Two area garden clubs have completed projects funded by Plant America grants from The National Garden Clubs Inc.
Fifty-five grants of $1,000 each were awarded to garden clubs across the nation including 13 Georgia clubs and two Augusta clubs.
Officials with the Azalea Garden Club were seeking ways to connect their members through a gardening project.
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They’d inquired about a project at Pendleton King Park, said Beverly Dorn, club president.
“We talked to Derek Vanover (who has served on the park’s board of trustees) about a sundial in the children’s area,” she said.
However, Vanover suggested something more in line with the club’s name.
“He said, ‘We don’t have anyone taking care of the Azalea Walk,” she said.
And that became a focal point for the club and multiple projects including moving the walk’s entrance and cleaning up the space.
“The first donation to the project was a dozen handmade bird houses which were installed along the walk and sold to members to raise funds for the Azalea Walk. In March 2021 The club received a ‘seed grant’ from the Augusta Council of Garden Clubs for $1,000 for fertilizer and supplies,” according to a recent newsletter.
The club also worked with volunteers from Boys With a Future, a program of Good Neighbors ministries as well as members of Church of the Good Shepherd to clean up the area.
The $1,000 from the Plant America grant was used to “prepare the beds and to plant native azaleas at the newly restored entrance to the Azalea Walk,” according to the newsletter. Demolition and reconstruction of the original entrance was started in February.
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Members of The Spade and Trowel Garden Club of Augusta created a pollinator garden, or outdoor classroom, for the students at Warren Road Elementary School.
“The focus is for the students to interact and observe our pollinators when they are outside, and learn about their behaviors, habitats, food and shelter. We have cleaned up the area, cut down trees, cleaned vines off the fences and demolished the old beds,” according to a news release. “We have made new beds with concrete blocks, in the shape of an arrow since the school’s mascot is An Indian warrior. The hardscape items we are using are going to be recycled or repurposed.”
Also, each class will have its own garden plot so that the students “can watch the flowers grow and the birds, bees and hummingbirds visit! Almost all the beds will contain bright colored flowers such as sunflowers, zinnias, milkweed, swamp sunflowers, etc. to attract our pollinators, and a ‘touch and smell herb garden.’”
Receiving the grants and completing the projects has reinvigorated the membership of the Azalea Garden Club, according to Dorn.
“This club started in 1949. My mother was a member of it. They had fashion shows and card parties to raise money,” she said.
Dorn said her mother would likely be in awe of the grants the current members have received.
At a recent meeting, members discussed several other grants they are applying for including a $70,000 grant from Lowe’s, but Dorn said it will take that type of money to do the projects they have in mind.
Dorn said they would love to create a botanical garden at Pendleton King Park.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
