On Going Club Projects

Civic Beautification

Seasonal plantings and maintenance are provided at the Acton Town Hall oval, the Acton Memorial Library, the Acton Center trough, the West Acton trough, the barrels in West Acton, the Citizen's Library, the Public Safety Building, the fire stations, and selected intersections. The general planting schedule includes pansies in early spring, summer annuals after Memorial Day, mums in early October, and winter greens by mid-November for a beautiful display throughout the Town of Acton.

In 2007 the Acton Garden Club received the GCFM 'Continuing Civic Projects Award' for the seasonal plantings, maintenance and workdays the Club has provided to the town of Acton.

Acton Arboretum Herb Garden

The Acton Arboretum Herb Garden, maintained for the Town of Acton by the Acton Garden Club as one of our community service activities, is sited in an old stone foundation and features herbs that might have been grown in a mid-nineteenth century kitchen garden. Designed by club member Sue Whitcomb and planted in 1989, herbs are grouped according to their mid-nineteenth century usage for household, medicinal and culinary purposes as well as sections for those herbs used for teas and fragrance. The garden provides a beautiful as well as an educational focal point in the main area of the arboretum.

For Historical Information Click on the picture

Meeting House Hill Gardens
Wildflower Garden and Daffodil Run

Meeting House Hill, the geographical center of Acton at Nagog Hill Road and Main Street, was the site of the Town's first meeting house, the establishment of which was one of the conditions of the act of incorporation of the Town of Acton from Concord in 1735. Since the l960's the park has been open to the public.

Wildflower Garden

Our native New England wildflower garden is planted along the Nagog Hill Road side with rare and endangered plants native to North America. The Meeting House Hill garden site is a wonderful woodland setting with benches for visitors who come to enjoy the garden. The garden is a source of great pride to the Acton Garden Club, and the plants are a significant attraction at the annual plant sale. Every year a few new plant species are added to the Wildflower Garden, and old ones are replaced as necessary.

This year the face-lift continued with much work being done by the committee, with help from the Town and three Club-wide work days, to remove invasive plants and diseased trees and to implement a planting plan and renew the garden. Many new plants, both donated and purchased with grant funding, have been added, including fragrant shrubs, numerous broadleaf evergreens, wildflowers, ferns, and ground covers. Most recently six Rhododendron were added in the lower garden and three Kalmia near the back bench. All the many generous donations of plant material have made wonderful additions to the garden and are gratefully accepted.

Daffodil Run

Located on the embankment along Main Street near Nagog Hill Road, Daffodil Run is the most visible garden of Meeting House Hill. This historically sited garden displays massive plantings of daffodils, forsythia, daylilies and flowering shrubs in addition to flowering hydrangeas in the upper garden. It is a spectacular showcase of gorgeous spring and summer blooms. Committee members are assisted by the Town tree warden and the conservation officer for lawn and tree maintenance and are provided with deliveries of topsoil and mulch as needed. High school seniors also volunteer on ABRHS Community Service Day to rake, fertilize, and mulch the garden at the beginning of the season. New plant material continues to be added to the garden in keeping with its original design.

For Historical Information Click on the picture

Garden Therapy
Emerson Hospital

From September through June, the Acton Garden Club offers garden therapy to patients at Emerson Hospital on Wednesdays. Under the supervision of an occupational therapist, the Club members help the participants create fresh flower arrangements in a basket filled with Oasis. The participants not only take their floral arrangements to their rooms, but they take a sense of pride with them as well. Members of the Club give the flowers a fresh cut to improve longevity and may make recommendations on how to arrange the flowers.

Annual Student Scholarships

The Acton Garden Club awards one $1,000 scholarship annually. The winner is an Acton resident from either Acton-Boxborough Regional High School or Minuteman Regional High School of Applied Arts and Sciences who intends to pursue a career in environmental sciences, i.e. conservation, botany, forestry, horticulture, or related disciplines.

The 2007 scholarship recipient is Jessica Lynn Poppe. She will attend Tufts University and is planning to major in Environmental Sciences. At ABRHS she was a participant in Envirothon (an extra-curricular activity involving a state-wide environmental science competition).

Acton Garden Club Teacher's Grant

The Acton Garden Club has established, initially with memorial gifts from friends and family, a grant program in memory of two longtime members, Janet Bubier and Elinor Miller. This grant opportunity, in the amount of up to $500, is open to educators in the Acton Public and Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools. It provides funds for programs or projects in an environmentally related discipline to enrich existing curricula or to provide for the development of new curricula. The grant is provided on an annual basis subject to the approval of the Finance Committee and the Board of the Acton Garden Club. The Board determines the procedure for application and award.

The Junior Gardener program is open to preschool and elementary school children who are the children or grandchildren of Acton Garden Club members. This group has been dedicated to promoting educational projects that strive to teach children a love of gardening, an appreciation of nature's beauty, and the value and protection of our natural resources. The group setting provides a forum in which to teach children methods of cultivation and utilization of plants to enhance our quality of life, as well as responsibility towards the environment and civic beautification.

Activities for the coming year will include a floral arranging workshop, fall floral design project, a visit to Life Care Center of Acton for a Thanksgiving garden therapy session, two horticulture programs, personalized garden stepping stones, and bulb planting at the Acton Arboretum.

Annual Plant Sale

The Annual Plant Sale and Raffle is held in May. For the past few years, the sale has been held on the Common in the center of Acton. Members dig and divide perennials from their gardens and transplant them into pots that are offered for sale to the community.

The week before the sale, the plants are sorted, labeled, and stored in a large barn owned by the Conant family of Acton. The Acton Garden Club also purchases wholesale hanging baskets and annuals for resale. On the morning of the sale, all of the plants are moved to Acton Center for the start of this popular event. When the town clock strikes nine, eager shoppers run for their treasured plants.

Two beautiful trees, gift certificates, and a whimsical plant stand were donated to the plant sale in 2007. These were raffled off with plans to continue with a raffle at future plant sales.

For the first time, several nursery-grown Cary Award winning spring-blooming shrubs were offered at the sale.

This is the Acton Garden Club’s largest fund-raiser, with the proceeds going toward maintaining many gardens for the Town of Acton, civic beautification for Acton, community services projects, scholarships and grants.

Gardening with Young People

The Gardening with Young People program has been activated in rotation with the Junior Gardener program. Four times per year, different groups of young people from the Acton-Boxborough community are invited to participate in a hands-on education project involving one of the following interests: horticulture, floral design, conservation, civic beautification, and garden therapy. The Gardening with Young People committee provides assistance and funding, if necessary. In the past, the committee has worked with cub scouts, boy scouts, brownies, schools, and the Acton Memorial Library Children's department. Although our Gardening with Young People program is currently inactive, we hope to renew this program in the near future.

Back to Club Main Page