September 2026 CONCORD GARDEN CLUB Updates & Events
welcome to
garden club '26-'27!
president's message:
Hi everyone,
I hope you enjoyed a great summer and are ready for a fun year with the Concord Garden Club.
We will"kick off "next Tuesday at Diane Wilson's home to share summer highlights and preview our upcoming calendar - see below for more information. Please bring wine and/or and appetizer if your last name starts with A thru H, a savory if your last name starts with I-N, and a sweet if your last name starts with O-Z. Also remember to RSVP on the website.
The handbooks are printed and will be available at the event.
Lastly, when you're out and about picking up mums and plants for fall planting, remember that Nicole's Greenhouse gives a discount to garden club members -just tell them you are in the Concord Garden Club.
Looking forward to seeing all of you soon!
Peg
MEMBER SOCIAL EVENT -
Tuesday, Sept. 8th
You won't want to miss this wonderful event!! Please join us for wine, soft drinks and snacks as we catch up with each other about our summer activities and kick off the Garden Club’s 102nd year. Thanks to member Diane Wilson for hosting us again!
This event is being held on
Tuesday, September 8th,
5:30-7:30pm
77 Stickney Hill Road, Concord --
Diane Wilson's home
Please RSVP ASAP!
Rain Date, September 9th
Members only, please.
2026-27 meeting schedule
The coming year's meeting schedule has been packed by our Program Committee with interesting, informative and entertaining meetings. We'll learn about plants (orchids, hydrangea, hostas and lavender), art (botanical illustration, a visit to the home of St Gaudens and of course Art & Bloom), and will have several fun social opportunities. It looks like a great year! Check out the lineup here. You can RSVP now for every program you plan to attend.
Art and Bloom - at the Currier?
Last year, the Currier Museum in Manchester (New Hampshire's only fine art museum) hosted their first annual Art and Bloom, which was a huge success. Building on that foundation, this year they are asking Garden Clubs outside of Manchester (including ours!) to participate. The event will be held at the Currier on March 18-21.
Their model is different from our Art and Bloom event, in that rather than individual entries, one team of several CGC members would create one arrangement together. If there is enough interest to field such a team, the Club will provide funds for floral materials. If you are interested in participating, let Peg Blume know asap at concordgardenclubnh@gmail.com
community service
Community Service Committee members met monthly over the summer months to keep our White's Park Peace Pole Garden in good shape. Our last get-together saw us beginning the work of revamping the garden! We removed plants that were no longer serving the garden well, in preparation for a re-design and re-planting this fall and next spring. Gardeners should plan on one more maintenance gathering in late September or early October for fall cleanup and shrub planting - date TBD, so watch your emails.
We'll also have our annual Committee meeting in October, so watch your email for that date too. At that meeting we'll discuss plans for the coming year and brainstorm civic projects we can donate funds to in 2027. Start coming up with ideas!
SWAG!
It's always the right time of year to stock up on Concord Garden Club logowear. Check out our curated selection of gardening related garb and accessories, all stylishly highligted with our very own CGC logo. Wear it proudly!
Volunteer Corner
Interested in making our City a better place to visit and live? Here's your chance!
Learning Opportunities
From UNH Extension:
September 21st (Monday) 6:00pm-7:00pm
Rain Gardens - A Beautiful Way to Capture the Rain
A rain garden is a beautiful landscape feature designed to capture the rain and allow it to soak into the ground. Join us to learn all about rain gardens, including why people are loving them, how to build them, which plants to use, and more. In partnership with UNH Cooperative Extension.
October 17th (Saturday) 10:00AM-11:30AM
Seed Saving of Native Plants
Discover the best practices for wild seed saving of native plants. Saving and cultivating your own seeds is easy to do, but knowing what kinds of seeds to save, what they look like, when to harvest them, how to process and prepare them for storage is crucial to ensure successful germination. You’ll leave this class with the resources and knowledge to save seeds next growing season. In partnership with UNH Cooperative Extension. Registration Link:https://nhaudubon.org/event/seed-saving-of-native-plants-2026/
Each of the above programs is in-person at the NH Audubon's Massabesic Center (26 Audubon Way, Auburn, NH).
The Demonstration & Teaching Garden Workshops at NH Audubon's Massabesic Center are in partnership with the UNH Cooperative Extension.
Also, sharing this from our friends at Pollinator Pathways NH - October 3rd 10am-2pm Pollinator Garden Design Consultations at Exeter Town Hall - register at naturegroupie.org - see attached flyer.
TINY FORESTS
Member Anne Mills shared this interesting article about a new trend in gardening, tiny forests! Also known as Miyawaki Forests, they were first conceived by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the early 1970s to beautify corporate campuses and demonstrate the generative and restorative powers of nature.
HUGE ELEPHANTS
Member Lauren Savage shared this amazing display - a temporary public art installation of 100 life-sized elephant sculptures called The Great Elephant Migration. This herd can be found sauntering down Boston's Commonwealth Avenue, where they'll be until September 13th. Click here to read more about this incredibly moving installation.
september garden chores
From Margaret Roach/New York Times
AS YOU BEGIN to wind down and clean up, take notes of what worked and didn’t. Mark areas that would have been easier to maintain with a workhorse groundcover in place, for instance, or areas where more bulbs might fit.
