Branford Garden Club
CONTINUING CLUB PROJECTS
BRANFORD FESTIVAL ON THE GREEN
The Club promotes both civic and club pride by renting a booth each year at this three-day town-wide Branford Festival. Our posters, exhibits and displays demonstrate how we help our community. Conservation efforts are highlighted along with education on plants for pollinators, raising milkweed plants for monarch caterpillars and feeding backyard birds. Our booth gives us an excellent opportunity to promote club membership.
Branford Point
CIVIC DEVELOPMENT
We have been asked by the Parks Department to plant in several areas at Branford Point that have been neglected. We are going to start small, one area at a time, so we can see what works well. The Parks Department will help with tilling the soil and watering during the summer.
The 2020 WINNERS
COMMUNITY AWARDS
Residential and commercial gardens in Branford will be evaluated for their excellence by the Awards Committee. Club membership are solicited for recommendations on exceptional gardens.
Winners are chosen by the Committee and honored at the February meeting. They are presented with a framed Certificate of Appreciation for outstanding gardens, landscaping or other themes set by the Club. Pictures of their gardens will be used for Club functions by the president. Pictures and information will be sent to the Publicity Chair for submission to local media.
CONSERVATION
Conservation will concentrate on small steps each of us can take to help the environment. It all adds up!!
The mission of the Conservation Committee is to stimulate and encourage Club members and the general public to protect and conserve our natural resources. To that end, the Committee develops and implements projects designed to expand members' interest in issues pertaining to a greener environment, and share knowledge and ideas at public events.
Projects include recycling, ways to reduce waste and pollution, appreciation of wildlife, with special emphasis on pollinators, and preservation of natural habitats. Each project has its own team leader, and may be independent or in collaboration with other committees.
Arrangement by Deb Vallas , Fall 2019
DESIGN
Members provide a monthly floral arrangement for our luncheons. A floral design workshop is held at least once a year.
At the beginning of the holiday season, wreaths are made for the Blackstone Library, the Willoughby Wallace Library and the Community House. In addition, the entire Blackstone Library is decorated. All greens are donated by the members.
DOWNTOWN CONTAINER PLANTINGS
Baskets On The Green
The Baskets on the Green began in 2003 as a gift to the Town of Branford on the occasion of the Club's 75th Anniversary. 32 26" European-style baskets were installed on the lamp posts along a half mile stretch on Main Street and businesses and individuals were invited to "adopt a basket". The baskets are planted with annuals in May and again with evergreens in November. Thanks to the excellent participation by our members, the baskets are much-admired by our community. Watering throughout the summer is a shared task between members, volunteers from SARAH, Inc., and the Public Works Department of Branford. We are grateful to Van Wilgen's Garden Center which has contributed plant material either fully or substantially for many years.
Blackstone Memorial Library Planters
The Branford Garden Club gifted two large stone planters to the Blackstone Memorial Library to go on each side of its entrance in 2017. These planters will be planted each year by the Garden Club and maintained/watered by the Library. When the summer plantings are removed, the Club will fill the planters with holiday greens and red bows.
GARDEN THERAPY
The purpose of Garden Therapy is to use plants and horticulture activities to enhance the physical, mental and social health of elderly and incapacitated individuals in the community. Projects include regular horticulture programs and seasonal gardening done with clients at Artis Memory Care and Orchard House Adult Day Care.
Flower arrangements and baskets donated by Club members are delivered by Committee members to our neighbors at Branford Hill Healthcare and Artis Memory Care
Club members volunteer to make fresh flower arrangements weekly for the tables at the Branford Community Dining Room.
Volunteers creating flower arrangements and baskets for delivery
HORTICULTURE
The Horticulture Committee seeks to educate, share, and encourage discussions and participation in the seasonal garden.
Blending knowledge of the best practices of science and art cultivate not only the plant, but the soil and the ecological web of garden flora and fauna and surrounding spaces.
The Committee seeks to engage members in topics of interest via club publications, lectures, print and internet resources, and shared experiences.
NOTE CARDS
The note cards are a fundraiser for the BCG. The photos are from the members. Generally the photos are of nature and are meant to inspire beauty in our gardens, a memory from a trip, or a moment of calm. The note cards are sold to our members and the general public at our events. The committee meets and decides on designs for the cards and then assembles the cards as inventory is needed. The note cards advertise and showcase the mission of the BCG.
