Welcome to the club
Yuma’s garden clubs are back in full swing
If you are wondering what vegetables to plant this fall or what plants to add to your landscaping, one of our local garden clubs can provide the answers. Many club members are long-time Yuma gardeners who have learned the tricks of the trade for successful gardening in Yuma.
After a summer hiatus, local garden clubs are back in full swing with lots of great monthly programs and horticulture activities planned for the upcoming year. Visitors are welcome to attend club meetings and are encouraged to join a garden club to learn more about gardening in Yuma, participate in community service projects and meet new friends.
Yuma’s garden clubs have common goals of beautifying Yuma, sponsoring community service projects, encouraging youth and adults to begin gardening and flower arranging, helping protect our natural resources and environment, and educating the public about gardening in Yuma.
A community service project supported by garden clubs nationwide is the Blue Star Memorial Marker program which places plaques to honor U.S. veterans in parks, along highways and in cemeteries. Yuma Garden Club placed a Blue Star By-Way Marker at the Yuma Civic Center in 2012. The plaque reads: “A Tribute to the Armed Forces of America” and is mounted on a large boulder surrounded by xeriscape landscaping.
Local garden clubs join together as Federated Garden Clubs of
Yuma to sponsor the Horticulture Division at the Yuma County Fair with the purpose of showing the public what plants will grow in Yuma and how to arrange flowers creatively. They also work together at the Home and Garden Show to sell garden-related items to raise funds for their community service projects.
Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma’s website (fgcyuma.org) lists each club’s information, schedule of monthly programs and calendar of events for the upcoming year. Each garden club’s Facebook page also gives good information about the club’s activities.
You can join one club or all and enjoy their great monthly programs discussing gardening and horticulture-related topics. Visitors are always welcome at club meetings.
MGM Garden Society Facebook: The Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden
MGM Garden Society maintains the Robert J. Moody Demonstration Garden across from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Office at 2200 W. 28th St. Members meet each Tuesday morning beginning around 8 a.m. to maintain the garden.
If you are wondering what to plant in your yard or vegetable garden, stroll through Moody Garden this fall for some ideas. Groups can schedule a guided tour by calling Janine Lane at 726-3904. An informative book giving a detailed history of the garden’s creation, “A Timeline History of the Moody Garden,” written by Ellen Gardner, is on sale as a fundraiser for the garden, along with engraved pavers, which are placed in walkways leading into the garden. Engraved pavers can commemorate a special person, pet, or memorable occasion and cost $35.
The garden is registered as a Million Pollinator Garden, a program whose goal is creating one million pollinator-friendly gardens by the end of 2019. Go online to register your own garden. (millionpollinatorgardens.org).
Moody Garden is also registered as a Monarch Waystation Garden because there are flowering plants to feed adult Monarchs and milkweed to feed their larvae in the garden. Go online to register your garden as a Monarch Waystation Garden. (monarchwatch.org).
Donations, which are tax deductible (the garden is a 5013c), are accepted to help fund replacement of the drip irrigation system in Moody Garden. To date, donations and fundraising have allowed two-thirds of the system to be replaced. Call Janine Lane at 7263904 for more information.
Pecan Grove Garden Club Facebook: Pecan Grove Garden Club
Meetings are held at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month, September through May, at Yuma’s Main Library, 2951 S. 21st Drive. Their September meeting, however, will be held Sept. 11 instead of the third Tuesday. The speaker is Willene Calvert, club member, who will present a program titled “Desert Wildflowers.” Their evening meetings offer the public a garden club to join that doesn’t meet during the day. Contact Lois Weinstein, club president at (631) 839-7007 for more information.
Fundraising projects include an annual spring tour of private gardens called “Welcome to My Garden” and the sale of unique birdhouses and crosses made from recycled items. The club is happy to accept donations of old tools and kitchen items for their birdhouses. Their creative birdhouses and plants sell fast at the annual Community Bazaar, Home and Garden Show and Moody Garden’s Art in the Garden event. Funds raised are used to fund plantings in Yuma’s parks and public areas to help beautify our city.
The club sponsors the annual Smokey Bear (Only You can Prevent Wildfires) and Woodsy Owl (Lend a Hand, Care for the Land) poster contests for students. They also host National Garden Club’s poetry contest for elementary students and National Garden Club’s essay contest for high school students. This year’s poetry title is “Pop Goes the Seed,” and children in kindergarten through ninth grade may enter. All styles of poetry are accepted. This year’s high school essay theme is “The Impact of Bottled Water on the Environment and the Water Supply.” Contact Marlena Parrott, 726-3904, for more information and deadlines for entering.
On Arbor Day each year, the club supplies a local school with a tree and provides a gift certificate for a tree to a new owner of a Habit for Humanity house. Club members also work with Girl Scout troops to create floral designs for the Yuma County Fair’s Floral Design Division.
Yuma Garden Club
Beginning in October, meetings are held at 1 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the Main Library. The club sponsors a floral design group which meets monthly to learn flower arranging techniques with the goal of creating flower arrangements to enter in the Floral Design Division at the Yuma County Fair. Their floral designs are also displayed at Yuma Art Center during April’s ARTbeat. Floral design members also create and donate flower arrangements to local nursing homes each month.
Trees are planted in city parks each year to honor club members. The club also maintains the Alma Schott Rose Garden at the walking park above Kofa High School. A variety of plants are sold at the Home and Garden Show as a fundraiser for their community service projects.
Their first meeting on Oct. 8 will have a program titled “An Introduction to Decorating Gourds,” presented by artist, Sandra Thomas. Sandra creates artistic objects, purses and musical instruments from gourds. Contact Evelona Ackley, club president, (615) 347-4022, for more information about joining Yuma Garden Club.
Yuma Orchid and African Violet Society Facebook: Yuma Orchid and African Violet Society
Meetings are held at 1:15 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the Foothills Library, 13226 E. South Frontage Road. An orchid or African violet is raffled off at each club meeting.
The society donates orchids to 4-H members who wish to grow them as a project to exhibit at the Yuma County Fair. Hawaiian orchids and African violets are sold at the Home and Garden Show as a fundraiser for their community service projects.
Their Sept. 13 meeting is “History of Sanguinetti House and Gardens,” presented by Yanna Kruse. Contact Rod Hartleib, club president, (928) 276-4089, for more information.
Yuma Master Gardener Program Facebook: Yuma County Urban Horticulture
The 2018-19 Yuma Master Gardener Program classes begin Oct. 1 and run through Jan. 28. The classes meet from 8:30 a.m. to noon each Monday at the Public Health Office, 2200 W. 28th St., off Avenue B. Registration is open until the class is filled. For information and registration, contact Janine Lane, UofA Master Gardener coordinator, at 726-3904.
The Oct. 1 class is “Introduction to Biology” presented by Lane and Kurt Nolte. Information related to growing plants in the Southwest as well as other horticulture-related topics will be presented. At each class, guest speakers present programs on a variety of topics ranging from soil and tree care to citrus and turf care.
Participants completing the program earn a Master Gardener certificate and have the opportunity to volunteer their services back to the community.
If you have an interest in learning more about gardening in Yuma, join a garden club. Local garden clubs are also great places to meet new friends. Why not attend a meeting this fall and join in the gardening fun?
Happy gardening!