CHURCH NEWS

SUCCESSFUL PLANT SALE FOILS NASTY WEATHER

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he weather was cold and wet for the first days of what ended up as a four-day Plant Sale,but visitors and your hardy St. Luke’s Plant Crew persevered and somehow produced a winner!The plants were beautiful, varied, and abundant. Gardeners we had never known called me to offer plants fromtheir abundant gardens to be potted and labeled at my house. Consequently, there were more choices and moreplants potted than ever this year amounting to over 1500 plants

so many, in fact, that we extended the three-day event to Monday Memorial Day to try to find them homes. With unpleasant weather, despite our determination, by the afternoon of Memorial Day an absurd abundance of plants remained on the lawn. Not wanting towaste those resources and physical evidence of so much personal labor, I called someone on the Rockingham Library Board and arranged for a representative to come to the church on Tuesday

morning to remove the 175 remaining plants to sell at their plant sale the weekend of June 5-6. Thus, the sharing and caring supported another worthy cause. This massive effort was only possible because of the tremendous generosity of fellow gardeners and friends both inside and outside St. Luke’s and because of the crucial help of our dedicated volunteers. Those volunteers were more than crucial: gardening, potting, labeling, packaging dahlias, supplying fresh rhubarb, transporting plants to the church, grooming, selling, advising, cashiering, erecting and returning tents and tables, mowing, and so many personal efforts that made the event efficient, effective, and welcoming. Eternal thanks go to the most hardy, consistently gracious, wonderful workers: David and Marjorie Carey, Marcia Clinton, John and Alison DesLauriers, Doug Edson, Sally Hoover, Don and Nina Huffer, Ian and Polly Montgomery, Tom and Eileen Widger, Ruth Zezza and

John McLure, and David Willis.

Lillian Willis

                                 TIDY UP ST LUKES

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What a day it was. The weather was most cooperative; the helpers were a friendly, cheerful lot, and a great deal of fine work was done. I refer of course to the Clean Up St. Luke’s Day when a hearty band of wonderful volunteers worked hard to clean up the back lawn of the church. The plan was for everyone to arrive at about 10 but when I got there about 9:30 Andrew was already hard at work raking a huge amount of leaves from off the grass. However, it wasn’t very long before everyone else showed up to lend a hand, and we soon had piles of leaves and fallen branches stacked up in different locations around the lawn. John, with his very handy-dandy trailer, was particularly helpful in carting it all off while the rest of us helped lift everything onto the trailer. It amazed me just how much could be squashed into the trailer especially when it was trampled down by John marching back and forth on top of it all.

Then there were those who were cleaning up other parts of the outside of the church and in particular the section alongside the church to and from Main Street and the Memorial garden. Here the flower beds were cleaned, a small amount of trash removed, and everything was made to look trim and proper. We are now waiting for all the perennials to show their heads. Perhaps you have had a chance to enjoy the beautiful creeping phlox in the Memorial Garden.

So thank you to all who showed up that first Saturday of May. The photos give a good indication of the time spent and work done to make the outside of St. Luke’s look the best it could be.

David Carey