Spotlight on South Windsor’s Down To
Earth Garden Club

South Windsor’s Down To Earth Garden Club is ‘turning over new ground’. The club, founded in 1973, has within the last few years expanded its role in the community by creating or renovating four town gardens, partnering with Foodshare to grow vegetables for the needy, and working with UConn to control the spread of invasive plants within South Windsor. The organization is becoming more diverse, with men now making up nearly one third of its membership. Our members range in age from the 20’s to the 80’s, and two current members were among the club’s original founders. Nearly one-third of our members are UConn Certified Master Gardeners or Advanced Master Gardeners, and they are always willing to share their knowledge and expertise with other club members and with the general public. We also co-sponsor with Wood Memorial Library a tour of local gardens during June of even numbered years.

Our club’s community-orientation is reflected in our mission:

• Increase the knowledge of gardening and horticulture among its members.

• Apply this knowledge to our own gardens and to community projects that can be enjoyed by all South Windsor residents

• Promote conservation and environmental awareness at home and within the community
We meet the second Wednesday of the month, September through June, except December. Our programs are planned by the members and consist of speakers, hands on projects and field trips. Most of the meetings take place at the Avery Street Christian Reformed Church. Visitors are always welcome.

In addition to maintaining and experimenting with their own gardens, our members maintain four community gardens in South Windsor. Three of these gardens are within Nevers Road Park. The Entry Garden at the corner of Sand Hill Road and Chief Ryan Way underwent a major redesign and renovation during the spring of 2007 and puts on a spectacular display for local residents from spring through the fall. The Daylily Garden, next to the park’s main parking lot, was originally planted by Parks & Grounds. However, the Garden Club took over responsibility for its maintenance during the 2007 season. This garden puts on a showy display of yellow daylilies during the early summer. A major redesign of this garden is in the planning stage.

Perhaps our most inspiring project has been the design and planting of a Sensory Garden at 'My Friend's Place', the Boundless Playground in Nevers Road Park. Two of the Garden Club’s Master Gardeners designed the Sensory Garden such that children and adults of all physical abilities can explore and enjoy the color, fragrance, texture, movement, rhythm and sound of the garden's plants. The town’s Parks & Grounds Department helped us construct the garden, and Garden Club members and volunteers helped with the planting just prior to the playground's Grand Opening in June 2007. The Garden Club also provides ongoing maintenance of the Sensory Garden. A program using the Sensory Garden to introduce children to the joys of gardening is in the early planning phase.

The Garden Club has established an excellent, mutually beneficial working relationship with South Windsor’s Park’s & Grounds Department, and our activities at the various town gardens are fully supported by this department. We are especially proud of the partnership we have established with this town department, because all of South Windsor’s residents are benefiting from it.

The Down To Earth Garden Club also maintains the small Ann Masi Memorial Garden in front of Wood Memorial Library on historic Main Street in South Windsor. The Club’s most recent projects are quite exciting and are also proving to be beneficial to our community. A number of Garden Club members have been trained at UConn to become ‘Beetle Farmers' and have already raised thousands of Galerucella beetles. These beetles have been released at Nevers Road Park and along the Podunk River for the biological control of purple loosestrife, an invasive, non-native plant that is damaging our wetlands. In addition, the Club has partnered with Foodshare to assist with raising food crops on a local farm owned by Jim and Sandy Varney. We view this as an opportunity to apply our knowledge and labor in an effort to help end hunger in the greater Hartford community. During 2008 the Varney Farm harvested more than 16,000 pounds of fresh vegetables for Foodshare.

Down To Earth Garden Club members love gardening, love our community, and are dedicated to applying their knowledge and talents to make our community an even better place to live. Visitors are always welcome at our meetings, and volunteers are always welcome to join us in our community projects. Come dig in the dirt with us!
For more information on the Garden Club please visit our website at www.freewebs.com\downtoearthgardenclub