It has been a very busy summer for members of the Ashland Garden Club. Although the Club does not meet during July and August, members are busy maintaining their sites and planters around town while working in their own gardens.  We also use this time to visit each other’s gardens. This summer we had the pleasure of visiting three members’ gardens and socializing.

In July, the AGC offered a hands-on workshop, “Growing Food from Scraps,” for children and their caregivers. This event was co-sponsored by the Ashland Library. First, the children learned how to grow new food from leftover “scraps”. Then they received scraps of their choice to take home and plant, watching them grow. The energy and interest in the topic led to a very interactive and engaging session. Everyone had a lot of fun while learning how to use food scraps sustainably.

The Community Center is my next focus. This garden is the newest in-ground site that the Garden Club plants and maintains. It is what could be called a “Friendship Garden” because the majority of the plants were donated by Gwen Wan from her own garden. When she needed to move plants from one of her gardens, she contacted me and offered to donate them to the Ashland Garden Club. The minute she offered plants, I thought of adding to the Community Center garden. Not only did Gwen offer her plants, but she and her student, Lele, joined me in planning where each plant would go and then they planted them.

 For the past two years, Garden Club member Elissa Biletch has been in charge of the Community Center garden. This year she also has the help of Roseangla Wilner.  Over time, Elissa has added more perennials and some annuals for color. Please stop by the Community Center to admire Elissa and Roseangla’s hard work.

The Ashland Garden Club meets 10-11 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month, September through June. We meet in the lower-level meeting room at the Library, and all meetings are open to the public. 

Check out our Facebook page “Ashland Garden Club of Massachusetts” and our online account at www.ashlandgardenclub.com.