Atkinson Garden Club

03/24/2026

Your bird feeder is still set up for winter. The birds at it changed three weeks ago. Here's what to switch right now.

🐦 Remove:

- Standard suet cakes — once daytime temperatures stay consistently above fifty degrees, standard suet softens and goes rancid. Switch to no-melt formulation or remove until fall. The birds that relied on suet in winter are switching to insects now

- Whole peanuts in the shell — jays and woodpeckers love them but the shells accumulate under the feeder and harbor mold in warm wet spring conditions. Switch to shelled peanut pieces or peanut hearts

🐦 Add:

- Grape jelly for orioles — one tablespoon in a shallow dish. Baltimore Orioles are arriving now and this is the strongest attractant. Limit to a tablespoon per day so they continue hunting insects for their chicks

- Orange halves for orioles — on a nail, cut side up. Replace every two to three days before fermentation

- Mealworms, live or dried — bluebirds, wrens, chickadees, and phoebes switch to insect-heavy diets in spring for breeding. A dish of mealworms near the feeder attracts species that don't eat seed

🐦 Keep but adjust:

- Black oil sunflower stays — year-round staple, no change needed

- Nyjer seed stays but watch for clumping — nyjer absorbs moisture in warm weather and blocks the ports. Shake the feeder every few days. Goldfinches are molting into yellow right now and hitting nyjer feeders harder than any other time of year

- Safflower seed — add if you haven't. Cardinals prefer it. Squirrels and grackles mostly ignore it

🐦 Clean everything:

- This is the most important step. Warm weather plus moisture plus accumulated seed debris equals rapid bacterial growth. Clean every feeder with a dilute bleach solution every two weeks through spring. Rinse thoroughly and dry completely before refilling

- Feeder-transmitted diseases peak between March and May — the same window when birds are concentrated at stations and physically stressed by breeding. A clean feeder is the single easiest intervention

- Rake or sweep the ground under the feeder weekly — accumulated hulls and wet seed on the ground are where the bacteria grow fastest

Your winter menu kept them alive. Your spring menu helps them breed 🌿

03/23/2026

03/21/2026

03/18/2026

A planting like this proves you do not need a single flower to create a display that stops people in their tracks, and every plant here earns its place through foliage alone.

The backbone of the arrangement is a Cordyline, likely Cordyline fruticosa Red Star or Festival Grass, providing the tall spiky form in the center back. Next to it, purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum Rubrum) adds movement and height without competing visually. These two give the planting its vertical structure, and everything else layers down from there.

The mid-layer is almost entirely coleus, and the variety selection here is excellent. You can see at least five distinct varieties working together: a deep burgundy, a bright orange, a purple and green bicolor, a crimson with lime edges, and a dark chocolate that anchors the left side. Sun-tolerant coleus varieties like the Colorblaze series from Proven Winners hold their color intensity all season without fading in full sun the way older coleus varieties did. Kong series works well for partial shade situations and produces very large leaves that read well from a distance.

The trailing plants spilling over the wall are doing critical work. The silver cascading foliage is Dichondra Silver Falls, and the bright chartreuse trailing plant on the right is likely Lysimachia nummularia Aurea, commonly called creeping Jenny. Both are vigorous trailers that soften the hard edge of the stone wall and pull the eye downward to complete the composition.

Sweet potato vine in the deep purple variety, probably Ipomoea batatas Blackie, fills the left foreground and repeats the dark tones from the coleus above it.

The practical principle behind this whole planting is the thriller, filler, spiller formula. Tall dramatic plants at the back and center, mounding colorful plants filling the middle, and trailing plants cascading over the edge. Getting the color temperature right matters as much as the structure. Warm oranges and reds sit next to cool purples and silvers here, and the chartreuse acts as a neutralizer that keeps the whole thing from becoming visually chaotic.

03/16/2026

Congratulations to our own Pat Bennett, Club President, whose gorgeous floral arrangement was on display this past weekend at the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Club's fabulous flower show, "Bloom."
The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester was host to the many talented designers who each interpreted one of the museum's current pieces through their floral arrangements.

03/16/2026

Could Spring be just around the corner?

12/06/2025

It’s Saturday!!! Last day of Atkinson Garden Club’s Greens and Gifts Sale!!!! 🎄🎁🎄
Don’t forget to pick up your pre-orders. Come shop for beautiful wreaths, centerpieces, golden apple arrangements, mugs, swags, bows for both wreaths and gift boxes, table top trees, and so many more unique items to decorate your home or give as gifts!
Santa will be here from noon-2 p.m.🎅🏻 Bring the kids (of all ages)to say hello!!!

12/05/2025

Atkinson Garden Club Greens Sale begins today!! Atkinson Community Center, 10-3 today and Saturday!!! Pick up your pre-orders! Shop for all your traditional holiday greens. Come and see tables full of beautiful and unique items created by our design team!!!! Santa will be here noon-2 on Saturday!!! Bring the kids!