Garden Clubs - why?

 One of the benefits of belonging to a Garden Club is, of course, the fact that the club is composed of a group of people who love gardening in at least one or two of its multi-faceted forms.  You might like growing Roses, or herbs, or food for the dinner table; you might be interested in flower arranging/design, botanical arts and photography, domestic or international travel to visit famous gardens, flower shows, propagation, conservation, preservation - the list is endless and there is something for everyone.  

Friends are like flowers, they are in your life and then they are not.  Of course this becomes more obvious as we age, which we all do.  Recently one of my Garden Clubs (I belong to two) paid a visit to a Herb Society plant sale.  Eight of us, in two cars from two directions, met up just outside Roundtop, Texas, where the Pioneer Unit of the Herb Society of America was holding its annual sale. 


 

Roundtop is an interesting town.  The population in 2000 was 77, in 2010 it was 90!  The 2020 verdict is not yet in!  In 1890 it was 238.  These days its main claim to fame is that somehow it has become the capital of the nation's largest antique/vintage/junk  shows.  "Festival Institute" is an international center for performance and learning, also the home of the annual plant/herb sale of the Pioneer Unit of the Texas Herb Society.  Festival Hill has lots of ties to a famous Herbalist/plant person, the late Madalene Hill -  who I was privileged to know.    

During this Garden Club Year (Sept-May) we have also visited a "real live" castle complete with ramparts and a moat,  a Wolf Sanctuary, a community where the Citizens run a successful nursery and growing operation and a restaurant, and an Aquaponics Farm.  And we recently had a Flower Show with a Botanical Arts and Photography Division!   My other Garden club has visited a Daylily Farm, a wonderful "Rose Emporium", a 33 acre teaching farm modeling regenerative agriculture and food systems, and enjoyed a luncheon incorporating edible flowers and cocktails; both clubs include interesting programs when we are not "on the road"!!!  both clubs offer opportunities to interact with and serve our communities.  



Now we are moving into the "dead space" when Garden Clubs take time off, but of course at home we never take time off -there is always something to be done!!!  We enjoy our spring/summer blooms, but still have to cut grass and take care of the blooms; it has been 98F today, which is not a happy temperature for much of our wildlife and flora (or humans!!), but a little rain "soon" would be welcome.  Maybe I can use this "dead space" to catch up and continue with this blog!!!  

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