The Garden Club Takes a Field Trip: In lieu of the usual monthly meeting, Garden Club members convoyed to Long Beach to tour the gardens and house at Rancho Los Alamitos in Bixby Hills. Native Americans inhabited the land as far back as the 1500’s. The rancho, which stretched from Whittier to Costa Mesa, was originally given to a Corporal in the Spanish Army for hisretirement, and was the centerpiece of a large cattle ranch. Now owned and operated by the City of Long Beach, it was previously owned by Fred Bixby, the patriarch of the Bixby family, one of Southern California’s major developers. The gardens, designed by someof this country’s leading designers were the product of Florence Bixby’s imagination and love of botanica from around the world.
Coming up next:
The Garden Club’s November meeting will be held in the ClubHouse on the 12th, and the members will assemble gift bags for shut-in seniors in our Annual Forget-Me-Not Project. Members will also be signing up for the Holiday Party which will be held in the ClubHouse on December 19.
The Hapless Gardener’s Glossary of Terms:
Backyard Habitat: A dandy excuse to sip a daiquiri instead of trimming the hedges.
Bird Feeder: a quaint, often elaborate structure designed to add fiber to the diet of squirrels.
Bog Garden: The result of going on vacation without turning off the sprinkler.
Wildflowers: Invasive weeds with sexy names.
Hoe: A garden tool calibrated so precisely that when stepped upon, its handle rises swiftly up to mouth level, causing the gardener to say “Hoeeee!”
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” —Abraham Lincoln
—Morry Meadow
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