Around Town

Sogkonate Garden Club Collects Record 227 Pounds of Trash from Local Shorelines
Each month, the Sogkonate Garden Club’s Conservation Committee collects litter on Little Compton roads. Additionally, the committee hosts a Coastal Clean-Up Day each September. This year, 16 SGC members participated and collected a record 227 pounds of trash. SGC members scoured the following beaches: Adamsville Landing, Briggs, Little Pond Cove, Lloyds, Sakonnet Point, Sherer Cove, South Shore, Tappans, Taylor's Lane, Town Landing and Warren's Point in Little Compton and Richmond Point and the Knubble in Westport.

Wilbur School Eighth Graders Create Floral Arrangements for Their Dinner Dance

SGC members (Mary Mackintosh, Carolyn Montgomery, Carole Siino, Eileen Mosher and Amanda Toste) worked with recent 8th Grade graduates to create floral arrangements for their 8th Grade Dinner Dance held June 10th at the Wilbur School. Members donated flowers, vases and assistance. Carolyn M. gave a wonderful demonstration to the students to get them started

Twenty-two students made 14 arrangements. See for yourselves how lovely they came out! Congratulations Graduates!

Coast of Maine Grants 10 Bags of Soil to the SGC!

Congratulations to the Sogkonate Garden Club (SGC). The club is the recipient of a grant of 10 whole bags of Coast of Maine’s Castine Raised Bed Mix. This bed mix will be used for the Wilbur McMahon school seedling project and for planting seeds to sell at the spring Blossom and Sweets Sale on Saturday, May 25th, 7:30-11AM.

Celebrating the Holidays with Swags & Wreaths

The holiday season brings out the greens in us! Many SGC activities this month focused upon helping schoolchildren and the local community get into the spirit and beauty of the season!

A day was devoted to the collection and cutting of greens, another to assembling swags for all of the lamp posts in Little Compton and Adamsville. Wreath making, as well as, an evergreen workshop were held at the Wilbur-McMahon School. Another SGC group created a tree to submit to the town’s tree spree event where proceeds go to a local scholarship fund. What a wonderful community. Thank you one and all,

FALL CLEANUP

Our State House Rep, Michelle McGaw, joined many SGC members Saturday, November 11, for the annual Fall CleanUp. The Burchard Triangle and the Brownell House property were readied for winter. Many hands made quick work!

Rep McGaw performed a great service to us by shepherding our recent grant proposal through the House. Thanks to her efforts we were awarded funds to cover the cost of mandatory public liability insurance for the “Triangle”, a RIDOT Adopt-A-Spot location.

Thanks, Michelle, for lending a hand - in both ways!” Thanks all for your cheerful work on these two LC locations.

2023 Blossom and Sweets

The Sogkonate Garden Club’s annual Blossoms and Sweets Sale took place on May 27, 2023 under the tree next to Wilbur’s General Store. It was by all accounts a very successful event! The weather was absolutely perfect and the sale was very well attended. It was nice to be back at the Commons for the second year post-pandemic. Members of the club and the public were able to purchase perennials, small shrubs, vegetable seedlings, and baked goods. Club members circulated among the crowd to answer questions and give advice on caring for the various plants. In addition, beautiful items—many of them handmade by club members—were offered in the raffle. The event also included the green elephant sale of garden tools and gently used treasures. The Little Compton Tree Commission also participated, offering trees for sale and advice about planting native species.

Grow A Meadow 1, 2, 3 with Kathy Connolly

May 20, 2023 proved to be an exciting day for the community as over 110 individuals (club and general public) participated in a day long meadow workshop held at the Art Center in Tiverton Four Corners. Ms. Connelly, a Connecticut gardener and meadow expert, walked the group through key content areas including: What is a Meadow; How to Prepare a Meadow Site; and Planting and Managing a New Meadow. In addition to how the climate/environment benefits from establishing meadows, many practical “how to’s” were shared. Ms. Connolly will return in July/August to tour four emerging meadows to observe their progress and troubleshoot challenges. A great educational day was enjoyed by all. Many thanks for this event go to the Carter Family Charitable Trust, Four Corners Arts Center, Kathy Connolly and the Sogkonate Garden Club!

Sogkonate Garden Club wins Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs

2023 Awards

Portsmouth Garden Club Memorial Award for Litter Control

Co-chairs and their dedicated members continue each year to beautify our town of Little Compton with litter cleanup and styrofoam collection.

