Special Projects



Waterwise Gardening Project

The Acton Garden Club and the Acton Water District jointly developed the Waterwise Gardening Program to help residents become aware of our need to conserve water by encouraging waterwise landscaping.
Our award-winning program helps educate and encourage the community to use the following techniques: minimal watering, use of mulch, amending the soil to retain water, the creation of droughttolerant lawns and plantings, reduced lawn areas, water-conserving irrigation, and water collection devices.
From time to time, speakers are scheduled to increase understanding of waterwise principles and techniques. With the Acton Water District, we have designed an eight-page color/glossy booklet entitled ‘Using Water Wisely: A Guide to Conserving Water in Acton, Massachusetts.’ It is part of our material to promote drought-tolerant planting and water conservation. In addition, we are exploring global warming and its impact on waterwise gardening.
The Acton Garden Club supports using water wisely and promotes drought-tolerant plants that are indigenous to the New England area. For our annual plant sale, we use our waterwise logo on plant identification markers to indicate plants that are drought-tolerant.


2010 Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest 2010, took place on October 2, a beautiful warm fall day.
The Acton Garden Club sold daffodil bulbs, as it has for the past several years. This year’s selection was Daffodil Tahiti, noted for its double flowers of soft yellow accented by tufts of coppery orange. In early to mid-spring these large blooms stand like torches on strong stems. W. Acton – Oktoberfest 2010
This year we ordered 1,000 bulbs, 300 more than were ordered for 2009, and twice as many as we ordered in 2008. We sold whatever bulbs were left after Oktoberfest at our general meeting the following Tuesday.


Acton Area Looks Good

The Acton Garden Club feels that it is important to reach out in the community and recognize businesses in Acton that have made exemplary efforts to beautify and maintain their properties. During the summer months, members of the committee serve as judges and evaluate landscape designs of businesses. There is a set of criteria by which each property is judged. Criteria include color, texture, scale, and maintenance. The businesses are evaluated in one of several categories: single retail, plaza, multiple occupant retail, professional business, new business, most improved or continued excellence. The winners receive awards at our September meeting



Due to the prevalence of deer in Acton and the surrounding towns, we have continued a program to promote public awareness and explore solutions in regards to the problems of deer/tick infestation, Lyme Disease and it’s co-infections. There was an educational arbor display called ‘Living With Wildlife/ Lyme Disease’ at the plant sale in May as well as at the Acton Farmers’ Market, NARA Park, and Octoberfest. We continue to support the showing of the award winning documentary ‘Under Our Skin’ as well as other educational presentations in conjunction with the Health Department.
Check our website: @ www.actongardenclub.org and www.lymediseaseassociation. org for more information.



Art in Bloom

Each year two members of the Acton Garden Club take part in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts’ prestigious ‘Art in Bloom.’ This is a spring festival of art and flowers during which garden clubs from all over New England are invited to create floral interpretations of works of art which have been chosen by the MFA associates.
This year Thelma Shoneman, assisted by Pamela Nelson, interpreted the Scale-model for the Pennsylvania Railroad War Memorial by American sculptor, Walker Hancock. This plaster model of an enormous winged angel lifting a dying soldier is probably Hancock’s best known work. The final statue, cast in bronze, is about 40’ tall and stands in the Pennsylvania RR 30 Street Station in Philadelphia. Large palm fronds were used to reflect the simplicity and magnitude of the angel’s vertical wing expansion. Large white King Protea suggested the angel’s strength; amaranthus provided a textural contrast portraying the weakness of the dying soldier.



National Garden Week

The Acton Garden Club, in association with the National Garden Clubs, Inc. celebrated National Garden Week during the first full week of June by presenting a display at the Acton Memorial Library.
The display created by Susan Harrigan, Joan Gardner and Janet Richards highlighted the wonderful public gardens that the Acton Garden Club designs and maintains in our town, including those at Meeting House Hill in Acton Center and the Herb Garden at the Acton Arboretum. An aerial map developed by using Google maps showed the exact locations of our Wildflower Garden, Daffodil Run and The Herb Garden. We hope townspeople will come and enjoy these sites and revel in the peace and tranquility they bring to Acton by now knowing their exact locations.



Acton Memorial Library Holiday Mini-Fair

In early December the Acton Garden Club participated in the Holiday Mini-Fair sponsored by the Acton Memorial Library. Three Christmas arrangements were donated by Garden Club members to be raffled at the December regular meeting as a fund raiser for the Club. Raffle items included a table centerpiece designed by Laura Lindop and Janet Richards, a boxed holiday table arrangement designed by Joan Yatteau and a traditional greens door swag by Judy Shuppert and Kathy Burke.
Raffle tickets were sold to the public at the Mini-Fair and to Club members. Recipients of the raffle items were very pleased with their holiday decorations.


Flora in Winter
Flora in Winter Event
at Worcester Art Museum

‘Flora in Winter’ is the combined effort of the Worcester Art Museum and the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, the home of the Worcester County Horticultural Society. It is an annual event with about twentyfive floral designers interpreting pieces of art at the Museum and more than twenty designers interpreting a different theme each year at the Tower Hill location.
At the Museum, Thelma Shoneman interpreted the painting, ‘Looking East from Denny Hill,’ by American painter, Ralph Earl done in 1800. She captured the rolling hills of Worcester using the terracing technique, tints and tones of green, and texture.
At Tower Hill the theme was ‘A Moment in Time. ’Laura Lindop chose ‘Island Time’ for her design of beautiful tropicals recalling her time in Bermuda. Maureen Christmas selected the Art Deco period and entitled her stunning design, ‘Art Deco with a Twist.’

Propagating Daylilies

For many years the Acton Garden Club has benefited from the generous donation of hybrid daylilies from Fred Knippel for our annual Plant Sale. At his suggestion, a propagation bed has been incorporated into the gardens at Meeting House Hill to continue the process of multiplying these unique varieties for future plant sales. Also, as these daylilies mature, selections from the propagation bed will be transferred to Daffodil Run to expand the visual interest in this garden.

Wildflower Retrieval

Working with the Town Conservation Commission, the Acton Garden Club is available to assist in a program to help retrieve wildflowers on property slated for development.

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