TREES & SHRUBS
BE SURE TO WATER trees and shrubs now through hard frost, so that they enter dormancy in a well-hydrated state. Evergreens (needled ones and broadleaf types like rhododendron, too) are particularly vulnerable to desiccation and winterburn if not well watered before the cold and winds set in.
DON’T PANIC IF EVERGREENS start to show some browning or yellowing of needles this month and next. The oldest, innermost needles typically shed after a few years on the tree.
HOPEFULLY YOU STOPPED FEEDING woody plants in July or August. Promoting more soft growth after July-ish isn’t good; time for them to start moving toward the hardening-off phase of their cycle. No more eats till earliest spring.
ALWAYS BE on the lookout for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs and prune them out as discovered. Ditto with suckers and water sprouts. No hard pruning now, though; too late to risk encouraging regrowth.
VEGETABLE, FRUIT & HERBS
AS VEGETABLE PLANTS (and annual flowers) fade, pull them to get a start on garden cleanup. Before composting the remains, cut them up a bit with a pruning shears or shred, to speed decomposition.
PARSLEY AND CHIVES can be potted up and brought indoors for offseason use, or freeze some (or give the plants some extra protection and keep harvesting from the garden). A few garlic cloves in a pot will yield a supply of chive-like (but spicier) garlic greens all winter for garnish. Sow seeds of bush basil in a pot, too, and grow on a very sunny windowsill if you are a really determined type.
IF NEXT YEAR’S GARDEN plans include a patch of strawberries or asparagus, do the tilling and soil preparation now so the bare-root plants ordered over the winter can be planted extra early come spring.
AS AREAS COME EMPTY from harvest, build vegetable-garden soil by sowing cover crops: medium red clover if you get right to it, or perhaps winter rye if you don’t do some areas till mid-fall. These “green manures” will be turned under to improve soil tilth and fertility.
IF YOU HARVESTED YOUR own garlic, save the best heads with the biggest cloves for replanting later this month or next (about a month before frost is in the ground). Otherwise, order bulbs now. Prepare a sunny spot, and plant each clove 1-2 inches deep and 6 inches apart in the row, with about 12 inches between rows. Green growth will happen this fall, which is great; don’t panic. It’s a hardy thing.
FLOWER GARDEN
DON’T DEADHEAD FADED perennials, biennials and annuals if you want to collect seed (non-hybrids only) or plan to let some self-sow. Nicotiana, annual poppies, larkspur, clary sage and many others fall into this leave-alone group. So do plants with showy or bird-friendly seedheads, like coneflowers, some sedums, clematis and grasses.
DAYLILIES can be dug and divided as they complete their bloom cycle, right into fall, if needed.
PEONIES are best divided and transplanted in late August through September, if they need it. Remember with these fussy guys that “eyes” must not be buried more than an inch or two beneath the soil surface. Want more peonies? Now’s the time to order.
MANY POPULAR ANNUALS can be overwintered as young plants if you take and root cuttings now rather than try to nurse along leggy older specimens. Geraniums, coleus, wax begonias, even impatiens (to name just a few common ones), if grown in good light indoors and kept pinched and bushy, will yield another generation of cuttings for next spring’s transplants. Probably best to expend this effort and space on things you really treasure—an unusual form of something, not the garden variety.
IF TUBEROUS BEGONIAS like ‘Bonfire’ or ‘Bellfire’ are starting to go slack, let them dry off and rest early, or they will rot. This ultra-wet season was too much for mine, which have been under cover in the garage drying for weeks now.
ORDER BULBS promptly (see Sources), and plant as they arrive (lilies most urgently). Remember our “early, middle, late” mantra when ordering, for a prolonged show. Many bulb questions answered here.
PREPARE NEW beds for fall planting by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, then put mulch on top.
RE-EDGE BEDS to make a clean line and define them. Don’t let them get overrun just because summer’s wound down. A clean edge makes a big difference.
HOUSEPLANTS
REST AMARYLLIS BULBS by putting them in a dry, dark place where they will have no water at all for a couple of months. I put mine in a little-used closet.
IF HOUSEPLANTS NEED repotting, do it before they come inside later this month (less messy than in the house!). Don’t step up more than an inch (on small pots) or a couple (on large ones). Most plants don’t like to swim in their containers.
LAWNS
MID-AUGUST TO MID-SEPTEMBER is prime lawn-renovation and planting time in the North. Have you reseeded yet?
DON’T BAG OR RAKE clippings; let them lie on the lawn to return Nitrogen to the soil, right through the last mowing in late autumn.
COMPOST HEAP & MULCH
ORDER A SUPPLY of bulk mulch, which is cheaper than the packaged kind and also eliminates the waste of all those heavyweight plastic bags. Many local nurseries deliver. Top up mulch in all garden beds as they get cleaned up gradually in fall.
DON’T LET THE HEAP dry out completely, or it will not “cook.” Turning it to aerate will also hasten decomposition, but things will rot eventually even if not turned. I extract more finished material and screen it each fall, to work into the gardens (and make more room for incoming fresh debris).
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