Yearbook Award - Class 5

The yearbook was highly praised for its beautiful display of colorful photos and its ease in accessing a wealth of information about members, calendar events, programs and speakers.

Comprehensive Horticulture Program Award

This award is shared by all members and its co-chairs for broadening knowledge and educating children and adults about gardening, and protecting and preserving natural resources, birds and wildlife. RIFGC recognized it as a comprehensive award that was well-deserved.

Award of Merit for Flower Show Achievement

The Horticulture co-chairs and every club member who assisted in the

June 2022 Flower Show deserve recognition for the huge success of the Flower Show.

Judges’ Council Award for Staging a Flower Show in a Public Building

The June 2022 Flower Show was so impressive that it won two prestigious awards.

Our own Ashley Sparks won 3 awards at the RIFGC 2023 Flower Show

Petite Design Award - First Place Blue Ribbon

Petite Class, Judges Commendation - Petite Award Rosette

People’s Choice Award (over 400 people voted!) Gold Rosette

Congratulations Ashley on a lovely design and 3 ribbons. WOW!

Treating Trees

On April 5, 2023 The SGC. hosted a presentation which was open to the general public. The title was “Treating Trees” presented by Larry Hindle, owner of Evergreen Tree and Landscape. Larry spoke about the care and maintenance of our trees, including how and when to prune, fertilize. and treat them for diseases. Larry was informative and quite funny as he shared lessons learned and he offered many take home lessons to apply. An engaged crowd attended and many suggested that they learned a lot about how to better care and nurture their trees.

Beautiful Town Landing “Oval” Gets the Special Treatment

A group of SGC and community volunteers came together on Saturday morning, September 9, to care for the naturalized oval (aka the center of the traffic roundabout). The morning was an annual opportunity to observe, weed and supplement the native plantings in the oval. With Sue Theriault’s guidance, helpers learned about the native grasses growing there as well as the weeds to pull! Native grasses, milkweed and golden rod and primrose plants were distributed throughout the oval. Now to water, watch and wait :-)

On Saturday, July 29th educator Kathy Connolly returned to LC to lead a follow-up tour of 4 local meadows. (Kathy taught a community wide workshop in May). This was a member’s only (and a few invited guests) event but lessons learned are for our entire community. Four meadows were visited and walked to observe their range of size, site preparation, maintenance and mowing schedules, and planting methods (E.g. seeds, plugs, field grass). Kathy used these sites as instructional demonstrations of different meadow landscapes. You can visit the demonstration garden hosted by SGC by the LC town fields and tennis courts. You can learn more about Kathy and meadows by visiting her website https://www.speakingoflandscapes.com

Oh The Holly and The Ivy….2022

SGC Members gathered to create swags to hang from the lampposts of Little Compton. Meanwhile the Wilbur McMahon six graders were supported by SGC Members to create wreaths to share about town. Below six graders offer one of their wreaths to the LC Post Office.

Pulling Mugwort at the Town Landing Saturday, October 15th, 2022

Members of the Sokognate Garden Club and several other volunteers joined Town Landing Committee members Sue Theriault and Rob Marra, at the landing Saturday October 15th to pull Mugwort, an invasive perennial.

Brendan Buckless, from the DEM, and Sue Theriault showed samples of the invasive plants we were to pull. The group enjoyed seeing the beautiful native warm grasses that the Town Landing Committee has planted. The lovely surroundings, wonderful company, (as well as coffee and donuts supplied by Rob Marra) made the two hours fly by. The Town Landing is a lovely asset for all to enjoy and protect.

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) is an invasive perennial found in Rhode Island. It is native to Europe and Asia and has been spreading in North America, particularly in the Northeast since colonial times. It is found on roadsides, waste areas, turfs and nurseries and thrives in sunny, open habitats.

Stands of mugwort displace native species and disrupt ecosystems. Mugwort pollen (not Goldenrod pollen!) is a common cause of hay fever.

It is very difficult to get rid of. Although a single plant can produce up to 200,000 seeds, Mugwort mostly spreads through its shallow root system. Plants can regenerate from a piece of rhizome as small as 2 cm, so it’s very important to get the entire root when pulling it.

