| THE FRIENDLY GARDEN CLUB of TRAVERSE CITY |
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The Friendly Garden Club of Traverse City was organized in 1923 and federated in 1931. We are a member of the National Garden Clubs, Inc.; Central Region; and the Michigan Garden Clubs, Inc., District V. Listed below are this year's projects. As you can see, we are very involved and supportive of our community.
Objective--The objective of our club is to provide education and to promote the love of gardening, horticulture, landscaping and floral design and to encourage civic beautification and environmental responsibility. Theme--The Friendly Garden Club of Traverse City has a long history of serving the local community from designing and planting the Logo Garden at the Open Space to sponsoring other community projects through our grants and scholarships to help fund other worthwhile projects. It is through education our members learn the basics of horticulture, floral and landscape design, and environmental responsibility. This enables us to continue our service to the community we share and love. |
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Membership Requirements
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Any individuals wishing to join The Friendly Garden Club of Traverse City can attend any of the open meetings by checking the website calendar or the Record Eagle newspaper for the date, time and place of the meeting. Prospective members need to attend at least two general meetings and must be sponsored by two members who have belonged to the club at least one year.
This year due to Covid-19 we are having our meetings online. We hope to be meeting in person soon. If you would like to join us, please contact our membership chair, Sue. |
| PROJECTS-2023 |
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Each year we undertake many different projects throughout the year to promote our club's objectives. Our projects include:
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Commemoration of Arbor Day: We plant trees with local school children and teach an educational lesson to the class(es) involved in the planting. This year to commemorate Arbor Day we will be planting a Fraser fir at The Botanic Gardens at Historic Barns Park in honor of John Frasier, a former Parks & Recreation employee who assisted us with the logo garden and was a strong supporter of our club.
Youth Gardening: Our club provides opportunities for our youth to work in "Our Giving Garden" where they are mentored by members of our club to teach them about planting, maintaining and harvesting the produce.
Garden Walk: This annual event is held on the third Thursday in July and offers an educational experience for the community. This is our main fundraiser to finance our club projects and grants, which are given back to the community in the form of grants and scholarships. The garden walk committee works on showcasing beautiful gardens in our community with sponsorship for each garden from local area merchants. This year the gardens will be located in the Long Lake/Interlochen area.
Civic Beautification: This committee is busy planning, designing and planting the Logo Garden in the Traverse City Open Space. The Logo Garden requires all club members' participation in planting and maintaining over 6,000 annual flowers every year and is appreciated by our members, the community, and all visitors to Traverse City.
The Children's Sensory Garden: Our club decided to form a partnership with The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park in Traverse City to design, create, and maintain a children’s sensory garden. This committee is working on a five-year strategy to implement the sensory trail and pathways, hardscape exhibits, flower gardens, educational components, and much more. This will be an ongoing project that will benefit the community and take several years to complete.
Our Giving Garden is located in the Community Gardens adjacent from The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park. During Covid-19 all the food grown was given to our local food bank to help those in need and did not involve children. Last year our members instructed and worked with several groups of local children in the planting, weeding, and harvesting. This year we hope to work with more groups of students.
Blue Star Memorial: Our Blue Star Memorial committee maintains and supports the Blue Star Memorial located at The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park.
Michigan Garden Club Schools: In order to help our members learn more by continuing their education, we provide qualifying members' tuition to help defray the costs of attending these classes.
Horticultural and Environmental concerns: We provide articles in our monthly newsletter on ways to promote horticultural knowledge and membership participation. We also provide ongoing support to the Traverse City Botanic Gardens and the Blue Star Memorial project.
MGC & NGC Projects: We support the MI Garden Clubs, Inc. "POLLINATOR GARDENS" project to promote awareness of the importance of all pollinators, including the Black Swallowtail butterfly; the NGC "Penny for Pines" project, which raises funds for reforestation; and promoting NGC's essay contest for local high school students.
Local Club Projects: These projects vary from year to year but our goal is to encourage the development of local educational youth programs, such as the "Farm to School" program operated by TBA-ISD, the GTCD preschool educational programs, and providing scholarships for students from the Traverse City Agri-Science program to attend the Horticulture Dept. State Convention at MSU.
For more pictures of our projects and to get ideas for lovely flower arrangements, be sure to check our "Photo Gallery."
