What To Do If a Hurricane Hits

If another hurricane occurs possibly this information may be of a benefit.

VISIT THESE WEBSITES FOR MORE INFORMATION TRACKING STORMS

 http://www.firstcoastnews.com

Track all Hurricane Storms at the National Hurricane Center Website:  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Wind Tracking Website: 

http://www.weather.gov/media/iwx/webpages/skywarn/Beaufort_Wind_Chart.pdf

www.COJ.Net Storm FAQs

HOW TO APPLY:

• Online: https://www.disasterassistance.gov
• Smartphone: downloading FEMA application through https://www.fema.gov
• FEMA Toll-Free Helpline: 800-621-3362
• FEMA Toll-Free Helpline for deaf, hard of hearing, or speech disability: 800-462-7585
• Disaster Recovery Center open for limited periods post-disaster near your community. 
• U.S. SBA Disaster Loan Assistance: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela

Who do I call if I’ve lost power?

The storm caused extensive power outages across the city. JEA is working to restore power safely. Electrical outages and service issues can be reported to JEA at (904) 665-6000 or online at JEA.com.

What do I do if I find downed power lines?

If citizens encounter downed power lines, they are encouraged to keep a safe distance and call 630-CITY (2489) to report the issue.

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS & WEBSITES

City of Jacksonville – 904-630-CITY (2489); http://www.coj.net/
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office –  904-630-0500; www.coj.net/departments/sheriffs-office.aspx
Florida Department of Transportation – 904-360-5457; http://www.fdot.gov/
JEA - 904-665-6000; https://www.jea.com/
Northeast Florida Red Cross – 904-358-8091;
http://www.redcross.org/local/florida/north-florida/local-chapters/northeast-florida
Jacksonville Transit Authority (JTA) – 904-630-3100; http://www.jtafla.com/
Traffic Information – 511; https://fl511.com/
United Way of Northeast Florida – 211; https://www.unitedwaynefl.org/
Florida Emergency Information Hotline – 1-800-342-3557; http://floridadisaster.org/feil.htm
Salvation Army – 904-356-8641; http://www.salvationarmyflorida.org/jacksonville/
National Weather Service Jacksonville – 904-741-4311; www.weather.gov/jax/
Duval County Public Schools – 904-390-2000; https://duvalschools.org/
Jacksonville Public Library – 904-630-BOOK (2665); https://www.jaxpubliclibrary.org/
Federal Disaster Assistance – 1-800-621-3362, https://www.disasterassistance.gov/

Submitted by ~

Wanda Bosworth

Cherokee Rose

Looking for Crafters

Mandarin Garden Club is looking for vendors for their Craft Sale on November 4th from 9 to 4. Only outside spaces are available. They rent for $25. 

There will be between 40 to 45 booths.

This will be a fun Fall day with a BBQ lunch for sale and baked goods.

Advertising will be done by the Mandarin Garden Club.

Please call 904-268-1192 to reserve your space.

Jax Mom's Group Tours Mandarin Garden Club's Gardens

On July 26, the Mandarin Garden Club hosted Jax Mom's Group for a tour of the gardens. The guests included mothers, children and three of our youngest garden enthusiasts in strollers. 

The children were delighted to discover pineapple, bananas and a variety of green vegetables growing in the garden. An abundant number of bees, butterflies and lizards also attended the tour. The morning was sultry but the summer flowers made a spectacle of themselves to make up for the heat. 

The young gardeners enjoyed cooling watermelon, grapes and butterfly themed treats. After being suitably refreshed the children channeled their energy into creating fairy gardens. The results were magical. 

Thank you to Master Gardener Mary Forester for her expertise in Fairydom. 

Donna Crosby 

Education and Community 

Mandarin Garden Club 

Photos courtesy 

Donna Crosby 

Annual Plant Exchange

The ladies of Mandarin Garden Club gathered together on July 29, 2017 to once again enjoy our Annual Plant Exchange.

If you have never attended, you are truly missing out on an experience.  The event began at 10 a.m., however, our ladies started gathering before 9:30 a.m.  You have to get that jumpstart on checking out the inventory and staking your place!!

By 9:45 a.m. as I moved around the room,  I visited with everyone - but they weren't moving away from their first choice.  Ladies had their hands on the prizes waiting for the first bell to sound.

Mary Forrester began promptly at 10 a.m. with the first round - giving instructions for those newcomers -

We had 10 rounds and great fun with good hearted competition.  It was a wonderful event and many thanks to Mary Forrester and Nancy Taylor for all their hard work.

Every exchange is unique - check your new directory (distributed in September) for next year's date.

