Josie Goodenow has been gardening since she was in the second grade when her father retired from the Air Force and settled in Napa County. She has lived in the Georgetown area of California since 1985, and enjoys being in a Zone 7 growing area, where many plants require a definite winter chill.
With several creeks and ponds on her property and a good well to keep the water table up, she enjoys growing water-thirsty lilacs, peonies, cherry trees (both fruiting and ornamental) asparagus, and strawberries.
As with most gardeners, she also loves to try to grow plants that are hardy outside her growing zone, never really satisfied to follow general gardening rules. She pushes her plants to thrive where they are not acclimated, sometimes successful, and other times learning something new while doing.
When Josie retired in 2008, she joined the California Garden Club, and became President in 2009, then District Director of Golden Foothills District in 2011. She accepted the Bee Chairman position with the CGCI and Pacific Region in 2014, and has given bee programs in several areas of our state.
Josie’s program for the Laguna Beach Garden Club will cover the differences between our native bees (specifically the Blue Orchard Mason Bee) and the
European honey bee, how to increase the bee populations and improve the health of our own yards. You will want to bee there!