SGC 2022 Gardens by the Sea Flower Show

The Gardens by the Sea Flower Show organized by the Sogkonate Garden Club was held June 25-26 at the Little Compton Community Center. It was a wonderful event which attracted a steady stream of visitors and won high praises from the public and the six judges. This National Garden Club Small-Standard Flower Show presented displays in a Design Division, a Horticulture Division as well as an Educational Display.
The Design Division “Living at the Water’s Edge” included four classes: Finding Seashells, Coastal Meadow, Flowers with Passports, and Seasonal Seaside Dining. The Educational Display emphasized the benefits of planting native plants, and the Horticulture Division had a large number of houseplants, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, vines, flowering perennials and annuals as well as foliage perennials and annuals.
Many Club members participated in the design and staging of colorful and artistic designs which impressed the judges from the RI Federation of Garden Clubs. Visitors admired the floral displays, the fragrant bouquets and the creativity of the staging.

June 2022

Students from the Wilbur & McMahon Eighth Grade Class recently created floral arrangements for their Graduation Celebration and Dance at the Point Club with help from the members of the Sogkonate Garden Club. Flowers from many club members’ gardens and assistance in arranging the displays offered a beautiful morning with lovely arrangements for all the graduating students to enjoy at their celebration dance. This is a yearly event in which club members look forward to participating.

In honor of Earth Day, members of the Little Compton Makers Club assisted the Sogkonate Garden Club in picking up trash in Little Compton on April 23. Thank you to the 43 volunteers who helped clean the areas along sixteen town roads! The day could not have been more perfect to clean up our town.

September 2021

A special presentation entitled " Solar Lambscaping" was held September 1 in conjunction with the Sogkonate Garden Club's annual new member luncheon. Jonathan Finnegan presented the absolute "win win" proposition of having his flock of sheep "lambscape" in and around solar panels on large solar farms. The efforts of these wooly friends thereby replaces the need for fuel powered and loud mowers, subsequent damage to the solar panels, and need for under panel weed reduction and spraying. The sheep also offer droppings of value (!), as well as provide future food, and wool for fiber artists! A few club members have also hired these lambs to eliminate invasive growth and cultivate their fields for meadow planting. See them in Toyin Shonukan's Tiverton yard below. Also take a look at her "keyhole garden" below. This is an ingenious circular design that allows for easy access to greens and boasts a self-composting center (see photo). We should all be so lucky!!{A slide presentation of Jonathan Finnegan's presentation is coming soon!}

Sogkonate Garden Club Participates in International Coastal Clean up Day

More than fifteen Sogkonate Garden Club members along with family and neighbors combined their efforts to pick up trash and debris along our local beaches on Saturday, September 18, 2021 as part of International Coastal Clean Up Day.Among the beaches cleaned up were South Shore, Briggs, Town Landing, Chace Point, and Town Way. Above are Lee Campbell, Marea Tumber and Nancy Dymecki cleaning at South Shore Beach. For more information visit the club website, sogkonate.org.

July 2021

LC Town Landing

On July 7, 2021 SGC members met in person (!) at the LC Town Landing (see April article below).Following a business meeting, Rob Marra presented a talk on the history of the town landing and events leading up to its current restoration. Below are pre and post restoration photos to intrigue you

Town Landing

You can enjoy a summary of this interesting and fun talk with historic and current photos by clicking here - Rob Marra's Landing Presentation

May 2021

Demo MeadowSogkonate Garden Club members meet regularly to weed, maintain and add to the demonstration meadow which features a pollinator garden in a grassy area.Seedling ProgramSue Theriault and other Garden Club members have been teaching Wilbur School first graders how to start some plant seedlings.You can see them watching and listening attentively. At the end of the eight sessions the children will take their plants home with great pride. Sidney Tynan's Country LetterWell, it’s not exactly the May we had hoped for being a little too cool and gray for my taste but at least we didn’t have two heavy frosts as we did in 1999. Despite the cool, shrubs have been blooming everywhere and birds have been building nests. A pair of bluebirds even had their babies fledge early and a photo was sent to me, maybe two minutes after one had taken a first look at his new world. It is probably best that we forget once summer comes how magical May can be with some surprise every day. If you think a male of the eastern variety Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Photography by Dan Pancamo) has red throat feathers you would be mistaken. His neck feathers are covered with platelets which have no color but which catch the sun and glow red while he dances wildly to attract a mate. These neck feathers are also called “Gorgettes” after the protective throat covering that knights wore for protection. If you are still interested read on and look up birdnote.com and in the upper right corner type in "Ruby-throated hummingbird" and keep scrolling down until you come to #9 and there is a splendid photo. What I want you to look at particularly are the little untidy clumps of feathers on either side of the main neck feathers and this is why. One evening around 6 the sun had gone around the corner of the house and I saw a male perched on the nectar holder. He just sat there – guarding the food supply – and on either side of his dark neck there were two little fires. I was really puzzled as to what I was seeing. From time to time he would hop up and face in the other direction, always with those little fires glowing. I don’t imagine I will ever see them again in just that lucky piece of light. (Thanks to my bird Guru for giving me the information that showed me I hadn’t been going crazy).Grackles with their ominous yellow eyes glowing against their shiny black heads have now found the big feeder as have the Starlings. The latter have pink legs which I saw glowing in the early eastern sun as they hung upside down on the suet. (In my old tattered Peterson they are called European. If they were a plant they would be called “introduced” rather than “invasive” which of course they are.)