Respectfully Submitted by ~

Karen Rowe

Humming Bird Feeders

If you are interested in setting up a feeding station, I recommend that you read these two webpages 

(A)  http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/gardening-with-wildlife/hummingbird-feeders.html

(B)  http://www.wildbirdscoop.com/cleaninghummingbirdfeeders.html  

In Florida, our weather is quite conducive to spoilage of sugar water, so cleaning and renewing your feeder is of prime importance here in Jacksonville.   From the “Wildbirdscoop” webpage, I have summarized the part about cleaning a hummingbird feeder in this newsletter article.  Here are the main points:

(1)  In hot weather, every two or three days will be necessary to prevent the syrup from fermenting and producing mold.  If hummingbird food sits in very hot sun most of the day then the feeder may need to be cleaned every day or every second day.

(2)  It is not advisable to refill your feeder when it is empty without cleaning it. A small amount left in a feeder for only a couple of hours, will ferment much quicker.

(3)  Use warm water and vinegar, or warm water with a drop of bleach and a couple of drops of dish detergent.  Do not use vinegar and detergent together.   Whatever solution is used - great caution should be taken to thoroughly rinse it out.

(4)  Brushes of various sizes will make the job much easier and more thorough.

Submitted By ~

Martha Dysart

Mandarin Garden Club Presents Westminister Woods on Julington Creek the Annual Business Beautification Award 2016-2017.

On May 25, 2017, Donna Crosby, Education and Community Director of the Mandarin Garden Club presented Amanda Birch, Director of the Westminster Woods Senior d

Development, the Annual Business Beautification Award for 2016-2017.  

Westminister Woods is an assisted living and active lifestyle facility built in 1961. Westminister has a beautiful wooded campus with stunning water views or gardens that can be enjoyed from every building. Residents remain active and enjoy their beautiful surroundings.

There are ponds with water features that are habitats for turtles, water birds. and other Florida wildlife. The occasional gator has even been sited. Park benches and tables surrounded by Azaleas, Gardenias, Magnolias and old Oak trees laced with Spanish moss invite a rest. Wide sidewalks encourage walkers, bikers and golf cart drivers to enjoy the beautiful grounds up close and personal. Residents can listen to the soothing sounds of fountains sprinkled throughout the gardens. Gazebos are also nestled creekside for sitting and enjoying the gorgeous views of Julington Creek. 

Westminister Woods has successfully married a mid-century modern style, that consciously compliments it's "Old Mandarin" natural surroundings with many options for residents to maintain an active lifestyle..  We greatly enjoyed our visit to their campus and encourage others to visit.

Submitted by ~

Donna Crosby

Education & Community

Soil Info For Duval County

You may not know that the soil in and around Duval County is generally very poor, especially around housing developments where the ground had been scraped to sand in order to even out the dips and bumps.  At that point, some developers will truck in a thin layer of topsoil, before laying sod on top.  

The best thing that you can do is provide some decaying organic matter to the soil (grass clippings), and continue to annually sprinkle topsoil evenly over the entire surface.  Of course, fertilizer is a must for grass – once a year adding minor constituents (magnesium, manganese, iron, etc.) to the commonly applied nitrogen, phosphorus (tiny amounts) and potassium mixtures.  If you have mulched areas, the very best mulch you can apply is live-oak leaves . . . they decay slowly, and keep the weeds down the best of any mulch because they form flat, overlapping layers which keeps sunlight from penetrating and producing weed germination.  If you don’t want live oak leaves, the next best is pine straw or pine bark mini-nuggets.  Contrary to common belief, this will not acidify the soil.  Please don’t use cypress mulch, since it is causing a scarcity of cypress trees in this area.  

Of course, to best take advantage of the above suggestions, you should have a pH test of your yard to determine if you have acid soil or not.  Directions for this obtaining soil to give to the Extension Office can be found online at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss494 or call the Extension Office at 904-255-7450.

Submitted by -

Martha Dysart

Sweetwater Garden Tour

On April seventeenth, the Mandarin Garden Club welcomed Sweetwater Creek Garden Club for a tour of our facilities. Thirteen members of Sweetwater Creek were presented a history and outing by Master Gardener Mary Forester. 

The weather was perfect and encouraged a slow, appreciative walk through the various gardens. The ladies of Sweetwater had many questions about plant placement, maintenance and insect control. Information and helpful tips flew back and forth, in that easy way that happens when gardeners meet gardeners. 

Refreshments were served with additional information and resources. It was such a pleasure to present the gardens to incredible people that share a love for gardening. 

Donna Crosby 

Education and Community 

Mandarin Garden Club 

April Yard of the Month

Carol Fitzsimmons is the proud owner of a lovely little oasis of green. This viridescent shade garden is nestled between bustling San Jose and Scott Mill Road.

Recently retired, Carol has been on a mission, to replace the "nightmare of maintaining grass," in a deeply shaded yard. Carol's goal is to drastically lower her garden's maintenance while increasing the pretty factor. The bonus for her accomplishment is more time to enjoy the beauty of her garden. 

