Thankful

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for garden clubs. Back in 2016 when I gave my first sustainable gardening talk at Holden Garden Club, I had no idea what to expect. I was harboring an anxious fantasy that garden club members would be dressed in peach basket hats and white gloves and be interested only in arranging flowers.

Setting up for a garden club meeting? {{PD-US}}

     Maybe there were clubs like that in the 1950s, but the Holden group and the clubs I’ve visited since haven’t matched that picture at all. My impression now is that the clubs are bastions of good values, springs of water in a civic desert where kindness and community spirit are sorely needed.

    The clubs I’ve visited are mostly members of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. We know about each other because of a speakers’ forum that the Federation holds each spring to help the clubs find talks they’d like to hear. Clubs typically book speakers for monthly meetings except in summer, so their officers need to select nine or ten talks or demonstrations per year that will interest and educate their members. I find club members impressively open to hearing about new ideas, more so than many groups I’ve been part of in other contexts.

Duxbury Garden Club meets in an historic building in summer

    In addition to meeting monthly to socialize and exchange information, most clubs pursue community projects ranging from maintaining beautiful plantings in public places to engaging schoolchildren or nursing home residents in plant-related activities. To raise funds for club activities, many run spring plant sales that are major community events.

Garden clubs tend gardens in public spaces

    Club members tend to be women ranging from middle to older age. Some have a passion for floral design, it’s true. 

Thanksgiving arrangement created by Elsa Lawrence at my home club, Temple Shalom Garden Club

The majority are also “dirt gardeners,” those of us who like to get outside, dig holes and plant things. These are people with plenty of life commitments: work, family responsibilities, and community involvement. Yet they take the time to focus on doing the right thing for the environment.

     Sure, not everyone in the room sees gardening through my sustainability lens. But I always find a few who are right with me, excited to talk about what they’ve tried, what’s worked and what hasn’t.

    Take the Arlington Garden Club, where I spoke this October. Their brochure describes them as “a group of gardeners interested in conserving natural resources and the environment through educational programs and public works.” Those are my goals, too. I see gardeners as natural environmentalists, because we’re outside observing nature closely. It’s great to know that garden clubs identify themselves as part of the movement to protect our planet.

Promoting native plants and insects at  a New York garden club event

    But what I enjoy most about meeting garden clubs is their culture. I’ve found them friendly, good-humored, well organized, down-to-earth (no pun intended), and committed to learning. No wonder they continue to thrive. Thank you, Massachusetts garden clubs, for letting me share in the fun and the growth, both personal and vegetative.

With Norwell Garden Club Program Chair Carolyn Auwers and President Laurie Hall at Norwell Library