OUR GARDENS (Daytime)
The Branford Garden Club is responsible for the upkeep of four public gardens:
Harrison House
Alta Newton Memorial Herb Garden
Colonial Border Garden
Town Green
Mae McCabe Memorial Daylily Garden
Veterans Memorial Garden
The Alta Newton Herb Garden is octagonal with a central sundial, granite edging, and an underground watering system. Volunteers plant fresh herbs in the spring.
Adjacent to the herb garden, the Colonial Border Garden runs along a stone wall. It is filled with shade-loving perennials and self-seeding annuals. Butterflies are attracted to the Buddleia, Aclepias, Rudbeckia and Monarda perennials. Volunteers weed, prune, fertilize and mulch these two gardens throughout the growing season.
On the Branford Green, the McCabe Daylily Garden is tucked away behind the Town Hall. Mae McCabe, a past Branford Garden Club president and gifted horticulturist, hybridized many daylilies which still grow in this garden. Committee members tidy, edge and water this spot as needed. Daffodils supply early spring color and a few mums are planted to brighten this garden in the fall.
Volunteers from the Evening section of the Club tend the Veterans Memorial Garden (see below)
SCARECROWS ON THE GREEN
This annual fundraiser has grown to include dozens of commercial businesses, local non-profits, school and learning centers and more, who create imaginative and colorful scarecrow vignettes, all displayed on the Branford Green in October. It's a popular BGC fundraiser, and the participants appreciate the publicity and fun.
FALL PIE FESTIVAL in conjunction with the Scarecrows
For the third year, the Club will be holding a Fall Pie Festival for the Club’s town beautification efforts, hopefully without the Covid-19 restrictions.
All Club members are asked to bake 2-3 pies for sale on the Green in conjunction with the Scarecrows on the Green event.
Fall Cleanup at the Veterans Memorial Garden
VETERANS MEMORIAL GARDEN
The Veterans Memorial Garden is an ongoing project of the Evening Section. The entire Evening Section helps to weed, mulch, deadhead and maintain its pristine look as its prime location on the town Green is one of our most visible spots in town.
YOUTH ACTIVITIES
Our mission is to work with children and youth groups and their teachers to nurture an interest in plants, gardening, and conservation efforts. We encourage pre-school children to become junior floral “designers” by guiding them in arranging Mother’s Day flower mugs.
We also work with elementary and middle school students to assist them in understanding plant and flower life cycles by planting seasonal flowers around their schools and in other public places.
Additional projects include planting red, white and blue annuals in honor of Memorial Day, planting pansies and other early bloomers in recognition of Earth Day, and Fall planting of flowering bulbs to welcome the following spring.
Monarch/Pollinator Project
One of the goals of this project is to develop a map of pollinator-friendly gardens belonging to Branford Garden Club members. Once this map is completed, the information will be incorporated with other properties along the pollinator pathway for Branford.
Another goal of this project is to support programs and organizations interested in restoring native habitat for pollinators and other wildlife.
This project supports Branford Garden Club’s mission to promote conservation through education.
NEW PROJECTS for 2021
THE 2021 GARDEN TOUR
The Garden Tour Committee is working alongside Branford Arts & Cultural Alliance (BACA) to organize a garden tour featuring private gardens within our community and showcase the artistic talents of our many local artisans.
The two day event (June 26 and June 27) will be a fundraiser but the primary goals of the tour will be to give people the chance to explore a variety of gardens and art as well as provide an educaiton opportunity particularly about sustainability in gardening, local native plants and the importance of pollinators and pollinator gardens.
POLLINATOR PATHWAY PROJECT CT (continued from 2020)
While the Club has an existing pollinator program that has established and maintained several pollinator gardens throughout the town in collaboration wiTt many student groups from the town’s school system, the Club will participate in a new region-wide pollinator program.
The Pollinator Pathway project CT is part of a regional endeavor that will establish “pollinator-friendly habitats and food sources for bees, butterflies, humming birds, and other pollinating insects and wildlife.”
This regional project defines a pollinator pathway as a “pesticide-free corridor of public and private properties that provide native plant habitat and nutrition for pollinators.” The Club will join other statewide groups in planning and implementing pollinator gardens on public and private lands throughout Branford. We will inform the Club of specific activities as they emerge. For additional information on the regional project, please visit www.pollinator-pathway.org.
