THE GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA

September 17, 2020

What Do Pigeons and Doves Have in Common?

What do pigeons and doves have in common? When asked this question, many won’t have much to say except that they are both birds. You might be surprised to find that one thing they have in common is found in a number of gardens today, dovecotes.

September 15, 2020

Newest Oudolf Public Garden

Piet Oudolf came to Detroit to build a garden at the invitation of The Garden Club of Michigan (GCM). This public garden, more than four years in the making, was planted in early September and its designer, Piet Oudolf, had to oversee it virtually from the Netherlands due to travel restrictions. Fortunately, his latest creation was in good hands. Leading the effort to transfer Oudolf’s design from paper to dirt were 2018 GCA Honorary Member Roy Diblik and Oudolf protégé Austin Eischeid. Oudolf, the 2019 GCA Medal of Honor winner, connected via iPhone daily to give his input. A core group of GCM members assisted with the planting.

September 10, 2020

The GCA's First National Medal in Photography

Michael Forsberg is the GCA’s first recipient of the J. Sherwood Chalmers medal, awarded for outstanding achievement in the field of photography and/or photography education as it relates to the purpose of The Garden Club of America. Forsberg, a Nebraska native, has devoted 25 years to photographing America’s Great Plains, covering 100,000 miles across twelve states and three Canadian provinces.

September 08, 2020

GCA Grant Helps Combat Widespread Damage at Beaumont Botanical Gardens

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought 52 inches of rain to Beaumont Botanical Gardens (BBG), resulting in widespread damage, soil erosion, and havoc from displaced feral hogs. To help restore the flood-ravaged gardens, The Garden Club of America awarded a $10,000 Restoration Initiative grant to Magnolia Garden Club (MGC), whose involvement with BBG spans 25 years. Before the restoration could be completed however, Mother Nature dealt yet another devastating blow in September 2019 with Tropical Storm Imelda.

September 03, 2020

Blocks in Bloom

It all began in 2014, as a two-block pilot project to strengthen a disadvantaged neighborhood in Rochester, NY. Thanks to the efforts of Master Gardeners from the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Monroe County, the Rochester Garden Club (RGC), and the City of Rochester, Blocks in Bloom has impacted more than 71 blocks and 665 households. Neighbors who barely knew each other have transformed neighborhoods. Dry, barren front yards have become mini oases of vegetable and perennial gardens.

September 01, 2020

What You Plant Matters

Encouraging the appreciation, conservation, and use of native plants in the heartland through education, collaboration, and facilitation of more regenerative native landscapes that are essential for a healthy planet is the mission of Deep Roots. Originally founded in 2014 by The Westport Garden Club in an effort to broaden native plant use, the organization now numbers more than 70 multi-sector partners working across state, county, and city lines in a collaborative effort to increase native plant landscapes.

August 27, 2020

GCA Advocacy Inspires Founding of Bedford 2020

Participation in the GCA's 2008 National Affairs & Legislation Conference provided the inspiration for members of the Bedford Garden Club (BGC) to take action on their town's environmental issues. These BGC members, along with the Town of Bedford’s Energy Advisory Panel (BEAP), organized the Bedford Environmental Summit in 2009. More than 1,000 people participated in the one-day event, resulting in a community of environmental advocates and the adoption of a Climate Action Plan. Building on the summit's success, the Bedford 2020 Coalition was founded.

August 25, 2020

GCA Medalist in the News

Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, the 2019 GCA Medal of Honor winner for outstanding service to horticulture, has received the 2020 Achievement Award from The Beatrix Farrand Society (BFS). Renowned in the United States for the High Line plantings and Battery Park Memorial Gardens in New York, the Lurie Garden in Chicago, the Meadow Garden at the Delaware Botanic Garden, the Oudolf Garden Detroit on Belle Isle, and many others, Piet Oudolf has inspired international audiences with his use of herbaceous perennials and grasses to achieve year-round interest and beauty.

August 20, 2020

The GCA Steps Up Efforts to Reduce Pesticide Use on Lawns

It has been one year since The Garden Club of America (GCA) collaborated with The Great Healthy Yard Project (TGHYP) to launch “Take the Pledge,” an educational campaign to encourage homeowners to reduce pesticide use on their lawns and gardens. With the pledge, homeowners are asked to help protect our drinking water and critical ecosystems by eliminating the use of synthetic chemicals, weed-killers and fertilizers on lawns, and curtail the practice of discarding pharmaceuticals and chemicals down drains. At this point, 2,486 Americans have taken the pledge.

August 18, 2020

The Glove Challenge

Discarded disposable gloves - most notably the blue, white, black, and purple varieties — are dotting roadways, sidewalks, subways, and waterways across the country. Sadly the COVID-19 health crisis is morphing into an environmental crisis.