Our Garden Club Work Continues

I really thought when I joined just two years back this gardening thing around our little town would be so easy.  You all see I know how to grow some real beauties so what’s the problem?

Well wanting something really badly,  sadly will not make it happen.  It takes members.  Men woman and children if need be!  You need a town who actually cares how they present themselves to the world. Sadly we were on a very slippery slope on that part.  Four sickening murders in just the time I have been here, 27 years.  All hitting the papers here and abroad.

This dream of mine to join was long overdue.   I wanted our small little town to care for one another.  Be a community.  Like the one I grew up in.  Sadly day in and day out I see the world around me not as it used to be.  Have people changed that much?  Do they no longer want what is best for their children.  Are they so busy working to see there are more important things in life than 3 cars, a  boat, 4 wheelers, motorcycles?  Toys all toys with no substance.  No family dinners as both parents work outside their home to pay for all the trips to the mall,  no one sews  clothes for their children anymore and if they do they are looked down upon and bullied.

So who was I to dream so big for my little town?  Well Eunice of course and you know what a wise woman told me if I wanted to do something do it myself for I was the only one I could count on boy was she right in the beginning  I placed my cell phone number up on a billboard in front of our town haul and waited for the phone to ring off the hook!   I had the town place an Ad on TV(towns private station)looking for members again adding my private number.  There were just three of us.  President of club walked out in a huff her best friend stayed as did I and the treasurer.  Now of us three I am the only one home and was nominated to be the secretary oh joy I wanted to get my hands dirty not make phone calls!

Another lady who works nights joined and made it a point to come to our once a month meetings on a Monday night the others came as well.  We made plans for plant sales, yard sales too!  You need money to make a town such as ours pretty and not ugly as was portrayed over and over in the news, in books and around the world in the papers.

Well We still have those who stayed in club from a year ago and just recently welcomed another woman.  She is a stay at home Mom and we love that she is young, loves to garden  and can do more than us older crippled members.

I ordered business cards and gave each of us 50 to start with.  Pass them around to local businesses they do business with.  I went knocking on doors as I am home all day.  I had a few positive meetings for things we can do down the road.

I received a wonderful email from our AD on TV who asked if he could donate some plants for our upcoming plant sales.  I told him we would love to accept his gracious gift and made plans for another member to help me.  The first load Ron and JT came with me as this was a stranger and wanted to make sure everything was on the level him not me I am too trusting.  We went and filled the whole bed of the pickup truck and there were many we could not get that trip.  I had one of the full-time workers go with me and filled the truck again!  Now we were a real garden club!  At the next meeting we set a plan in motion.  We would all meet on a Sunday morning at 8 AM and tear out a whole intersection with our hand tools what were we thinking!

We showed up with rakes, shovels trash bags and water.  Plants too,  a whole pickup truck load,  poor Ron no one else has a truck and you know me I am on a mission!

We pulled out the plants we could save and then we tore out grass, and bagged it to compost.  It was now noon and time to take a break three of us said we would meet back there at 6 PM to start placing the plants back into the rotten soil after we added some sphagnum to lighten it up with.  A friend of mine from town stopped to ask when I had gotten such a green thumb he knew me as only a female who owned and drover her own rig.  He had his own excavating company.  He asked if I needed anything and I said “Are you sure?”  yes he was sure so I asked for some nice rich organic soil.  Dream big I say!  He came back with his own dump truck and dropped us off a nice pile of loam.  We wanted a raised bed to keep plants protected from drivers and plows wait you know about the snow we get.

So here is when I will share with you a project done by first 4 then three woman from 8 AM till 8 PM with a few hour break in between for a cold drink and something to eat.
Hope you can see how it evolved into what it is now.

We had moved the pretty Urn here but sadly it was doing nothing for this corner downtown.  Before the grass came up it looked pretty for a few days.

When the two ladies met back at 6 PM they were happy to see Paul’s gift of rich soil.

We raked it down and shaped it.  Two of them lifted this heavy Urn up into the middle of the planting then we laid fabric down to keep weds in check.

We unloaded the truck and placed plants in a design the best we could and set about knocking them from their pots and cutting holes in the fabric where they would go into the new soil.  This is back-breaking work when you have a wrecked back to start with!

Two of us stayed till dark as you can see the lights across the way have come on.
We were tired both of us in our mid 50’s.  She with a desk job me with no job.

I came by the next day to check on our work

 

 

We needed to mulch this area to complete the look, hold down the weeds and fabric as well.  Thankfully as we wrapped up the night before the rains began to fall gently upon our  new planting.

JT and I took 3 half pick up truck loads of mulch I had saved in my yard all winter  and added it to this space.  The parade would be days away and I wanted it to be complete for Memorial Day.

Now some of you have seen these photos before others have not

Now I will show you some shots of what we have been up to all this summer no wonder I hurt so bad!

 

I went to a business the next town over who makes bark mulch, I used to love hauling mulch with my rig to all the local garden centers I miss my truck.  Well back to the story I asked if we could get the wholesale price as we were a tiny garden club next town over and really needed to find the best deal.  She says to me IS FREE GOOD?  You already know by this post   Thank You!   Only deal was they gave me a sign to promote their business well I was all alone to I said yes the deal was made and each and every corner will look the same and only cost Ron gas money to truck it back and forth!

 

One of the members bought two 40 in long cedar window boxes we filled and put on our granite bridge downtown   so our color draws you through town.

 

 

Ok the last photo in my story is of a corner Lowe’s gifted us plants for last year but needed to fit in with the rest of what we had recently done so Ron dropped of 21 bags I think he said it was and I spread it to finish off the intersection closest to my home.

It really makes a difference

So yes a group of driven residents can make a difference little by little one corner at a time our little town is feeling more loved.

So what do you think is it worth our effort?

I hope with each planting we do there will be another member joining our team and another business climbing on board with us as you know I am not afraid to ask help from one out-of-town!

Thanks for reading this very long post had I known I would have done it in many segments
XO
Peace and Love to ALL of YOU