden
Organic gardening expert Vince Cirasole will discuss how to be a better gardener. Vince will offer a wealth of practical tips on such topics as how to create an organic garden, soil preparation, seed starting, planting and cultural techniques. More info...
Canceled
May 15-16, 2019
Friday May 15th: 9 am to 2 pm
Saturday May 16th: 9 am to 12 pm
The Spring Plant Sale features plants dug from members' gardens, Silent Auction, plants and raffle items from local businesses and a bake sale full of homemade goodies. The club accepts cash and checks (no credit cards).
Click here for more information.
Canceled
April 21, 2020
RDGC Members' Spring Luncheon and Annual Meeting
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The luncheon for members only will be at the Wentworth by the Sea Country Club starting 11:30 am.
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CANCELED DUE TO CORVID 19 SITUATION
March 19, 2019
Container Gardening
Joint Meeting with Exeter Garden Club at Stratham Municipal Building, 10 Bunker Hill Road, Stratham, NH
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Whether you have a patio garden or acres of land, container gardens are flexible way to add interest and intimacy to your outside space. Come hear expert gardener Kelly Orzel explain how to use containers for fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers in pots and yes, even small trees. This joint meeting with the Exeter Garden Club will take place at the Stratham Municipal Building.
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February 18, 2020
Why Your Plants Love Lobster: The Story of Calcium, Chitin and Nitrogen
This month, we will talk about a creature we don’t usually associate with gardening – lobsters! Cameron Bonsey, Director of Marketing at Coast of Maine, will present a program called “Why Your Plants Love Lobster: The Story of Calcium, Chitin and Nitrogen”. He will discuss how one person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure as left-over lobster shells become organic fertilizer. More info...
January 21, 2020
A Garden for Wildlife
Sue Mayotte is a presenter for the UNH Extension Services’ Speaking for Wildlife Program. In her presentation, A Garden for Wildlife, she will talk about how anyone with a backyard, garden, or landscaped area can help wildlife by altering their landscaping and gardening practices. More info...
December 17, 2019
RDGC Members' Holiday Luncheon
The luncheon for members only will be at the Wentworth by the Sea Country Club.starting 11:30 am.
​Holiday Greens Workshop - Friday, December 6, 2019 - 8:00-1:30
Holiday Greens Sale - Saturday, December 7, 2019 - 9:00 - Noon
The Greens Workshop for RDGC members will take place on Friday starting at 8:00 am..
The Greens Sale will take place Saturday from 9 am to noon at the Rye Congregational Church. The sale features beautiful and whimsical arrangements from fresh-cut greens at unbeatable prices, a bake sale, handmade bows and holiday treasures tables. Click here for more information. The club accepts cash and checks (no credit cards).
November 19, 2019
The Mysterious World of Mushrooms
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The dark and mysterious world of mushrooms will be the topic for our November program.Stephanie Doyle of the New Hampshire Mushroom Company will explore the fascinating business of growing mushrooms and the important role mushrooms play in the environment and our gardens. More info...
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October 15, 2019
Art to Architecture
Come learn about the landscape design elements that will complement your home’s architectural style. Award-winning landscape designer Johanna Kuss will speak on how the basic principles of art and architectural design apply to the landscape. More info...
September 17, 2019
Cures from the Kitchen
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Herbalist Ginny Shannon will explore how easy-to-grow herbs and your kitchen can become a medicine cabinet for everyday ailments. Ms. Shannon will discuss the health benefits of many herbs and how to use them in teas and tinctures to improve health and well-being. More info...
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Julie Scaramella
April 19, 2022
Lavender – The History & Magic
Julie Scaramella is the owner of The Sunny Window (Newton, MA) which specializes in French lavender, olive oil soaps, fine natural products and elegant treasures from around the world. Julie will talk about the lively adventure through the remarkable history of lavender in Provence and around the world. Learn about lavender’s astonishing wide range of uses and beneficial properties, its many varieties, and how some key lavender products are created. Generously illustrated photos, lavender samples, travel insights, and a dash of lavender gardening advice.