MEETINGS & EVENTS 2025
Garden Club meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month beginning in February. Meeting locations and times may vary depending on activity/availability. Guests are always welcome!. (scroll down to current month)
JANUARY -- No General Meeting / Board Meeting: Budget
FEBRUARY 11th 2025 -- 75th Anniversary Celebration! 1950 - 2025
WHERE: St John's Lutheran Church, 500 3rd St W, Northfield MN
TIME: Doors open 11:30 am, Lunch 12 noon
PRESENTATION: 75th Anniversary of the Northfield Garden Club
CATERING: Ruth's On Stafford
MARCH 11 / 1:00 pm / Northfield Depot
Growing a Backyard Pharmacy / Speaker: Lou Ann Raadt
For more info: https://herbsforall.wixsite.com/mysite
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/luannsherbsforall
APRIL 24 (Thursday) / 12 noon bus departure
1pm to 3pm: Bus Trip to MIA Art In Bloom
Art in Bloom showcases imaginative floral interpretations of selected works of art from Mia’s permanent collection, created by more than 100 individual and commercial florists. We will have a guided tour and experience the floral beauty and fragrance throughout the museum.
(no lunch provided, bring snack, bag lunch, or eat at the MIA restaurant on your own)
Fee: $25 pp Deadline: March 17th 2025 - mail check to Treasurer Tom Gagnon, NGC, 1508 Huron Ct., Northfield Mn
Bus Departs at 12 noon, Cannon Valley Movie Theatre parking lot. Return approximately at 4pm, same location.
MAY 13 / 1:00 pm / Northfield Depot
Introduction to Rain Gardens / Speaker: Sophie Epps, Clean River Partners
Description: A rain garden catches and holds water, giving it time to absorb into the ground, rather than run into storm drains. A rain garden also uses plants to filter out sediment, fertilizers, oil, trash and other pollutants that runoff water picks up as it travels across roofs, driveways, sidewalks and lawns. This month will investigate why rain gardens are important and how to make one in your own garden space - it’s easier than you think.
JUNE 10 / 12:00 noon / Northfield Depot
Potluck & 2nd Annual Flower Show
Summer lunch with friends sharing this season’s home garden triumphs. Sign up for a dish to share (details on sign up provided closer to event)
Flower Show: Bring your favorite flowers from your garden for our 2nd Annual NGC flower show. Prizes will be awarded for Floral Design; Eat your Veggies*; Best Hosta Leaf and People’s choice.
*Open to interpretation, but should still include an element of art
JULY 12th & 13th / Northfield Area Garden Tour / 11AM TO 4PM Sat & Sun
Tour a collection of six beautiful Northfield gardens and enjoy a variety of artwork from local area artists. As a nod to our 75th Anniversary this year, the garden line up will also include a public space that NGC cares for.
Ticket: $10 pp (good on both days)
AUGUST 12 / 1:00 p.m. / Northfield Depot
Pressing Botanicals / Speaker: Lucia Gardener
Want to keep those hard grown beauties all year? Come learn about how to press, what to press, and creating art with pressed botanicals.
SEPTEMBER 9 / 11:30 am, Carpool Departure
Tour Erin’s Acre, a local flower CSA / Speaker: Erin Honken
Description: Bring a picnic lunch and enjoy an hour in a gazebo by the lake before touring Erin’s acre, a local flower CSA. Learn about their history and farming practices, plus the dahlias they love to show off in September.
Recognized in 2021 by Rice County as Outstanding Conservationists of the Year, Erin and Dan Honken practice sustainable farming, concentrating on soil health, protection of waterways from contamination and growing native prairie plants that attract and sustain pollinators with their flower business.
Meet to carpool at 11:30 am at Cannon Valley Movie Theatre parking lot.
OCTOBER 14 / 1:00 p.m. / Northfield Depot
Make a Kokedama Ball / Speaker: Rachel Kinney, Paisley Gardens
Description: Kokedama (Japanese for "moss ball") is a style of potting up plants in a ball of moss and displaying them in a dish or suspended in the air. Learn about this centuries-old Japanese garden form and take your own kokedama home.
Fee: $25 per person
November 11 / 1:00 pm / Brosseau Farmstead
Winter Wreaths
This is a hands-on event. Learn how to use natural items to design beautiful winter wreaths on an evergreen base. Bring your tools to cut materials and the season’s contribution from your own yard and collectively create something new.
Suggested Contributions: birch branches, dogwood twigs, seed pods, decorative grasses, dried apple slices, dried oranges slices, berry sprigs, pine, privet berry, yew tree, teasels, heather, holly, ivy berry, bilberry, juniper, bay leaves.
December 9 / 1:00 PM / Northfield Depot
Glaðligr Jól*
Come join your garden club friends for a homey holiday party. There will be treats and we will create yule logs (not the cake variety). The burning of the Yule log symbolizes the sun's strength returning after the darkest days of winter; let’s bring back the sun.
*old Norse for “happy, cheerful and bright”