By Kim Mayer
As the cold days of winter fade to the sunny days of spring, the Westerville Garden Club is in full bloom.
Men and women, young and old, novice and expert, the 70 members form a diverse group that has worked to beautify the City of Westerville and visually enhance residents’ lives since 1947.
The club is full of members with very green thumbs. President Barbara Shepard has been a member for four years, and gardening has been a long-time love for her.
“I had been a president in a different garden club before my kids were born. When I retired, I promised myself I would come back to a garden club,” Shepard says.
Secretary Vickie Muse, who has also been a member for four years, says she has always felt a connection with the outdoors.
“I grew up on a farm, so gardening was a source of beauty and also of food,” she says. “When you go out and garden, you’re in harmony with nature and it just makes everything so much more beautiful. It’s a good hobby to have.”
Gardening is much more than just a hobby for these members, however. Because they have been around for more than 60 years, the group has taken on a number of projects, many of which are done under the radar.
The Westerville Public Library has frequently partnered up with the Westerville Garden Club, notably working with children to get them interested in gardening. During the weekly Saturday morning storytelling sessions, the garden club has given presentations on how to plant seeds. When the area in front of the library needed spruced up, the club provided trowels, shovels and some petunias and invited children to help them plant. The club hopes to expand their efforts at the library with plans to add a butterfly garden and vegetable garden to brighten up the surrounding space.
At Cherrington Park, residents can rent a spot to plant their own gardens, but club members found their expertise was needed, so they created a demonstration vegetable garden. Members also teach classes at the Westerville Community Center on the basics of vegetable gardening.
“A lot of the (Cherrington Park renters) didn’t know too much about gardening and wanted more information,” Shepard says. “The community garden is great for people who don’t have a yard and still want to grow a vegetable or even a flower garden. With the economy, people are trying to save money, and you can have a good bit of food from a vegetable garden. And it’s more nutritional because you control what’s happening to your food.”
The Westerville Garden Club also works to recognize other green thumbs around the city during WesterFlora, a spin-off of AmeriFlora (a 1992 exhibition held in Columbus). The club takes nominations for the best residential gardens in Westerville, and the finalists are chosen by a Beautification Committee. In July, the winning residents open their gardens for free tours.
“The WesterFlora tour is really a big part of our garden club,” Muse says. “We visit gardens in the community and there is a different theme each year.”
While the garden club is known for its local efforts, a recent project by the Westerville Garden Club was also recognized on a national level. Its “Presidential Oak Grove” project received the William C. Welch award, first place in the category of community landscape design. The grove, located behind the Westerville Public Library, includes eight oak trees planted for each of the presidents who were born or settled in Ohio. A plaque commemorates each president with his name, years of office and the type of oak tree planted.
Within walking distance of several Westerville schools, the grove promotes history and education, while encouraging children to create history themselves. A ninth oak tree stands in the grove, with a mirror, symbolizing the possibility of another president from Ohio, maybe even the person looking in the mirror.
Though several projects have kept them busy, the club has no plans to slow down. The Westerville Fire Fighters’ Memorial, Inc. is planning First Responders’ Park, a project members have wanted to do for some time, according to Shepard.
“The garden club will be working on supporting (fire fighters) in the landscaping,” Shepard says. The park will include a memorial to former Westerville firefighter David Theisen and others who have fallen in the line of duty. The park will also recognize Sept. 11 and will include the installation of a piece of steel from the fallen World Trade Center in New York City.
While their projects have enhanced aesthetics on a local scale, the club always has a larger focus – the environment. Members say “going green” is more than just a fad. From promoting rain gardens that cleanse collected water in the soil to presenting five-minute horticultural moments with organic topics at their monthly meetings, the club continually stresses the bigger picture.
“Everything is green, green, green. We try to encompass that in everything we do,” Shepard says. As part of their environmental focus, the club has planned a tour of Marvin’s Organic Gardens in Lebanon, for April, which is entirely organic.
Although the club’s work has added some pleasant views to Westerville, Shepard wants residents to also consider the significance of their projects to the planet.
“We want people to appreciate the beauty of nature and to recognize how important it is for all of us to take care of our environment and our world,” she says. “It’s a team effort. It’s a togetherness thing.”
Kim Mayer is a contributing writer for Westerville Magazine.
The Westerville Garden Club meets on the second Tuesday of each month from September through June at the Westerville Public Library beginning with refreshments at 6:45 p.m. For more information, visit www.gardencentral.org/clubs/westervillegardenclub.
To rent a garden plot at Cherrington Park, contact Westerville Parks and Recreation at 614-901-6500.