Education Program News

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

GARDENING MAGAZINE SPONSORSHIP

To help enrich the gardening knowledge of our members and the Grantham community, the club has provided the Dunbar Free Library with the funds to cover the annual subscription fees for two fabulous garden magazines. Stop by the library sometime soon to check out current and past issues of Fine Gardening or Garden Gate!

SEED LIBRARY COLLABORATION

CIVIC GARDENS SPONSOR PROGRAM

This sponsorship program was initiated in 2023 to cover the annual expenditures the club incurs to provide barrels of colorful annual around town each summer. The club is very grateful for the support provided by local businesses. These partnerships enable the club to further its efforts to beautify our community.

Our 2024 Sponsors:

GRANTHAM CIVIC GARDENS

Planting and maintaining colorful annuals around town has been the club's hallmark civic project since the club was started. These days members water and care for the flowers in garden barrels at the post office, library, town hall, and fire station.
We also maintain the triangle garden found in the center of the intersection of routes 10 and 114.
In 2024, we began a collaboration with the fire department to improve the fire station sign and garden at the front of the property. Fire department volunteers reinstalled the Smoky the Bear message sign, while the garden club tackled redesigning the garden bed.
At the end of September, the Civic Gardens barrels are spruced up with fresh mums to replace the waning summer flowers. By mid November, holiday arrangements are added to replace the mums as our cold nights return.

GARDEN ANGELS

In the autumn of 2023, the club organized its first Garden Angels fundraiser so members and the public could purchase daffodil bulbs to both plant in their own gardens and donate to the community. Any donations were deemed to be from Garden Angels who wanted to help beautify Grantham. The planting was accomplished by a team of additional Garden Angels who volunteered to do some pretty tough digging in front of the Post Office and beside Route 10 where the bright yellow daffodils could be seen each spring by everyone passing through town. It was such a popular sale that the club repeated it the following autumn and there are now over 1,000 daffodil bulbs just waiting to greet us each spring!

GRANTHAM TOWN WIDE CLEANUP DAY

Since 2021, the club has proudly organized the annual Grantham Townwide Cleanup Day where each spring we invite residents to join our members for a community roadside cleanup. On a Saturday morning in May, through rain or shine, volunteers spend 3 hours picking up roadside trash as part of our effort to keep Grantham sparkling!

PUBLIC PLANT SALE

The club has a long history of organizing this well-received community event, held on a Saturday morning in May at the Grantham Town Hall. This is our club's primary fundraiser that locals tell us they look forward to every year because we have a reputation for selling beautiful fresh annuals for their gardens at very reasonable prices.

CHRISTMAS AT THE FELLS

In the autumn, a couple of our members team up to create a wreath for the club to donate to the "Hall of Wreaths" for the Christmas at The Fells: Holiday Decorator Showhouse and Boutique held annually at the beginning of November. During the festivities, the wreath is displayed along with many others that have been generously donated to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to support The Fells.
Sally and Kristina have enjoyed creating these wreaths on our behalf for the past couple of years. They named their 2023 wreath "Sally's Glorious Garden" and their 2024 wreath “The Color Purple”.

HOLIDAY CENTERPIECE WORKSHOP FOR MEALS ON WHEELS

Club members enjoy grabbing their garden gloves and snipers for one last time at the end of the gardening season to fill holiday mugs with fresh greens and decorations for those served by a local Meals on Wheels program.
Our members also contributed food items that were donated to the Grantham Food Pantry.

2024 Community Holiday Centerpiece Workshop

GRANTHAM RECREATION DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES

As our membership has grown, the club has been able to become more involved in the various town activities sponsored by the Grantham Recreation Department. Members really enjoy interacting with others in the community that they may not have met, or who haven't heard about our club.

Activities participated in over the past three years are: