Garden Club will tour the house and gardens of Matt and Judy Veatch in Lawrence for their June meeting.
By Gayle Best
Garden Club members won’t want to miss our Garden Club Road Trip on Thurs., June 21. We will board a mini coach at 9:45 a.m. and head to the 1894 Victorian home of Matt and Judy Veatch located on a corner Massachusetts Street lot in Lawrence. Although their home is a “painted lady,” Matt and Judy have a penchant for eclectic and modern furniture and art. Their 4000 square feet of perennial gardens feature wide, sweeping borders on either side of stone paths meandering around the house. The lot is shady, so most of the gardens are a study in what will grow in the shade. They have also begun to reduce the maintenance tasks by replacing some perennial flowers with flowering shrubs.
Judy is an engineer at Black & Veatch in Overland Park, and Matt is the Kansas State Archivist in Topeka, so their Lawrence home represents their oasis after their respective commutes. They are very gracious to share their home and gardens with us. In addition, they have arranged a special exhibit for us by the State of Kansas Historical Society, featuring historical photos, historical women’s diaries and other artifacts. Lunch will follow in the private Blue Room at Pachamama’s, a favorite Lawrence restaurant. Garden Club members, be on the lookout for the flyer providing more details. This is a special event!
The Garden Club May 17 program, “Beyond Wine,” was a big success. Jeff Miller, Sr. from Glazers Beverage Academy presented an informative slide deck on the grape growing process, terminology, wine regions and tips on how to tell what the wine label really means. Eve Westcoat of Glazers then poured the group of thirty Garden Club members four different summer wines paired with a light, small plate lunch. Kelly Best of Edible Arrangements brought beautiful, chocolate covered strawberries for our last pairing. A fun time was had by all.
Pontoon Crawl Plans are Underway
Save the Date! Pontoon Crawl, Lake Quivira’s biggest party of the year, will be held Sat., September 8. Garden Club officers are busy planning this year’s event, which is one of our main fundraisers to support Lake Quivira beautification efforts. Last year’s Car Show which kicked off the Pontoon Crawl was a huge success and will be back! We will have a live band and drink station at the car show this year and hope the show is even larger than last year. There will be a $20 entry fee for car show participants, which covers an unlimited number of cars per participant. Contact Pat Warner if you are interested in the Car Show or know someone outside of Lake Quivira with a cool car whom we should reach out to.
Following the Car Show, the Pontoon Crawl plans include an amateur BBQ Contest at our dinner station, a fabulous band on the Sunset Terrace and much, much more. We still have openings for several committee chair positions for this great event and would love to hear from anyone interested in being part of the leadership team.
