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Jan 2015 - New President Francoise Geiser (Vice President - Wendy Smith-Rogers)
Our new President this year, Francoise Geiser, has
an interesting background and warrants a proper introduction. Francoise is married
to Tim Geiser who is a
member of the Deer Spring Fire Board.
She has a son, a daughter and five grandchildren. She and Tim own a 3-acre
avocado ranch on
Jesmond Dene Rd where they live with four dogs, one cat and a llama! She was
born and raised in Senegal, West
Africa and moved to France during her high school years. Her family is French
but is scattered all over
the world: she landed here in the US, her brother and his family in Quebec,
Canada and the rest are still in France.
Francoise came to the US in the mid-sixties with her new husband,
settling in the Los Angeles area. She worked
in the IT field for her almost 30-year career, as a computer programmer and
project leader, mainly for TRW and Experian. She also worked in Real Estate
in the 70’s and
has her broker’s license. She speaks
fluent French and visits France with her husband every other year. She loves
to travel, but like us all, never
seems to do enough of it. Francoise has always
enjoyed gardening but mostly had English-style gardens in Los Angeles. It
wasn’t until she moved to Escondido in
2012 that she started appreciating drought tolerant landscaping. She has learned
so much from other garden
club members and it is a continuing education; there is such a huge diversity
of low water and succulents plants to choose from. Francoise adds “I look
forward to the monthly
garden club meeting where I have made many friends. I want to encourage the
Meadowlark readers to
attend one of our meetings and see what a great club Hidden Meadows Garden Club
is.”
Jan 2014 - Betty Spagnola continues as Club President
Another fun year is planned for 2014!
Check out the new schedule. Also check out Betty's Meadowlark Column "Dig It With Betty" appearing in
every issue, for gardening tips and interesting themed articles.
Jan 2013 - New President: Betty Spagnola
About Betty Spagnola: "My Grandmother was an avid gardener and
she had me in the garden at the age of 3. We lived in San Francisco so gardening was much different there compared to San
Diego. I loved every minute of it and have been obsessed with all aspects of gardening. When I lived in Marin
County I owned and operating a full service Flower Shop for 8 years specializing in large floral arrangements and designing
Christmas trees of all sizes to baby grand pianos. You name it I decorated it for my clients. I also taught classes
in floral design and container gardening of all styles . From there I moved to Scottsdale, AZ and worked at my husband's catering
business setting-up functions to include tablescaping and floral arrangements. Also, I became a Master gardener
for 10 years and was on many garden tours and my garden was featured in Phoenix Home & Garden. When I moved to Hiddden
Meadows I became a Master Gardener in San Diego. I retired from being a Master Gardener last year to devote more time
to my family and garden in Hidden Meadows. Living in Hidden Meadows has been a gardeners dream. Although being
on 4 acres of flat and hilly terrain has it's challenges. Also, being a Master Gardener
in Scottsdale and San Diego brought me into the world of cactus and succulents. I have begun my cactus/succulent garden
and am finishing my vegetable garden as I write this. I don't believe there is any kind of gardening that I don't love.
I have a new grandbaby and as soon as she is old enough she will be at my side in the garden as I was with my grandmother. I have an enormous passion for gardening and
really looking forward to this new adventure with the Hidden Meadows Garden Club."
Outgoing President's Message - Lisa Lonsdale
1/18/13
After 4 years as President, I look back fondly to all that we have done, all the new friends I have
made and all the fun we have had together. We've toured nurseries and home gardens, built two kinds of birdhouses, learned
how to use mosaic art, planted succulent boxes, learned how to plant hanging baskets and potted plants, learned about drip
irrigation and about using earthworms to compost kitchen waste. What fun we have had. I look forward to more fun
as a regular member. Thanks for all your support, kindness and best of all friendship. Welcome to incoming co-presidents,
Betty Spaggnola and Cindy Fitzgerald.
6/17/12
Half the year gone already! Some great events so far with some more good ones still to come.
Thanks to all members for your continued support of our club. We have some great new members this year and some absent
members who have come back to enjoy the events. Hope to see you soon.
2/17/12
Here we are already into February, beginning the fourth year of my Presidency. My husband warned
me 5 years ago not to take this on because I could never quit. Looks like he was right...but I do enjoy the task.
We have such a great group of folks that I really look forward to each and every event. Thanks for your participation.
We have another fun year of events planned. See you soon.
12/21/11
Wow, what a quick and marvelous year for the club. We did so many new things - workshops and
tours. Hopefully, we can come up with a lot more new things for 2012; maybe even repeat some of the popular things.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a hopeful New Year. Maybe our government will get its act together next year.
See you on January 20th for our planning meeting at the Douglas's. Thanks for your participation this year. You
are the club.
9/2/11
Wow, where has the summer gone? It was pretty mild in June. July and most of August.