Under the canopy of majestic Oak trees, Carol has used Mondo grass, Dwarf Mondo and Asiatic Jasmine to replicate a lush green grass look. Large Ligustrum trees provide shade and perfume the air.

A circular, paver walkway winds around the garden and is anchored with a shed in the center. The space is filled with Hibiscus, Azaleas and various Gingers. Bromeliads brush against Begonias and Blue Daze blends with apricot Geraniums. 

The Fitzsimmons' garden is a certified Wild Life Habitat. This means the yard supplies the three basic habitat elements food, water and places to raise the young. Carol has accented her space with bird houses, self-watering bird baths, bird feeders and plenty of vegetative cover.

The Mandarin Garden Club continues to search for people committed to demonstrating care and beautification of the Mandarin community. Residents interested in having their yard considered or who would like to nominate a yard should email information to -

themandaringardenclubflorida@gmail.com.

or contact -

Mandarin Garden Club 

P.O Box 23193

Jacksonville,  Florida  32241

Donna Crosby 

Education and Community 

Photo courtesy 

Donna Crosby  

Girl Scouts in the Garden

Mandarin Garden Club recently had the pleasure of hosting the Mandarin Girl Scouts for a tour of the club's beautiful gardens. 

The girls were treated to an informative tour by Master Gardener, Nancy Taylor. After the tour, the girls and their siblings participated in a garden scavenger hunt. Afterwards, they were treated to refreshments. 

Each troop member was given a succulent along with care instructions to take home. The girls also received their own rake for use at home.

Thanks to Donna Crosby and Nancy Taylor for conducting the tour.

Submitted by ~

Betty Waldrep

Chili and Bingo!

Oh What a Night....

Bingo, Chili, Soup, Cornbread, and Desserts with a group of Garden Club Ladies and guests is a recipe for FUN.

 Laughter, fellowship, and good food highlighted the evening's events.  As we have proven over and over - Mandarin Garden Club Ladies know how to cook.  Everything from soup to chili to stew was available - in fact - over 60 feet of food.  On a cold night - it was the perfect menu and I know I went back several times just to check out all the selections available.

Our ladies made good use of the photo booth preserving memories of another special evening shared by our members.  Props for our photo booth furthered our love of "dressing up" and the resulting new looks were quite amazing.

Bingo proved to be quite challenging for this writer - it doesn't look like work
- but I was worn out trying to keep up with my cards.  Thank you to Stacia Snuggs for being our Numbers Caller Extraordinaire as she kept us on our toes and moving right along.

Many, many thanks to Sandra Varner and her committee for putting  together such a great evening.

Karen Rowe

More About Mushrooms

Do you know about “stinky” ones--called Stink Horns--that have a distinctly putrid smell?  Usually you will find these things in mulch or damp, shady areas of your yard.  The spores are probably carried in by squirrels, crows, or other small animals that like to investigate rotting animals.

 When you locate the general area of odor, then begin to look for an orange/white shape coming up out of the ground.  I know the name says “horn” but sometimes there is really no horn shape to it – maybe it forms either earlier or later than I have ever found them.  You will HAVE to get rid of it, or it will multiply.  Do not touch any part of this thing, or you may spread the spores.  That goes for touching it with your hand or with any tool.  Begin by carefully removing any mulch or living plants which surround the mushroom.  The underground structure of a Stink Horn is surprisingly deep and wide, so begin a few inches away from the above ground orange structure, and, with a shovel, dig straight down about 6 inches, and then all the way around.  Try to remove the whole thing in as big a piece as you can and put it in a plastic bag which does not leak.  Go back to your hole and inspect to see if you have removed all of the mushroom.  Finish up removing what’s left and put that all in the bag, too.   Seal up the bag, then put that in another bag and seal up.  Place all in your kitchen garbage and put out for the kitchen garbage truck.  Wash all of your tools well with soapy water. 

PS.  If your garbage pickup is several days away, you may want to put the plastic mushroom bag someplace where you are sure its increasingly powerful smell won’t pervade your outdoor living space.

As insurance, you may want to make a weekly sniffing tour around your yard for the next several weeks.

Submitted by -

Martha Dysart

Mandarin Garden Club Christmas Party

Members of the Mandarin Garden Club ushered out the year 2016 in fine style with a variety of holiday parties.  Magnolia, Dogwood, and Cherokee Rose had celebrations, but the season really started with all Circles joining together for stories, songs, pictures, and plenty of good food in a wonderfully decorated clubhouse on December 6th.  The party theme was "The Christmas Jar": Betty Waldrep gave a synopsis of the story, and members chipped in spare change (and folding money too) to provide a Christmas surprise for a local mother and child.   

Below are some photos of the festivities for your enjoyment -

Good Friends

Food, Friends, and Frivolity

Thank you Crafty Ladies for the Decorations

Christmas Hugs

Merry Christmas!