November 20, 2025
ParTee Girls
Audubon Garden Volunteers
Lin Kruger, Mare Cappuccio Ani Kruger, Deb Fletcher and Betsy Warnock worked away in the garden weeding, raking and spreading bag after bag of mulch. They always leave a beautiful footprint!
Celia Montgomery
November 10, 2025
Worker Bee Volunteers
From left: Janet Thomas, Celia Montgomery, Ron Virgin, Chris Thurlow, Kathy Phillips, Barbara Leggett, Lyn Groves
Photographer & worker bee not pictured: Rose Virgin
October 24, 2025
ParTee Girls
Audubon Garden Volunteers
It was another beautiful morning and the Garden was full of blossoms and butterflies. Thank you again everyone!
September & October 2025
Worker Bee Volunteers
The September 11th worker bee was a particularly special morning appropriately commemorated by a stunning double rainbow. As we await the majority of the worker bee volunteers to return to beautiful Grand Harbor we are so lucky to have Celia Montgomery and Deb Fletcher, two die-hard gardeners who were joined by Alex Diedrick. While we didn't get the turnout we hoped for the bees and butterflies all remained busy pollinating. Still, a lot of weeding and trimming was accomplished in just over an hour and a half until the sky opened up and it poured. The October worker bee found Chris Thurlow with her broken leg healed and back in action!
August 21, 2025
ParTee Girls
Audubon Garden Volunteers
It was a beautiful though warm morning and the Garden was full of blossoms and butterflies and they thank this hardy work crew! Much was accomplished!!
Workers today: Jeanine our organizer; Celia our supervisor; Ani, Betsy, Georgene and Marianne, worker bees. Missing from pics is photographer Deb. Thank you again everyone! Deb Fletcher 🦋
July 31, 2025
ParTee Girls
Audubon Garden Volunteers
HOT and sweaty they felt. Celia called the group ‘Diehards! That’s Betsy Warnock weeding deep in the shade… we all tried to work in the shade. The Butterflies thank you all… photographer Deb Fletcher
June 26, 2025
ParTee Girls
Audubon Garden Volunteers
Group photo from left: Deb Fletcher, Celia Montgomery, Betsy Warnock, Jeanine Nestor, Barbara Reis, Ani Kruger. Photo by: Worker bee Chris Thurlow
Special thanks to all who worked in the Garden this morning. It was a beautiful morning and lots of work was accomplished. All of Audubon and the butterflies thank you!
June 2, 2025
Worker Bee
Audubon Garden Volunteers
June's worker bee was run by GHA leader Celia Montgomery and included Deb Fletcher, Chris Thurlow, Kathy Phillips, Alex Diedrick and Jeff Leswing. A lot of weeding and general maintenance of the garden was accomplished. A special thank you to Jeff Leswing for tenaciously sawing off a big Brazilian Peppertree root, removing the very invasive plant.
May 22, 2025
Audubon Garden Volunteers
ParTee Girls
From left: Betsy Warnock, Celia Montgomery, Kate Burns, Mare Cappuccio, Ani Kruger, Liz Germer, and Annie Whatley.
A big thank you to the Par-tee girls for their ongoing work in the garden every month in memory of their friend and golfing teammate Debbie Lindsey.
April 2025
Audubon Garden Volunteers
The last seasonal worker was held on April 7th. Participants included Laura Belluscio, Karen Campanelli, Deb Fletcher, Jeff Leswing, Edel Livermore, Kathy Phillips and Chris Thurlow. The group worked on garden maintenance and added some new planting to the garden.
A couple weeks after the worker bees, under the leadership of members the ParTee Girls golf group volunteered in the garden and continued with maintenance in preparation for the Garden party on April 29th.
Thank you, one and all!
March 2025
Audubon Garden Volunteers
Our last Worker Bees session included “Machete” Mike Spence and Ron Virgin who cut away overgrown trees to help shed some much-needed light into the garden. Rose Virgin, Kathy Phillips, Lyn Groves, Deb Fletcher, Karen Campanelli and Jeff Leswing pruned, weeded, deadheaded their way through the morning. Thank you, one and all!
All hands on deck! The next Worker Bee will be Monday, April 7. We are gearing up for our April 28 Garden Party, and there is much to do in the garden in preparation for it.
Please join us to help polish “our gem”!
Celia Montgomery
February 2025
Audubon Garden Volunteers
Here we are in the midst of “high season” and calendars are full; yet several Worker Bees found time to join us in the garden the morning of February 10. I’m always amazed at how much the Bees get done! We made a lot of pruning and weeding progress…AND the shed door hinges, which had completely rusted through, were replaced by Jeff Leswing. Jeff figured out and ordered hinges that would work then installed the new hinges and rehung the doors. A big ‘thank you’ shout-out to Jeff!
And the Garden was once more abuzz with ParTee Girls this past Thursday, February 20th. They tackled the weeds with gusto and good humor, creating quite a garden debris pile for Josh to haul away. Thank you, ladies! Your efforts make a big difference.
While working in the garden, I often encounter visitors. I usually hear them before they see me, so I get to overhear their spontaneous enthusiasm as they wander through. Our garden is really something to be proud of. It is a beautiful group effort.
Celia Montgomery
February 10th Worker Bees
Karen Campanelli
Deb Fletcher
Lyn Groves
Celia Montgomery
Alice Johnson
Jeff Leswig & friend Joe
Janet Thomas
Chris Thurlow
Ron and Rose Virgin
February 20th ParTee Girls
Cate Burns,
Elaine Dawson
Ani Kruger
Linda Kruger
Celia Montgomery
Jeanine Nestor
Melissa Norgard
Annie Whatley
January 2025
Audubon Garden Volunteers
Thank you to all the hardworking Worker Bees who came to help in the Audubon Garden this month. What a crew! We had returning Bees and several brand new Bees, too. We made great progress and are very grateful to all those weeders, transplanters and pruners. See you next month!
Celia Montgomery
January 6, 2025
Worker Bee Volunteers
December 2024
Audubon Nature Garden Volunteers
Thanks to the efforts of our Worker Bees and ParTee Girls, the Audubon Garden continues on its way to post-hurricane recovery.
Our December 9th Worker Bees session included Diane and Michael Spence, Linda Renna, Rose and Ron Virgin, Lyn Groves, Diane Barton, and Stan Rudd. They dug in with gusto and pruned, trimmed and weeded their way through the morning.
The Par-Tee Girls showed en force on the 12th, arriving like so many beautiful butterflies, one after another, and set to work weeding and watering and tidying the garden.
We are deeply grateful to all of those helping hands! Our next Worker Bees session will be held on February 10th from 9:00 to 11:00. Please come join us in the Garden for a morning of beautification and friendship!
Celia Montgomery
December 12, 2024
Par-tee Girls
November 11, 2024
Nature Garden Worker Bee Volunteers
Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc in the Nature Garden, uprooting trees and leaving the garden flooded and under water for days. Many plants couldn’t survive being submerged for so long, and when things finally dried up, we had our work cut out for us. Thankfully, Worker Bees and Par-Tee girls came to the rescue. Worker Bees toiled through the morning on Monday, the 11th, followed by the Par-Tees on Thursday, the 14th. The Garden is on its way back! A big thank you to all who were able to pitch in.
