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. We have helped to educate and encourage the community to use the following techniques: minimal watering, use of mulch, amending the soil to retain water, the creation of drought-tolerant lawns and plantings, reduced lawn areas, water-conserving irrigation, and water catchment devices. Our project for 2007-08 is to explore global warming and how it will affect our gardens. It continues our annual series of lectures that inform and educate participants in waterwise gardening. 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,’ that is handed out to those attending the seminars. It is part of our material to promote drought-tolerant planting and water conservation. 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 a sticker with the Waterwise Gardening logo on the plant identification marker to indicate plants that are drought-tolerant.

2007 Oktoberfest On October 14th the Acton Garden Club participated for the fourth consecutive year in the Oktoberfest activities sponsored by the West Acton merchants. We sold 500 Narcissus ‘Calgary’ daffodil bulbs, packaged ten bulbs to a bag. The proceeds helped local charities, and the bulbs will add beauty to Acton gardens. The attractive table display had handouts that described how to plant and care for daffodils. We also sold boutique items and raffle tickets for holiday decorations. The day was sunny and warm, and all participants had a good time.

Art in Bloom Each year two members of the Acton Garden Club participate in ‘Art in Bloom’ at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The MFA’s ‘Art in Bloom’ is a spring festival of art and flowers and transforms the museum by highlighting in flowers specially chosen works of art from the collection. The festival is presented by the MFA Associates and is their major fund-raiser of the year. Over 60 spectacular designs are on display created by garden club designers and floral design professionals. In 2007, the Acton Garden Club interpreted a Han Dynasty piece from the Chinese collection entitled, Towered Pavilion, dated 206 BC to AD 200.

National Garden Week Inc., celebrates National Garden Week the first week of June by presenting a display at the Acton Memorial Library. In 2007, our display featured native plants in keeping with the theme of the new National Garden Clubs Inc. president, ‘Nurture the Earth — Plant Natives.’ Photographs and information about suggested native planting alternatives, their importance to an area’s ecology, and the harm caused by non-native plants were displayed with handouts and relevant library books. We also took the opportunity to promote the Acton Garden Club with photos and captions to show the public ‘If you had been a member of the Acton Garden Club last year, you could have........’ planted bulbs with Junior Gardeners, entered a flower show, and participated in other fun and educational activities.

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. At the fair, the Club presented a lovely table of holiday greens decorations made by members of the Club to be raffled off to the public as a fund-raiser. The prizes were a table-top boxwood tree, a mixed greens door wreath and a table centerpiece, all beautifully decorated with fresh greens, fruits, and colorful ribbons. Club members who manned the table during the four-hour fair sold raffle tickets and handed out brochures promoting the activities of the Acton Garden Club. The raffle prizes were very eye-catching, and many people visited the table. It was a wonderful opportunity for library patrons to learn about the Club and its programs.

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 twenty-five floral designers interpreting pieces of art at the museum and twenty designers interpreting a different theme each year at the Tower Hill location. This year’s theme was ‘Anything Goes’ in honor of Cole Porter.

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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