Maumee Valley Herb Society

Toledo Grows is sponsoring the 6th Annual Seed Swap at two locations this year. The Seed Swap and the children’s program will be held at Wildwood Metropark, Ward Pavilion, 5100 W. Central Avenue and other buildings in that area. Workshops wil be held at the Toledo Botanical Garden in the Conference Center and other buildings beginning at 10:00 am. Diane Toffler will represent the Maumme Valley Herb Society with the presentation “A Creative Approach to Herbal Gardening” in the Children’s Ed building from 1:30-3:00 PM. See TBG’s web site, www.toledogarden.org/seedswap and choose the first site on the list for the titles and times of the many presentations. The seed swap and the presentations are free. If you bring seeds to swap, you will receive tickets for additional seeds. You do not need to bring seeds to take some home. Come and join us for a fun day.

Are you interested in hearing about antique gardens? Scott Kunst will be our February speaker. He is the owner of Old House Gardens, a nationally known catalouge company. In this catalogue you will find an assortment of heirloom bulbs, corms and tubers. He also has had many articles published in horticulture periodicals and has served as advisor for many historical reconstructions of well known American gardens. He will be participating in the 2010 Garden Symposium to be held in Williamsburg, VA in April. In our library you will find “Flowers and Herbs of Early America”, a book about the gardens of Williamsburg.
All our meetings are open to the public. We invite you to come to the conference center at the Toledo Botanical Garden to hear Scott Kunst speak on Wednesday, February 17. Our social hour begins at 9:15 am.

We wish to thank everyone who helped to make Heralding the Holidays so successful for the Maumee Valley Herb Society. Thank you to those who made herbal vinegars, mustards, jams, jellies, soups, salsas, and baked goods. Also those who donated items to the Silent Auction. We made more money this year from the Silent Auction than in previous years. We also did very well with the herbal blends, teas, craft items, bath and body products, wreaths and dried arrangements, actually with everything we had to sell. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way, to those who helped get ready for heralding at our workshops, who worked during heralding, and all members who helped in any other way. We certainly appreciate all that you do for the Maumee Valley Herb Society and for the Toledo Botanical Garden. We also want to thank everyone who came to Heralding and purchased our products. Please mark the first weekend of December on your calendar for 2010. See you then.

Both of these meetings are workshops for Heralding the Holidays. This annual event is always the first weekend of December. This years dates and times are: Friday, December 4 from 5-9 pm, Saturday, December 5 from 10 am-5pm, and Sunday, December 6 from Noon to 5pm. Groups meeting at the Toledo Botanical Garden participate in this event. Some of these are the Toledo Artists Club, The Potters, the Glass Blowers, and the Rock Hounds.
During our workshops we decorate, label, and price our wares. Among our herbal items for sale are jams, jellies, mustards and vinegars, herbs, herbal blends and teas, pot pourri, wreaths, and craft items. We also have a silent auction and a bake sale. The money we earn is used in supporting the summer intern program at TBG, to purchase plants for the herb garden, and to help in other ways.
If you are looking for gifts that are a bit unusual for your self and for others, come and join us. You won’t be disappoionted. You will find us in the Conference Center at the Toledo Botanical Garden.

Our September meeting at the Wildwood Preserve Metropark in Toledo, Ohio, was both interesting and helpful to us. Our speaker, Stacy Walters, a Registered Knesiotherapist, demonstrated how body mechanics and various exercises can prevent aches and pains during our gardening sessions. Members of the Bedford Herb Group joined us at our meeting. We can now practice what we learned at this meeting and reap the benefits of her knowledge.

We were fortunate to have Jim McDonald, Herbalist, Wildcrafter and Medicine Maker as our speaker for this meeting. He talked about “Weeding for Wellness” and told us about the many beneficial uses that weeds have. He is a very interesting speaker, one you can listen to for several hours without realizing how much time has passed. We hope to have him speak to us again.