April 2021

Protecting Our Public Spaces

SGC supports Little Compton "Town Landing" restoration and protection effort

There is a special place in Little Compton, Rhode Island, locally referred to as the “Town Landing”. The “Town Landing” sits seaside on a lovely bluff with wide ocean views off to Martha’s Vineyard to the southeast, and Block Island (or the windmills on a perfect day) to the southwest. There is a short trail down to a rocky beach, A haven for outdoor activities, the “Landing” welcomes walkers, runners, birders, strollers, bikers, and even drivers (limited parking). Many come to sit and watch sea life, surfers, boaters or to enjoy a seasonal picnic. Hester Simmons is the benefactor of the Town Landing, her will calling for it to be “used for recreational purposes – free to all.” Ms. Simmons’ home was once situated upon the Landing’s bluff, but it quite literally blew away in the Hurricane of 1938. Upon her death in 1948 she left the remaining property to Little Compton. As lovely as it is the “Landing” reveals that little attention has been paid to its care and nurturing over the years. The result has been deterioration with bluff erosion, ruts from poor drainage, with grasses turned to mud. However, a recent volunteer committee partnered with town officials to seek improvement funding. Some Sogkonate Garden Club members or their spouses serve on this committee. Almost $170,000 was raised consisting of blended funding from the DEM (80K), the town of Little Compton (23K) and private donations (66K!) Save the Bay staff also offered consultation to the effort. The resources raised have allowed for an environmental engineer and landscape architect to create and implement a transformation plan. Private funds will be dedicated to future protection needs. Work began in the fall of 2020 and will be completed this spring. The result should be a safer, more beautiful, and environmentally resilient public recreational space.Sogkonate Garden Club (SGC) members voted overwhelmingly in January to make a representative donation to the Town Landing fund. It was the consensus of club members that this investment in a community resource was quite timely. The Covid 19 pandemic caused many club events to be canceled, postponed or moved to Zoom which made certain unanticipated funds available. The pandemic has been a driver of public desire for outdoor spaces for exercise and fresh air, thus members felt the timing was good to support the improvement of this lovely community asset. Members also have a particular interest in the plantings that will be selected and learned that the intention was to use native plantings to create natural habitats and prevent further deterioration and erosion. So, perhaps plan to visit the revitalized Town Landing to witness the progress yourself, or wait until it is fully landscaped and seeded (or both!). By: Jeanne W. McAllister, Little Compton, Rhode Island

March, 2021

Spring is coming soon, in the meantime we enjoy watching indoor plants such as the beautiful orchids that have been blooming at Carolyn Montgomery's since January.

December, 2020

MEMBERS GET "CREATIVE" DURING PANDEMIC Sogkonate grade School Committee members are busy preparing to make holiday arrangements with the third grade classes at the Wilbur School. In many ways this project will look similar to years past, with our gardeners cutting a variety of evergreen foliage, procuring floral supplies, and selecting festive decorations to jazz up the arrangements.In other ways this project will look different to years past, with club members leading virtual instruction over Zoom video instead of in-classroom. Click onevergreen projectto view a video of the program during which Susanne and Joel are instructing the third graders. This was followed by Amanda showing on her camera how to create the special arrangement. The kids made it right along with her and brought it to home enjoy with their families. Sogkonate Club members additionally assisted the Little Compton Garden Club with a sixth grade wreath project.

The Sogkonate Garden Club works collaboratively with:

The Wilbur & McMahon School(See above)

Little Compton Community Center

The Garden Club holds most of its programs at the Community Center (except during pandemic) and organizes gardening activities for the children in the after school program and at camp.

The Little Compton Wellness Center

The mission of the

Little Compton Wellness Center

is to promote healthy aging within our community through affordable programs and services.

The Garden Club offers free workshops to the Day Center participants: in November, members assist each participant in making a silk flower arrangement. In June, members help with the making of a flower arrangement to take home.

