Clubs help communities bloom

By JENNIFER MEYER Eagle News Intern

June 16, 2006 Last Updated: June 16, 2006 02:48 PM Community

Anne Thomson, a member of the Town and Country Garden Club, fills plant orders last month during the club's annual sale at the Butler Library. Plant sales are one way the clubs finance service projects and charity donations throughout the year.

The weather is warmer, the days are longer and the grass is growing again. It can mean only one thing — gardening season is under way.

There are several garden clubs serving Butler County that can help bolster your green thumb while giving you the opportunity to beautify the community.

Denise Elliot, president of the Herbal Thymes Club, said garden clubs are a great way for gardeners to learn from one another.

"I definitely learn," she said. "You learn from the programs and from hearing members talking."

And the clubs aren't just for women.

Chastney noted her club's speakers often cover topics like plant diseases — not a "girly" subject, she said. The only woman-oriented event her club has is an annual June tea party.

"It's the longest activity we've had," she said. "It's just a nice way to come together and end the year."

The Southern Butler County Garden Club isn't the only one that celebrates the summer.

The Butler Garden Club has a summer garden party every June as one of its main events.

The party is open to the public and features vendors, a speaker, a luncheon and raffles.

The Town and Country Garden Club has an annual picnic for its members, as does the Herbal Thymes Club.

"A lot of garden clubs do community service and everything," Chastney said, "and a lot of times they don't get the opportunity to sit down together without doing business."

Bieber said the social aspect of a garden club is valuable.

"We shop in each others' gardens," she said. "We share cuttings. The fellowship and sharing gardens is what Ilike best."

Elliot said fellowship is important to her club, as well.

"The people are friendly and helpful," she said.

"The members are what make the club, and their ability to come together and work as a team."

Teamwork is essential to these garden clubs' community service projects. The Oak Hills Garden Club, for example, has been beautifying the south Butler area for 61 years.

"We do highway trash pickup twice a year," member Beverly McClaine said. "There's also a sign in south Butler that needs dressing up, but it's difficult with the road construction going on there."

She added that the club also donates to various organizations such as VOICe, the YWCA, the Shaw House and Lifesteps.

The Butler Garden Club works with Lifesteps as well. The members donate their time four times a year doing horticultural therapy with the residents.

"We go once every season," club president Merab Drennen said.

"We used to bag about 2,000 pine trees to give to fifth grade classes for Arbor Day, but we're taking a break this year."

Butler Garden sells daffodils for the American Cancer Society as well.

Most garden clubs also have at least one selected site they choose to maintain.

"We plant flowers and shrubbery in Penn Township and at BC3," McClaine said of the Oak Hills club.

The Butler Garden Club does plantings, too.

"We do cleanup and planting at Camp Lutherlyn in Prospect," Drennen said.

The club also maintains the Butler Gateway Garden along Route 422.

Chastney said the Southern Butler County Garden Club is only in its first year, and so is still planning community service projects.

Recently, the club has gotten involved in a program with the Boy Scouts of America and the Seven Fields Nature Preserve, helping to install signage identifying plants in the preserve.

The Buttercup Garden Club gives wreaths to the Meridian Veterans Club and donates flowers to the Butler Veterans Affairs Medical Center in September. Bieber said the club also sponsors the outstanding floral exhibit at the Butler Farm Show.

"We deal with all kinds of gardening, " Bieber said. "We are both social and educational."

The Herbal Thymes Club maintains several herb gardens in the area.

Included are a biblical garden at the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sarver; a colonial garden at Cooper's Cabin, a fragrance garden in Roebling Park in Saxonburg, a kitchen garden at the Burtner House near Natrona Heights and a Shakespearean garden at the Saxonburg library.

Elliot explained some of the gardens.

"For the biblical garden, if the plants are in the Bible, they're also in the garden," she said. "Likewise, plants that are quoted in Shakespeare are in the Shakespearean garden."

Elliot said the kitchen garden contains cooking herbs, and the fragrance garden is full of herbs with pungent smells.

"The colonial garden is full of herbs they would have used in Colonial times," she said.

Elliot added that even though her club focuses on herbs, it still encompasses a broad range of plants.

"Mostly everything is an herb, when you get down to it," she said.

For these women, gardening is more than just a hobby or a simple pastime. It's a passion, an education, a network of friendship.

"Every gardener seems to have their thing they really like — their own little niche," Chastney said.

"The nice thing about garden clubs is you can celebrate that. Everybody's singular experience makes it a bigger thing."

Contact these clubs for more information on gardening events in Butler County:• Buttercup Garden ClubAddress: 2109 Prospect Road, Prospect, PA 16052Telephone: 724-865-9778Contact: Jackie BieberMeeting time: 12:30 p.m. the second Monday of the month• Butler Garden ClubAddress: P.O. Box 2207, Butler, PA 16003Telephone: 724-287-5908Contact: Merab Drennen, presidentMeeting time: Noon on the third Thursday of the month, except August• Herbal Thymes ClubAddress: Heide Hall, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Sarver Road, Sarver, PA 16055Telephone: 724-353-2485Web site: www.herbalthymesclub.orgContact: Denise ElliotMeeting place and time: Heide Hall, 6:30 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of the month January through October• Oak Hills Garden ClubAddress: 142 Wise Road, Butler, PA 16002Telephone: 724-282-7151Contact: Beverly McClaineMeeting time: Noon on the second Wednesday of the month, except January• Southern Butler County Garden ClubAddress: 840 Wellington Drive, Mars, PA 16046Telephone: 724-779-1007Membership chair: 724-772-8904Contact: Susan Chastney, presidentMeeting time: 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of the month, March through October• Town and Country Garden ClubAddress: 221 Oberlin Drive, Butler, PA 16001Telephone: 724-283-5120Contact: Rose Leri, presidentMeeting time: Noon the third Wednesday of the month, September through June