OCTOBER MEETING
Our October meeting will be held at 9:00 am on Saturday, October 9 at The Lily Pond located at 3635 E. Palm Lane in Phoenix. The owner, Sylvia D. will be speaking. This is Sylvia's 25th year in the pond business!! She is extremely knowledgeable about everything to do with ponds and water gardening. The Lily Pond sells a large selection of water plants, fish & supplies, accessories, pumps, filters, liners and even waterfalls. Be sure to bring all your questions ? Sylvia is sure to know the answers! To get there, turn north on 36th Street from McDowell (there is a stoplight). Palm Lane is the second right and the house is on the right side of the street just before the stop sign. Please bring your lawn chairs.

**THERE WILL BE NO PLANT EXCHANGE AT THE MEETING THIS MONTH**
 

TUCSON WATER GARDEN TOUR '99
At 7:00 am on Saturday, September 11, we met at the Fry's parking lot. After waiting until 7:15 am for any stragglers, we set off for Tucson. It was a little too early for Caitlin T., so she napped in the back seat on the way! We arrived at the Rillito Nursery and bought tickets.
All of us were impressed with the nursery - it was very clean and all the plants were so healthy. We were invited to see their pond, so we had the bonus of seeing an extra pond! There were two connected ponds (one liner and one gunite) with a boulder waterfall. The owner told us that a blue heron had recently emptied the pond of goldfish. Then we were on to the official pond tour. We saw large ponds, small ponds, preformed ponds, whiskey barrel gardens, a grotto-style pond, formal above-ground square ponds, concrete ponds and even one in a horse trough. There were at least 24 GPPS members, friends and relatives that attended the tour. Everyone we ran into was having a great time and I have received very positive comments since. It's always fun to see other ponds and get ideas for ours. I was amazed at how healthy the water lettuce was ? it's next to impossible to get it to look nice here in the Valley! We all had a good time and headed back for the Valley at about 2:00 pm.