May 12, 2022
A Kitchen Garden Finds Its Rhythm in Beaumont, Texas
The Magnolia Garden Club recently collaborated with the McFaddin-Ward House Historic Museum located in Beaumont, Texas, to install a kitchen garden on the museum’s grounds. The McFaddin-Ward House Museum was one of a number of grand residences built in the early 1900’s by local architect Henry Conrad Mauer. Mauer, who trained at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, incorporated local materials with the most advanced electrical, heating, and plumbing systems of the time. The idea for the garden came from the museum’s director, who involved his education coordinator and members of the Magnolia Garden Club to help with the garden’s design.
May 10, 2022
In the News: GCA Medalist Paul Alan Cox, PhD
Under the leadership of Paul Alan Cox, PhD, scientists at The Brain Chemistry Labs in Jackson Hole are researching the use of plants as possible cures and treatments for neurodegenerative illnesses and diseases of the human brain. The Labs recently announced findings that show extracts from common violets, Viola odorata, may influence new approaches for treating glioblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer in the human brain. Currently, after a glioblastoma diagnosis, the median survival time is nine to sixteen months.
May 05, 2022
The GCA’s 2022 Founders Fund Winner Announced
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 Bee Successful: The 4G Honey Team and was proposed by The Gertrude Windsor Garden Club, Tyler, Texas.
May 03, 2022
The Garden Club of America's 2022 Annual Meeting
The Garden Club of America’s 2022 Annual Meeting was held in Parsippany, New Jersey on April 29-30. This year’s meeting was a hybrid event with limited in-person attendance as well as a full schedule of virtual attendance events open to all GCA club members. The Pathways Flower Show is now online for members of the public and GCA club members across the country!
April 28, 2022
GCA Grant Restores Historic Park
On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida struck south Louisiana with maximum winds of up to 150 mph. The storm’s wind field was fierce and significant, creating wind-related destruction for eight hours in and around New Orleans. New Orleans City Park lost power that day, finally regaining it on September 6. The park sustained approximately $2 million in damages, specifically impacting the urban tree canopy, facilities, and park infrastructure. The major winds resulted in park-wide tree loss, hanging limbs, and significant debris on the ground.
April 26, 2022
Replanting an Old Schoolhouse Colonial Herb Garden
A recent expansion and renovation at the Quogue Library gave Westhampton Garden Club (WGC) the opportunity to enhance the grounds with two new gardens. An 1822 schoolhouse, the oldest building in the village, was moved to a more visible, accessible area on the library property. WGC members then recreated the colonial herb garden originally planted by the club during the 1976 US Bicentennial. An additional pollinator garden was also installed on the newly cleared grounds.
April 22, 2022
The Garden Club of America Celebrates Earth Day 2022
Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first of their kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act. Two years later Congress passed the Clean Water Act.
April 21, 2022
Finding Solutions for Food Insecurity
The Garden Club of Evanston in Evanston, Illinois, is responding locally to an urgent need that has risen in many communities throughout the country - easily accessible, healthy, and fresh food.
April 19, 2022
Revitalizing an Olmsted Brothers-designed Park in Hartford
Beginning in 2014, the Garden Club of Hartford launched what would become a multi-year project to revitalize the five entrances of Hartford’s Olmsted Brothers-designed, 693-acre Keney Park, one of the largest public parks in New England. The club’s Conservation Committee took inspiration from The Garden Club of America’s Partners for Plants program, which stipulated that a project was to center on replacing invasives with native species, preferably in a public space. The club ran a design contest for regional landscape design students, setting criteria for a winning plan to be consistent with the philosophy of the 1890’s firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot and include native, pollinator-friendly trees and shrubs.
April 14, 2022
Nelsonville Village Green Gets a Clean-up
To mark the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted, Philipstown Garden Club did not have to go far to find an example of Olmsted’s revolutionary theories about the value of public parks and open space for the health of all communities. The Philipstown community has an outstanding example of just such a park in its midst. The Nelsonville Village Green is a small pocket park featuring several intimate ‘rooms’ with benches that invite visitors to sit and enjoy the birdsong. It includes a war memorial honoring the community’s fallen residents and a commemoration of Elisha Nelson, Nelsonville’s namesake.