Updated June 19th 2026!
We are a group of gardeners and plant lovers who meet monthly to talk about gardening. We also share plants, seeds and cuttings, and learn from horticultural guest presenters. Most of our meetings are free and open to the public--please join us!
We are on our annual "summer break". Our next meeting will be September 14th. Our usual meeting place, the Chico Library, is being renovated, so check here as the date approaches for the time and location.
Please welcome our new Board of Directors for the '26-'27 club year.
Their installation was facilitated by Carol Jauregui, Director of the Buttes District of the California Garden Clubs Incorporated (third from left).
This year's Board of Directors included, left to right: Jessica Beattie (Director), Krista Weber (Secretary), Sally Miller (front, Vice President, Acting President), Tony Berkhoudt (rear, Director & Co-Treasurer), and Candice Boggs (Co-Treasurer). Not pictured: Maureen O'Reilly (Membership) and Diane Bryant (Director).
We would not have a club without people volunteering to fill these roles. Thank you, Board of Directors! 👏
PHOTO OF THE SUMMER:
June gardening activities
Raise your mower height to cut your lawn. The taller grass shades the grass and helps it save water/deal with heat better
Plant seeds of biennials to have small plants by autumn that will flower next year (forget-me-nots, evening primroses (Oenothera), foxgloves, hollyhocks, Canterbury bells, lunaria, etc)
Trim off the dead foliage from spring bulbs. Make sure it is brown, otherwise the bulbs are making food from sunlight for next year's flowers
Speaking of bulbs, now is a fine time to divide crowded spring bulbs now that they are dormant (tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, Spanish bluebells etc)
Fertilize summer annuals and vegetables
Once you've harvested the berries, cut back the canes that bore fruit on your berry plants. They're done bearing and its good to make room for this year's growth which will flower/fruit next year
Cut back chrysanthemums by an inch or three once a month until the 4th of July. This makes them bushy and delays flowering until autumn when we need them most
Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins, basil and annual flowers (marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, zinnias, etc)
Purchase and plant all of the above as transplants if desired, plus impatiens and wax begonia plants
Tie up vines and stake tall plants like gladiolus etc.
Trim off faded rose flowers by cutting down to a five-leaflet leaf that points outside away from the center of the plant at the height you'd like new flowers to emerge
Weed, weed, weed!
Photo courtesy of member Dan C
Beautiful downtown Chico, California
Fresh tomatoes from a member's garden.
Butterfly bushes (Buddleia sp.), Rudbeckia, canna lilies and zinnias in a member's summer garden.
Club members at one of several "potting parties" to prepare plants for our fund-raising spring Plant Sale
