Do you have a local Garden Club or Group?

Four years ago a gardening neighbor and I started a little garden club. We have about 25 people that are in our group and it's a lot of fun. The local Community Centre provides us with a meeting room the 1st Wednesday of each month at no cost, in exchange for looking after the Community Centre Garden.

Four years ago the front yard of the Community Centre had a sad patch of grass and a few trees. Our club members have created a beautiful flower garden that is enjoyed by the whole community. We were fortunate to have some key donations of plant material, garden loam and of course volunteer time of garden maintenance.

We have a fantastic group with a wealth of gardening knowledge to share. It is a real treat to have one evening a month to chat about gardening. About half of the group belong to the Calgary Hort Society and a small handful have a DG membership.

So if you would like to have your own garden club, start one. Our first couple of meetings were at a member's home and when our group grew in numbers we were lucky to have the support of the local community centre.

Here's a list of some of the activities that our group has done in the past four years: Member garden visits throughout the summer months, sharing of books, magazines, seeds, plants and gardening experiences and tips. We have had a number of guest speakers, workshops and activities for our group: Tree pruning advice, winter-sowing, how to grow dahlias, creating fall/winter containers, planting spring/summer containers, Fall bulbs, trellis making, mozaic stepping stones, acrylic painting, Community gardens, photography in the garden, garden design, garden centre group shopping trips and the past 2 years a garden tour open to the public and a few more activities that I'm probably forgetting. Our speakers have been from local garden centres, societies and local experts. The best though is our individual members and sharing their own knowledge. We have had wonderful speakers and everyone really enjoys the meetings.

So if you wish there was a local gardening club in your area and there isn't, just start one up. We had 10 people at our 1st meeting it took off from there.

Joanne

We have the Glenbrook Greenthumbs club going. It is centered on the new community garden. This is a real boon to the community--it brings people together. We had a celebration dinner on Friday to celebrate the gardening successes.

We are thinking of starting another garden clubthrough the community association to include the gardeners who do not necessarily use the community garden.

On Saturday our Garden Club rented a table at a community Hobby & Craft Show. In addition to promoting the Garden Club, some of the members sold some baked goods , crafts and more.

Here's a better picture of our poster

That is a neat idea for a community fund raiser!