The GCA’s 2023 Founders Fund Winners Announced
Sowing and Growing Evanston Grows: Urban Gardens and Community

The Garden Club of America’s Founders Fund was established in 1934 to provide financial support, through a competitive grant program, to projects proposed by GCA member clubs. The projects are designed to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement. This year, the $30,000 winning grant was awarded to Sowing and Growing Evanston Grows: Urban Gardens and Community in Evanston, Illinois.

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The Garden Club of America’s 2023 Annual Meeting
Nearly six hundred attendees gather to celebrate “Where the Wild Things Are”

The Garden Club of America’s 2023 Annual Meeting was held in Columbus, Ohio on May 21-24. Nearly six hundred attendees enjoyed informative workshops, inspirational speakers, delightful garden tours, and a stunning flower show inspired by Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.

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Little Garden Club of Columbus Supports Local Franklinton Farms
GCA Common Ground Collaboration Nourishes a Great Community Partnership

As members of GCA clubs from around the country gather in Columbus, Ohio for the 2023 Annual Meeting, here’s an update on a GCA Common Ground Collaborative Grant project in the city. In 2022, the Little Garden Club of Columbus (LGCC) used GCA funding to help Franklinton Farms distribute over $15,000 of free, nourishing food to neighbors in need. Franklinton, Ohio is an historic and dynamic Columbus neighborhood that also bears the weight of profound challenges, including the state’s lowest life expectancy (a mere 60 years), lack of natural spaces (with only 15% tree cover), and USDA-classification as a food desert.

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Glorious Gardener: Louise Agee Wrinkle

“Listen to the land,” writes Louse Wrinkle, a member of the Little Garden Club of Birmingham, and “let the land speak for itself.” Careful and patient attention to the land on which she has built her natural woodland garden in Birmingham, Alabama has allowed Louise to create a garden in which each element maintains a sincere relationship to the whole. Her unparalleled knowledge of plants and her instinct for wise mentoring and instruction have helped her to guide and encourage generations of gardeners throughout the Southeast and nationally.

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New Jersey’s Great Swamp: A Lasting Legacy of GCA Zone IV Clubs
Garden Club of Morristown and Garden Club of Madison instrumental in establishing wildlife refuge

Sixty years ago, GCA clubs in New Jersey played a valuable role in the preservation of the Great Swamp, an ecological haven only 25 miles west of Manhattan that is a vitally important resting and feeding area for more than 244 species of birds. Thanks in part to their hard work and determination, the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established by an act of Congress on November 3, 1960, and formally dedicated in 1964. The clubs continue that legacy to this day.

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Philipstown Garden Club’s Sensory Experience Garden Table Takes to the Road
Engaging the senses to inspire the next generation of gardeners

From sweet lavender through citrusy lemon verbena to peppery mountain mint. Signage identified flowers and herbs with suggestions of “Smell Me” or, as in the case of lamb’s ears, “Touch Me,” while thistly Teasel attracted bumble bees, fascinating children. Despite the summer heat, more than three dozen visitors sampled the sensory delights and left with a take-away sachet of lavender.

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The Garden Club of Houston Creates Pocket Prairies at Hermann Park Conservancy
GCA Partners for Plants grant funds non-native weeding

In the Fall of 2021, the Garden Club of Houston was searching for a location for their annual “Weed Wrangle”—a one-day volunteer effort to help rescue public spaces from non-native invasive species. They discovered a perfect hands-on project when they reached out to the volunteer coordinator at Hermann Park Conservancy, a nonprofit citizens’ organization dedicated to the stewardship and improvement of Hermann Park. The park needed more “pocket prairies.”

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