Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

McKenzie Garden Club

Posted

(May 26) — The May meeting of the McKenzie Garden Club was at the home of Mona Batchelor. The devotional was given by Marsha French who shared a poem entitled “What Heaven Means to Me” in which the writer enumerates the joys awaiting us in Heaven. These included: no night, no tears, no sorrow, sin, nor death; perfect weather and being reunited with loved one; meeting the old saints and hearing their stories; and, of course, seeing Jesus and living in His presence.

After prayer, the members enjoyed a lovely luncheon prepared by Mona and co-hostess Karen Forester.

Twenty members answered the roll call, and the meeting was off to a wonderful start with the announcement that Ms. Rose Brummitt had decided to become a club member. The minutes of the April meeting were read and approved, as was the Treasurer’s report. Sunshine Committee chair reported no cards sent since the April meeting and Marsha encouraged the members to contact her regarding cards that needed to be sent. She also had cards to be signed by all the members. The members then suggested several cards that needed to be sent.

Suggestions were given to the new Publicity Chair about what club events were generally publicized. A short write-up about Mona’s ribbons won at the Iris Festival in Dresden was suggested. The members were also notified that the club’s collection of scrapbooks and yearbooks were now housed in the Gordon Browning Museum and were in need of organization whenever members had a little spare time to work on it.

Civic and Conservation Committee chair Myra Sasser reported no activity since the last meeting but said the last quadrant at Bethel’s Alumni Garden was still in need of shade-loving plants.

In New Business: The members were updated that not enough interest was shown in beginning a new Master Gardeners’ class in Paris, and that the UT Extension Center will try for a Fall class later this year. Six members of the McKenzie Garden Club are Master Gardeners.

With no further business to conduct, Mona presented her program, entitled “Big Trees In Tennessee” and introduced the members to the Tennessee Champion Tree Program.

She explained that as a young girl her father showed her an American Beech tree on their farm. She always loved the tree and later learned that “her” tree was larger than the current American Beech Tree Champion, shown in her father’s American Forestry Magazine of 1941. Introduced in the mid-1970s, Tennessee began its Champion Tree Program with its stated mission “To protect, preserve, and keep record of the largest trees in Tennessee through public education and engagement”.

Mona explained to the members that anyone can nominate a tree for this program, and the tree doesn’t have to be on one’s on property. She described how, after nominating her tree in 2021, a crew came to measure it, and found it to be eighty feet tall, 131.51 inches in circumference, with a crown spread of 76.98 feet. The tree was identified as being nearly 300 years old.

Mona told the group that trees are the greatest gateway to preventing soil erosion, and with Tennessee having some of the most erosive soil in the world, trees are an essential part of the ecosystem, with their roots spreading two to four times the area of their crown spread. She concluded her program by urging the members to discover and nominate trees, and to make others aware of this program. Discussion then led to identifying trees, and how older people can do so, but later generations are not being taught.

Following the program, announcement of the next meeting was made, Donna Hodge was presented with a vase of roses to celebrate her May birthday, and the meeting was closed with the reading of the Collect.