Members of the Ironton Garden Club have been very busy lately. Seven new members have been welcomed into the club.

New officers have been installed: Judy Myers, president; Carolyn Carter, vice president; Wilma Kingery, secretary/treasurer; and Phyllis Howell, parliamentarian.

Georgia and Suzanne Triplett went to the Shawnee Lodge to help with the Christmas decorating and members of the club will go down again in December to finalize the decorating.

Members from the Portsmouth and Minford clubs came to Ironton to view three gardens. Georgia Triplett’s garden was one of them. Region 10 will check to see what perennials are grown in this area. Georgia has a wide variety of flowers in her garden and a large herb garden from which he makes sachets of lavender. She observes “open gardens” and is happy to show her garden.

Joyce Rambacher announced she got best in show in the horticulture division with her pineapple sage at the fall regional meeting flower show.

Doris Hannon coordinated the fall work at the museum, putting down mulch and with the help of Suzanne Triplett, planted pansies and took care of any other fall work there.

Wilma Kingery did a program on the mourning dove, stating it is her favorite bird, partly because it is a symbol of peace.

A dove is, in fact, a small pigeon, grayish in color. There is no technical difference between a dove and a pigeon save that doves are depicted to have pointed tails and move in a more graceful manner. Mourning doves drink water by sucking, a remarkable accomplishment for birds.

Another remarkable feature is their monogamous nature. Mates typically stick together for the long run and become very devoted parents. Mourning doves raise as many as six broods in a single season. They don’t use traditional birdhouses, but will nest in hanging baskets.

Mourning doves tend to feed busily on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in an enlargement of the esophagus called the crop. Once they’ve filled it they can fly to a safe perch to digest the meal.

To lure them to your yard, scatter seeds, particularly millet, on the ground or on platform feeders, plant dense shrubs or evergreen trees in your yard to provide nesting sites.

The mourning dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million, but the mourning dove remains one of our most abundant birds with a U.S. population of about 350 million.

Ironton Garden Club members are looking forward to the open meeting in April where the club’s 88th anniversary will be celebrated.

 

Wilma Kingery

Ironton Garden Club