Plant sale a success thanks to many

Our Annual Plant Sale customers and volunteers at Summerseat Farm in Mechanicsville are saints. After weeks of rain, cold weather, preparing for the sale in the pouring rain with our dedicated volunteers, our customers “poured” in bright and early on Saturday morning, May 7, and seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously basking in the sunshine at our sale. This letter is my heartfelt and sincere thank you to our beloved and loyal customers, Summerseat volunteers, and friends and relatives who came together to help pull off yet another successful plant sale.

First, a huge thank you goes to our generous Plant Sale Sponsors: A&G Electric, LLC (Dale Abell); Chesapeake Pet Resort (Susan Ditch); Cliff’s Heating & Air (Cliff Stathers); Downs Plumbing & Septic, Inc. (Chuck Downs); Three Notch Veterinary Hospital (Dr. David Langford); and Printing Press (Kerry Klear). These sponsors are a tremendous part of the Plant Sale and we are grateful for their loyalty and help with this huge endeavor.

Thank you, Louise Moyer, for designing our flyer and all of our advertisers: SoMD Newsnet; The BayNet.com; The Enterprise; Mrs Audrey Ridgell; County Times; Southern MD Radio WSMD, WMDM, WKIK; and other websites and businesses who posted our event.

Thanks to all who donated plants, dug, potted, prepped plants and also donated items to sell or use: Barbara Darbie, who spent an inordinate amount of time at my home nursery, cleaning and preparing plants, in good and bad weather; Sandy Wildes; Deb Lewis; Jeanette Kaufman; John Daye; Norbert Abell; Carrie Wildes; Robert Nielsen; Dave Ryan, Larry Stommel; Alicia Guenther; Paula Shire; Christina Allen; Bobby Spalding. Dick Wildes, Danny Greenwell, Raymond Dixon, John and Maggie Daye, John Loftus, Joe Hall, Mike Darbie helped before, during, and after the big day. Summerseat prep of grass cutting, weed whacking and landscape cleanup is thanks to Dick W., Danny G., Bob Felkamp, Rich Fuller, Paula Shire, Billy Guy, as well as Duke Roussillon for cleaning out the pond … so beautiful.

Our cashiers and helpers worked hard keeping lines moving: Alicia G. and her crew of Rich F., Stacey Haynes, Jen Combs, and Christina Henry. Our kitchen crew, Carly Lundin, Sylvia and Johnny Welch, Anne Marum, and Grace Fuller took good care of the Courtyard Café with Danny and Nate Baker cooking those delicious buffalo burgers, and Pam Greenwell’s chili topped off the dogs. Kitchen donations from Alicia G., Tonya Freed, Grace F., Sandy and Dick W., Anne M., Jean Campbell, Paula S., Sylvia W., Lora Jarboe, Dudley Lindsley, Deb L., Frankie Calvert, Raymond D. Due to the mud, the house wasn’t open, but many thanks to Jean Campbell for giving tours as requested. Carrie Wildes and Ray Bowles worked the Wine Basket raffle and the winner was Barbara McCall. Brittany Hall manned the new Bling for Spring jewelry table making many sales, including some of her own creations. Barbara Darbie and granddaughter, Mikalyn Underwood, kept the youngsters happy in the Kids Korner with prizes, projects, and plants for the little ones, and the corn pool where the children played…there’s something about a swimming pool full of shell corn that kids just can’t resist. Dudley kept our visitor tally; Frankie visited with guests and obtained many new memberships. Dick and Alicia set up the unique, ever popular Southwestern Corner. Alicia made the cute teacup bird feeders, and Sandy and Alicia made flower arrangements; Bill Bowles and Mike D. made squirrel feeders and bird houses. Bobby and Louise Snell set up educational displays on Raised Bed Gardening and Gardening Questions Answered, respectively. Duke, Bernie, and AJ Roussillon, Deb, Barb Loftus, and Elmer and Jennifer Stauffer worked the grounds, cleaning plants and displays all day, and answering questions.

Drivers taking plants and customers to their cars were Kirk Alexander, Mike D., Joe H., Billy Guy, Duke, Rick Wildes, Dick. And thanks to those who lent their own transport equipment, Gators, etc: Dick Wildes, Rick Wildes, Bobby Spalding, Ray Dixon, Mike Darbie.

Tonya brought “Lil Bit,” the baby lamb who was a delightful ambassador for Summerseat along with Indy, the buffalo. Tonya and Phil Shire were our photographers. Our barn crew, Paula, Dave Ryan, Bozena Pait, and Lora made everyone’s day with their farm tours. Beth Walker and her son entertained with the ever popular petting zoo. A special thank you to Dave Ryan, who made and painted all of our wonderful wood signs and created a beautiful wood lattice display panel. One more very special thank you to my friends and mentors, Walter and Betty Russell of Russell Farms who are a tremendous help and support system for me each year. Their plants are so beautiful and healthy.

Summerseat Farm is a 501(c)3 designated nonprofit organization, and we work hard for the success of our events to keep us financially viable and keep up with maintenance and educational programs at the farm. With no paid staff or government support, we are totally dependent on our volunteers and events. So you can see the importance of all this help with our plant sale; and we are truly grateful for our sponsors, volunteers, and our wonderful customers who come back year after year and those who come and can’t wait to return. On behalf of myself and the Summerseat Board of Directors, we thank you.