Who's complaining? Not me. My spring romaine lettuce was successful, producing about 100 heads and flourished
until the end of June. I had many failures this summer in the vegetable garden and it's a mystery as to why, as most
years everything flourishes. My squash was slow to start and then didn't produce much. My eggplants also didn't
want to start growing and are just now starting to flower. My large heirloom "Mr Stripey" looked terrible from day one
and only provide one full sized tomato. The rest were runts but still had great flavor. My yellow pear heirloom
produced a lot, but the plant also wasn't up to my expectation and no amount of added care made a difference. I'm getting
ready to start my seeds for some winter tomatoes and hope I have more luck with them.
5/20/11
Spring has really sprung. We had a really wet Winter and then a pretty good rain the other
day for this late in the spring. Besides the weeds, all the plants in my yard are thriving. We've now had 4 wonderfully
enjoyable events: Design Charette, Birdhouse building, Succulent potting and Succulent Framing workshops.
All were educational along with getting our hands (and heads) into the event. Next month, we will tour 3 local
gardens and then in July we will tour some local vineyards. Come join in the fun!
3/19/11
We've had two great events "Charette" and "Birdhouses." Member seem to like the hands-on experiences
that these types of events present. We have another one next month, on April 8th (a week early due to date conflict.)
We will have a presentation of "Potting Succulents" given by yours truely as our resident expert, Debra Lee, was not available
due to her hectic schedule of seminars and book signing. She was my inspiration for starting my "hobby" of growing succulents.
I am a regular fanatic! Check out our schedule and join us for some fun this year.
1/22/11
Happy New Year! Well, here I am again, President of the Club for the third year in a row.
No one else wanted to take it on it turns out. We have a great year scheduled for 2011, so take a look at our Calender
tab. Hope the spring brings you many beautiful flowers and vegetables. My winter tomatoes are setting their fruit
and I should have some ripe strawberries any day now and the plants in the greenhouse are happy being warm and cozy at night.
See you at our next event.
9/18/10 - Where has the year gone? And what a weird and mild summer we had. We
still could get some heat, so maybe my tomato plants I planted in July will set some fruit. My spring tomatoes did not
do as well as I'd hoped, but I had a windfall of squash, eggplant, lettuce, radishes, carrots, onion and some late pole beans.
I am looking forward to trying it all again next year. Hope to see you at our October 15th event. Take care.
7/31/10 - Participation the last few months has been great. We gained six new members since
March, although we lost a few that didn't sign up with us again. Maybe they will come back soon. Looking
for to the Potluck in August, the Winery Tour in September and the Fallbrook Hidden Forest and Garden Center Cafe in October.
Come join in the fun! Hope to see you soon.
3/6/10
Spring is almost here! Get your vegetable gardens started. I planted two tomatoes yesterday
and started some seeds for squash and eggplant today. I have lots of succulent pups and cutting reading to leave my
greenhouse and be moved out into the yard. Oh what fun this growing thing is! Happy gardening.
Happy New Year! Join us for our Annual Planning Meeting on January 22nd at 11:00am at the Pavilion.
RSVP to Lisa at 749-8723 or ldlonsdale@vcweb.org
11/22/09 - The holiday season is once again upon us. Our lives speed up just a little bit more
this time of the year and we wonder where the day went (especially with darkness descending so early.) Simple is sometimes
better. Just getting together is so much more important than spending lots of money on gifts. Spend your time
with your families and you'll be better off because of it. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. Enjoy.
Lisa
10/19/09 - Hey Members! Interest in our club has been lagging. What's happening?
Maybe the economy has effected what you all are doing with the time these days. I hope your interest picks up.
This club is nothing without your participation. Let's get this thing going! Lisa
8/20/09
Wow! More than half the year is gone already. It's been an interesting summer, with hot
temps in July and then these beautifully mild days we've had for the past two weeks. Our water bills appreciate it too.
Thanks to all of you who have participated in our events. Let's keep up the support of a wonderful club. Hope
to see you at the vineyard tour next month. Regards, Lisa
3/31/09
So far we have had two great tours in February and March. Special thanks to the chairpersons
who organized them. I am enjoying my involvement this year in the events we have had and know we will have many more
enjoyable events throughout the year. Keep up the good work. Hope to see you soon.
Lisa
Welcome to the Hidden Meadows Garden Club. I am excited to represent the club as President
for 2009. I have been an avid gardener for the past 25 years; 17 years here in the Meadows. Three years ago, after
30 years working for the County Public Works Department (gardening only on weekends), I retired to our 2.5
acre property with my husband, Dave. We are now remodeling the house and re-landscaping the yard (mostly succulents.)
We throw in tennis, golf, movies and traveling. We expect to be finished with our projects by the year 2050, as our
list grows faster than the plants do. Check out the club's new and improved webpage and join us for this years
events.
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