October, 2020

Tour of cranberry bogOn October 14 members of the Sogkonate Garden Club took a tour of the cranberry bog at the Middle Acres Farm in Tiverton, RI. Started as a dairy farm in the 1820's it was turned into a corn field and in the 1990's into a cranberry bog. Managed by Lucien LeBreux' nephew the cranberries are harvested in October and sold to make juice. Playground GardenOn October 10 a group of members devoted some time to weeding, pulling up damaged plastic cover and mulching the perimeter by the playground.Stay tuned for news of additional improvements to this lovely area in the center of town.

Little Pick Up Rare FindAt the October 8 litter pickup Rikky LaBerge won the prize for the most unusual item for the day:a jawbone from possibly a cow.

September, 2020

Sogkonate Garden Club Conservation Effort - Coastal Clean Up

On September 19th twenty members of the Sokgonate Garden Club participated in our Coastal Cleanup. We picked up trash along the beaches at South Shore/Goosewing, Briggs, Philipi, Town Landing , Lloyd's and the bottom of Town Way.

This year, due to COVID-19, we didn't tabulate the types of trash we found. We noticed cigarette butts seem to be everywhere! Cigarette butts are the largest form of plastic waste in the world -- 4.5 trillion of them polluting the earth. The plastic part of cigarette butts contain hundreds of toxic chemicals that leach into the environment and remain even after the 10-15 years cigarette filters require to decompose.

Next year, we hope we can again invite the community to join us in this effort to keep our town beaches clean and beautiful.

The Sokognate Garden Conservation Committee organizes roadside clean-ups that collect on average 10 to 20 bags of litter each month.

Looking to get rid of household hazardous waste? RI residents can make an appointment to dispose of paint, used motor oil and more at an eco-depot. The following items will be accepted:Fluorescent light bulbsgasolineoil-based paintdisinfectantused motor oillawn and propane tanksSince 2001, the eco-depot program has provided a free way for Rhode Islanders to properly dispose of household hazardous waste. When improperly disposed of, these substances can damage the environment and contaminate the state's waterways.

July, 2020

More Little Compton/Tiverton sign news (see news below):

A Sakonnet Times article (July 9, 2020) written by Claire Johnson summarized a little origin history about the Little Compton/Tiverton town sign. This sign, located on W. Main Road on the border of Little Compton and Tiverton, was erected in 1994 to replace an aging "Little Compton" sign. The Sogkonate Garden Club's Civic Beautification Committee (at that time consisting of Carolyn Montgomery and Carole Flores) set the process in motion. They engaged the Tiverton Garden Club's collaboration. The two clubs shared the cost of the sign which was erected by LC town employees. A few years later the sign was damaged during a storm and the two clubs again shared the cost of repairs. On one side of the sign it reads: Town of Little Compton, RI, Founded in 1675; Incorporated 1746. The Tiverton side of the sign states: Town of Tiverton, RI, Incorporated 1694. The LC Grange plants a small garden at the base of the sign each year and, as described below, the Sogkonate Garden Club cleans the sign annually.

The Little Compton/Tiverton Sign Gets a Cleaning

The two-sided sign, a result of a collaborative effort between the Sogkonate Garden Club and the Tiverton Garden Club and volunteers, gets a recent cleaning - Thank You to Sandy and Ashley Sparks!

Check out"Gardener's Corner" for the history of collaboration to make this sign happen.

Stop by the outdoor demonstration meadow, now with plant identification signs to help you learn!

Meeting House Lane, Little Compton(by the tennis courts)

Lupine

December 2021

HOLIDAY SWAGS

Did you ever wonder who gathers and assembles the materials to create the swags that decorate the lampposts in the Center of town? Sogkonate Garden Club members recently created the 35 Holiday Swags which are now hanging on the wrought iron lamp posts throughout Little Compton Commons.This annual event began 27 years ago as a means for decorating the town for the annual Ben Wilkie Memorial Tree Spree usually held in the Wilbur McMahon School Gym.The assorted greens and berries were donated by Jason Burchard who hosted SGC members at his place for the event. Sandy Sparks and Pat McCarthy made the bows. The lush red velvet bows complete the swags, which have to endure the strong winter winds of Little Compton. Enjoy the festive decorations!

November 2021

The Fall Cleanup organized by the Civic Beautification Committee of the Sogkonate Garden Club had a terrific turnout. Burchard Triangle got trimmed and tidied. Brownell House was cut back and cleared of aegopodium. Mugwort and creeping Charlie were removed from the Demonstration Meadow. Thanks to all who participated!