JUNIOR GARDEN CLUB PROGRAM SUGGESTIONS
(ALSO GOOD FOR ADULTS, AS WELL)

WEB Site With Good Junior Ideas and Information for Programs

1. Learning the art of making bows
2. Dried Bean Wreath
3. Tour your locate Nature Preserve
4. Tour of Robert Rothschild's Berry Farm in Urbana 
Stroll through acres of herbs, flowers and raspberries that blanket the farm and watch as the gourmet food products are created in the kitchen
5. Horticulture tips for a flower show -
what's the judge looking for?
6. Clay pot snowman
7. Decorating candles with pressed flowers
8. Making treats for the birds
9. Flowers that attract Butterflies &/or Humming Birds
10. Forcing spring bulbs
11. Arbor Day Projects
12. Assisting your adult sponsors in civic beautification plantings
13. Decorating picture frames
14. Decorating gift packages
15. Progressive tours of member's gardens
16. Artistic designs: small and miniature 
17. A Walk in the Wood
18. Using herbs for gift giving
19. Crafting a Christmas ornament
20. Program of video or slides from OAGC library - IT'S FREE!
21. Choosing Patriotic Flowers and telling about each one
22. Decorating hats and wall hangings
23. Attending OAGC conventions
24. Become familiar with Oriental Designs
25. Carving Pumpkins
26. A Garden Resolution I would like to keep!
27. Club completing Junior contests for OAGC convention
28. Crafting treasured boxes
29. Celebrating National Garden Week (third week in April)
30. Speaker on Our Feathered Friends
31. Decorating books from Goodwill 
32. Making clay pot people
33. Making garden chimes from clay pots
34. How to prepare a luncheon tray for the flower show
35. Pumpkins and gourds from a grower in your area
36. Crafting Mr. Snowman
37. Decorating Floats for the Rose Parade
38. Crafting Stepping Stones
39. Flower Pounding - Botanical Prints
40. Decorated mirrors
41. Decorated bean/herb bottles
42. Decorating Grapevine Trees 
43. Soap making
44. Reindeer Ornament
45. Trip to Wahkeena Nature Preserve, outside of Lancaster
46. Decorating baskets
47. Decorating birdhouses
48. Tour of Mary Higgins' Garden in Centerville
49. Disbudding Flower Show Flowers
50. Watch for insect and disease problems in your garden
51. Making a collage
52. Creative Jewelry
53. Tour a garden center
54. "The Shape of Things" making an assemblage on a panel 
55. Woodland potpourri
56. Pressed flower pictures
57. Tussie Mussie
58. "Touched by an Angel" - Craft
59. Discussion of Family legends at the Holidays
60. Conservation and how we can help!
61. Still Life Designs
62. Tubular Designs
63. Conserving Water
64. Clerking a Flower Show
65. Sub-dividing a Flower Show
66. Bring a plant for exchange - either from your garden or purchased plant - be prepared to 
tell the growing habits of the plant
67. Dried Design using Roadside Materials - collecting weeds is half the fun!
68. Nature Pals - decorating pumpkins making animals/persons out of dried materials
69. Gourd Snowmen
70. Making a spot garden in your garden 
71. Getting ready for the Home Flower Show
72. Personality colors - what colors suits you best 
73. Painting Clay Pots - with acrylic paints
74. Edible Flowers
75. Decorated Botanical Dinner Plates
76. Attending Gardeners Day Out
77. "What's Fair?" recapping last minute details for fair
78. Table settings
79. Pressing Seeds into Note Cards

80. Winter Holiday Season Ideas

During the holiday season, we decorate our homes and bake special treats for family and friends.  This is a time to share and celebrate the gifts of the season.  This year, consider decorating an outside pine tree for your backyard birds.  Winter birds will appreciate the extra food and this can be a fun and exciting family project to share. 

If you have children or grandchildren this can be a fun thing between Christmas and New Years to keep them from getting bored.  Try covering pinecones with peanut butter and then roll in birdseed.  They can be hung in the trees with colored yarn.

Scoop out orange halves, punch three holes equal distance around the top and tie decorative ribbon into holes to make a basket effect and fill with suet or birdseed.  Using strong thread and a big needle (thimble helps) string popcorn and cranberries into a garland to drape around the tree.  Hang ears of corn for the birds, as well.

Try making Christmas treats for the birds using the following recipe:

8 pounds ground suet

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

6 to 8 cups cornmeal

10 cups good quality bird seed

100 paper muffin liners or paper cups

50 cranberries

15 yards red twine

50 – 100 Popsicle sticks or tongue depressors, drilled with a hole at the top

Melt suet in a deep pan over low heat, about 45 to 60 minutes.  Divide between 2 large bowls and add 3/4-cup peanut butter to each bowl and whisk to combine.  Add the cornmeal, staring with just 3 cups in each bowl.  Stir in half the birdseed into each.  If mixture is too soft, add more cornmeal.

Chill overnight in the refrigerator.

Place paper cups or double muffin liners (don't use foil since it will frighten the birds) on cookie sheets, keep the suet mixture at room temperature until it is soft enough to scoop out with a tablespoons.  Heap the cups/liners with the suet mixture, about 1/2 cup in each.  Top each with a fresh cranberry.  Drill a hole in Popsicle sticks or tong depressors - stick in the filled cups to hang in the tree with yarn.  If you have any suet left over place in a mesh potato or onion bag and tie it to a tree.

Using 10-inch lengths of red twine, tie the treats to tree branches.   Remember, it might take several days for the birds to discover their gift and pass the word around to their relatives and friends. 

Try making Gourmet Bird Wreaths using:

2 cups (1 pound) ground suet

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup cornmeal

3 61/2-inch straw wreaths

2 cups seed mixture for small birds

3 yards decorative ribbon

12 or 15 grain branches or local grasses

In a large sauté pan, heat the suet over medium-low heat until completely melted.  Stir in the peanut butter and cornmeal.  It may be necessary to add a bit more cornmeal if the mixture is too runny.  This will depend somewhat on the brand of peanut butter you are using.  Remove from the heat and with tongs, dip in one of the wreaths, covering the entire surface with the suet mixture.

Use a spoon to coat the inside.

Place the birdseed in the pan and roll the warm suet-covered wreaths in the seed, completely covering the wreath, patting the seed on if necessary.  Place on a cookie sheet.  Repeat with the remaining wreaths.  If the suet mixture begins to harden, reheat it slightly and continue dipping.

Refrigerate the wreaths overnight.  Tie with bows and decorate with grain branches.  Makes 3 wreaths.