Recently, RGC members were asked to share their top reasons for joining a garden club; their favorite gardening memories; and why they love to garden. After reading some of their reflections, we hope you will consider sharing your gardening reflections and joining us in one of our favorite pursuits.
Linda B
Top 10 reasons to join a garden club, specifically Roswell Garden Club:
- Socialize with like-minded people
- Learn about new techniques, products, plant varieties
- Listen to relevant speakers at monthly meetings
- Volunteer to beautify the community
- Help raise funds for worthwhile causes
- Take field trips to interesting locations
- Be part of community service projects
- Participate in plant exchanges
- Contribute to an award-winning organization
- Be part of an active, vibrant, caring group
Linda Lee P
I was retired and had the time to join a club, to get out there. RGC had a meeting. I went. I was a first timer with another friend I’d recently met in church. We sat together. I fell in love with the president, the group, the mission. I joined. Twelve years ago.
My husband loves flowers and he grew every kind. He especially liked the distressed flowers that had to be brought back. Ron could touch a leaf, a flower, a stem, talk to it, and it would flourish! That is a main reason I decided to try a garden club. To support him. To learn. And to be around the natural beauty God made possible. To watch Ron play in the dirt, gently pat the soil around a plant, and caress the petals made me want to be with him and to help him.
There is nothing more special than to be in the presence of flowers, their fragrance, their beauty and colors. The way the colors all go together in a garden complimenting one another. God is there, the master gardener and artist.
Gretchen C
I’ve been an active member of a garden club for more than 50 years. This is a perfect way to be involved in a new community. You find like-minded friends and learn more about this wonderful hobby. My favorite activity is floral design.
We have planted many things at the 5 houses we have owned. My favorite thought is the hundreds of Narcissus we planted over the years, and many must still be blooming. We’ve lived in Roswell for 13 years and have planted close to 200 Narcissus here. A friend started this with the gift of 100 bulbs that are planted in our woods.
Roz R
Best gardening memory: the first time I planted a vegetable garden
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. This was the first time I planted ANYTHING. We had just purchased a small house in Brooklyn, a small side by side home in Flatbush, in walking distance to Brooklyn College. Most neighbors had nothing in their backyards other than grass. My children were young and I was working only part-time. I decided to plant a vegetable garden and knew enough to plant the corn in the back row and smaller vegetables in front. There was 1 row of corn – 1 row of tomatoes, etc. We watched the veggies growing all summer and in the fall, the corn was taller than my girls. VERY thrilling.
Eight reasons I love to garden, in no particular order:
- outside – hear and see birds
- provides me with time to ‘just be’–daily stroll around/look around outdoor and indoor plantings
- provides me with space/place to use all my senses as I concentrate on gardening and block out the rest of the world.
- provides me with a more enjoyable way to exercise (stretch, bend, lift, carry) than a session at the gym
- provides me with a place to visit with neighbors in my apartment complex (only garden in the complex and I invite neighbors to pick flowers and figs)
- enjoy the sweetness of freshly picked figs (and in previous homes: tomatoes)
- enjoy experimenting: outside – 2 branches from friend’s established fig tree, plucked in Dec., 2010 or 2011, did not begin to show signs of life for 2 or so years and now is a towering fruiting wonder; inside – discarded orchid took two years to bloom
- enjoy the sense of wonder when a small seed evolves into a living plant
Lisa E
I have so many reasons to love gardening. First, it brings back awesome memories of my grandpa and me in his vegetable garden. Every day after he worked, we went to his vegetable garden. He wore a big hat, and pictures show me attired in the 1950s “bubble suit”—very cute, of course. Grandpa taught me so much. I was great at spotting bugs and pointing out what needed to be picked. I loved, and still love, watching things grow. Houseplants remind me of my mom. She could grow anything. I learned to enjoy indoor plants and make them thrive from my mom. I love visiting gardens everywhere I go. My Master Gardener friends teach me something every time we visit a nursery. I love to learn, and there’s something to learn in the garden every season. The contentment and joy I feel walking around my garden, as imperfect as it is, is amazing.