Bayville Library All Dress

Gardeners often decorate their homes with trimmings from their gardens, but sometimes it can be challenging. “This year we just didn’t have enough greens to decorate the Bayville Free Library,” said Judy McQuiston, Locust Valley Garden Club’s Bayville chair. “I had a big holly bush in my yard with lovely red berries that I planned to use. I was going to put a sheet over it to keep the robins from eating them, but the next morning I looked out and the bush was bare. They came in the middle of the night and denuded it.” She said the same thing happened to decorating crew member Marcy Meyer.

McQuiston went around her garden and found just enough to do the two sprays now seen outside the library.

“Maria Merz, a member of the decorating team, used to ask her husband not to do any trimming until after we decorated,” added McQuiston. But this year member Sallie McNeill Rynd picked up greenery from Planting Field Historic State Park superintendent Vincent Simeone. “We were so grateful to get those greens,” said McQuiston.

“I have a fabulous crew and they do such a good job at the library,” she said. Priscilla Thomson, a member of the decorating crew, filled two wicker baskets with greenery. They put poinsettias up on top of the stacks. “They did a charming job. As you come into the library there is a giant poinsettia with a red net collar.”

The two planters in front of the library were donated by the club, earlier this year. The afternoon ended at McQuiston’s home where she served Swedish pancakes flambé. It was a great way to end the afternoon.

If you would like to join the Locust Valley Garden Club and participate in their service projects, please contact Dean Yoder at dyinteriors@yahoo.com. Meetings are held in the Bailey Arboretum manor house, Lattingtown. The program fee of $15 includes lunch and an educational program. Come, learn, get nourished and make

new friends.