Tag Archives: eileen blackburn

Why You Should Visit the Galloway House Gardens

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Monday Morning

We had 14 members at Monday morning’s Tour of the Galloway House Gardens along with our tour guide, Eileen Blackburn of the FDL County Master Gardeners Club.  It was beautiful morning for a walk in the gardens.   There was no 50/50 Raffle so the next drawing on September 15th will have 11 cards with two pay cards and a pot of at least $552.

Galloway House Gardens

Eileen Blackburn graciously met us at the Galloway House Monday morning to give us a tour of the various things that she and her merry band of volunteers have accomplished this year at the Galloway House.  Eileen joined us back on July 21st and told us how she became involved with the Master Gardeners Club in Fond du Lac and also how she got involved with the Galloway House Garden Renovation Project.

The tour started with donuts and juice in the Pavilion and then moved to the Log Cabin.  Here Eileen explained that she tried to have plantings that represented the era and the building, so at the Log Cabin she had wheat and a branch fence out front with several wild flowers on the side of the Log Cabin.  We then moved to the Rose Garden which is an ongoing work in progress.  All of the hostas are being moved to the hosta garden and new roses are on order for completing this piece of the overall project.  Eileen then took us to the spot that will be English Heritage Garden.  This 500 sq. ft. garden will have benches along with rose bushes and other Wisconsin flowers that will bloom in June, July and August.  This will be a tranquil setting that will incorporate color, smell and maybe even taste.  We walked through the hosta garden on our way to the maintenance shed and the end of our tour.  Eileen proudly announced that their effort at the Galloway House won them the FDL County Beautification Award this year.  Well Deserved!!

Master Gardener Teaches Kiwanians How to Master Gardening

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Monday Morning

We had 19 members at the Retlaw Hotel on Monday morning along with our guest speaker, Eileen Blackburn from the Master Gardeners Club.  Bonnie Baerwald circulated the sign-up sheet again for the Relay for Life Brat Fry.  Charlene Pettit announced an outing to “Music Under the Stars” for August 13th for the “Kids From Wisconsin”.  No need to sign up but you’ll want to be there early (6:00PM ish) to get a good seat.  Gary Miller announced an InterClub to the Oshkosh Mid-Morning Kiwanis Club for Friday, July 25th.  Four members volunteered to attend.  Glen Treml had a “Happy Buck” for his 39th wedding anniversary on Friday.  Dan Leeds was the winner of the 50/50 Raffle drawing on Monday and he drew the Six of Hearts, not a winner.  Next week’s drawing will have 16 cards with four pay cards and a pot of at least $492.

Eileen Blackburn – Wisconsin Master Gardener

Eileen started her journey to be a Master Gardener back in 1995 when they bought a new house and she started landscaping it. Seven or eight years later she agreed to be on the Agnesian HealthCare Garden Walk. Her reputation got around and she volunteered to redo the courtyard at Pier Elementary School. After she removed all of the “junk” from the courtyard she was able to plant and expand the plantings to include spring bulbs, azaleas, and annuals. The eye-spy feature interactive game draws all the children in. They then become interested in all that grows within its walls. This garden brings much joy to all that see it, and exposes children to a very special garden inside the school.

This spring Eileen was approached to help out at the Galloway House. As Eileen so nicely said, the gardens at Galloway had been neglected for a number of years and really needed a lot of work. The Master Gardeners Club supported Eileen’s efforts to begin a systematic revitalization of the Galloway Gardens by donating money and plants in addition to volunteer hours to accomplish this huge task. Our own Dave Lefeber is a volunteer in this project. Eileen volunteers 30 – 40 hours per week in this “labor of love” and has taken on not only gardening but also mowing, trapping cats, maintenance and lots more.