Garden clubs are more than just local ladies who pull weeds and pick flowers.
They serve their communities, volunteering members and supplies to help beautify neighborhoods and uplift their neighbors.
Two local clubs are celebrating a major anniversary this year: 90 years of such service and outreach. The Country Garden Club in Perrysburg celebrates its milestone in August, and the Ottawa Hills Garden Club has a private gala slated for September.
Ottawa Hills
The Ottawa Hills Garden Club was instrumental in making its home village a state game refuge in 1934, feeding and caring for the preserve’s 30 ring-necked pheasants until 1948. Its members have continued to maintain community outreach and local projects in the decades since.
They are part of the nonprofit volunteer organization, the Garden Club of Ohio.
“They give scholarships. In fact, one of our member’s daughters is studying biology,” said Julie Hagenbuch, president of the Ottawa Hills Garden Club. “Long story short she got a $12,000 scholarship.”
According to Ms. Hagenbuch, Garden Club of Ohio jointly funded the scholarship with Ottawa Hills Garden Club.
The Ottawa Hills Garden Club also just started a partnership with a local homeless shelter, La Posada, in April. Whenever the club meets, members collect supplies to donate to the shelter including toiletries, bedding, and toys. And it’s helping the shelter start a community garden.
“We bought them garden tools,” Ms. Hagenbuch said. “We just helped them plant herbs, basically. We’re hoping to expand it to be vegetables and food down the road.”
The club also helps maintain another community garden on Central Avenue.
“The city had put some plantings in, and it was just kind of like no one was tending it. We were like, you know, this is kind of a centerpiece that you drive by on Central Avenue a lot, and it's just got a couple trees, and it was kind of overgrown and so we, as a garden club, voted and decided to really step it up,” Ms. Hagenbuch said. “It's not a park per se, but we're really proud that we turned it into something.”
The club also provides a flower therapy service for the Otterbein Sunset House continued care retirement home.
“We bring in all the supplies and we help the residents make arrangements,” Ms. Hagenbuch said. “We do a little tutorial of what flowers they're using and then they make these little arrangements and then they get to put them in their rooms.”
Country Garden Club
Judy Lang, president of the Country Garden Club in Perrysburg, said her club maintains a similar outreach. Its members volunteer with the Hospice of Northwest Ohio's Perrysburg center, planting flowers for residents and arranging outdoor displays intended to last through the cold seasons.
This year the club is also providing funds so that Partners for Clean Streams, a Perrysburg organization dedicated to maintaining the health of Toledo streams and rivers, can take on a new intern. Ms. Lang said this is part of the $42,000 that the club has set aside for scholarships and community outreach this year.
The Country Garden Club of Perrysburg is part of the Garden Club of America, giving its members access to educational videos and additional outreach funds. The club receives the bulk of its funding from the annual Trunk Show, set for Oct. 3-5 this year at the Carranor Hunt and Polo Club.
“We have 23 vendors coming in from all around the country for boutique shopping, and the purpose of that is to bring to Perrysburg some vendors, some boutiques that they can’t access here normally,” Ms. Lang said.
The Country Garden Club has 11 outreach projects planned for 2022. Local projects include helping on the Aurora Project Community Garden, building a new shed for Falcon Food Pantry and Community Garden at Bowling Green State University, and installing a garden at Toledo Day Nursery for community enrichment.
For their biggest project, members will help to rebuild the boardwalk at W.W. Knight Preserve.
“From day one, some of our members were behind the inspiration for creating that nature preserve, and since then we have supported it financially in a number of different ways,” Ms. Lang said. “The boardwalk needs replaced, and they are actually going to lengthen it and we are providing the materials to do that.”
Throughout 90 years of service, the Perrysburg garden club has been dedicated to educating the public about nature preservation and conservation. At the most recent GCA-sanctioned flower show, members displayed a mechanical worm that educated kids about how to compost their food waste.
“One of their [GCA] requirements is that you have a conservation exhibit as part of the show,” Ms. Lang said. The worm “talked to the kids about composting and dirt and that sort of thing at it was a big draw.”
The Country Garden Club does not have any specific parties or events planned for its anniversary, but members do hope to celebrate the rich history of the club and its former members.
“At every meeting we are going to be featuring a historical factor and have someone actually talk about it,” Ms. Lang said. “ Also, its going to be very special, the president of the Garden Club of America is going to be coming here in the spring.”
First Published August 2, 2022, 11:19 a.m.
