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| | Boxford Village Garden Club
Boxford, Massachusetts | | Organized in 1938 Federated in 1939
94 Members
83 Regular 5 Associate 6 Honorary | | |
Member of
Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Inc.
National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Rose Cordes, President, Boxford Village Garden Club
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| Mission Statement
Boxford Village Garden Club strives to promote appreciation and understanding of earth-friendly gardening, civic beautification, floral design, horticulture, and environmental concerns among our members and in our community. | Notices and Reminders
Please go to Calendar of Events to see what's happening.
| HOME | Calendar of Events | Membership Information | | Scroll down for
Club Projects and BVGC Fundraisers | | | Club Projects | Civic Beautification
Marge Hildebrand, Chairman
The club maintains the grounds of nine public locations in Boxford, including the Community Center, the East Green, the two town libraries, the Historic Document Center, the triangles at Middleton & Main Streets and at Ipswich & Main Streets, the Police Station, and the Holyoke French House. Each location has a “captain” and committee assigned to it, and all members participate in spring and fall cleanup days as well as other garden maintenance chores throughout the growing season.
Horticultural Advisory Committee
Nancy Woolford & Marge Hildebrand, Co-Chairmen, and Judy McCarey, Advisor
Led by the chairmen of the civic beautification and horticulture committees, this group was formed to provide support and advice on horticulture and landscape design issues to the teams at each of the above sites in order to revitalize and improve the plantings as needed while promoting low maintenance, drought resistance, and use of native plant material.
Library Arrangements
Irene Decoulos, Chairman
Each week throughout the year, members decorate both of the town’s libraries with a floral design they have created for the enjoyment of the public.
The Gardening Guru
Judy McCarey, Chairman
Several times each year, our club submits an informative and interesting gardening-related article to the Village Reporter, one of our local newspapers.
Garden Therapy
Doffy Falk & Bev May, Co-Chairmen
BVGC’s Great Group, which is a garden therapy program for elders, provides a group of senior women with an afternoon of gardening-related workshops, social interactions, and refreshments each month from October through June. The chairwoman and her committee organize this very popular program, and enlist the assistance of the entire garden club in leading many of the activities and/or preparing the snacks enjoyed by the participants. Boxford’s Council on Aging provides support and publicity, and Four Mile Village, the town’s retirement community, donates the use of their facilities for the meetings.
Holiday Greens
Meredith Watson, Bev Perkins, & Jayne Smallman, Chairmen
In early December, members collect large amounts of evergreen material, which are used to make wreaths and swags for decorating municipal buildings over the holidays.
Floral Arrangements at the Holyoke French House
Various Members
Each fall, during Boxford’s Apple Festival, members decorate the Holyoke French House, the town’s historic residence, which is opened to the public during this annual event, with ten floral arrangements appropriate for the location.
Earth Day
Kathryn Kinney, Chairman
HELP: Help Eliminate Litter Program: Each spring, the BVGC co-sponsors, along with the Boxford Recycling Committee, this enormously successful town-wide cleanup event. Local families, groups, and businesses are enlisted in the effort to collect litter from the town’s roadsides, ball fields, playgrounds, cemeteries, and other public areas, and bring it to the recycling center. Participants are rewarded with Benson’s ice cream treats and are encouraged to “adopt a spot” so that the town can be kept litter-free throughout the year. It’s a great opportunity to instill civic pride and environmental responsibility in our children as well.
Conservation Education
Lois Bell, Chairman
This BVGC group provides information to the public on important conservation issues, such as composting, organic gardening, water conservation, the dangers of pesticides, invasive plants, etc. at many community and all BVGC events throughout the year, using posters, demonstrations, and handouts. The club also participates in a printer cartridge and cell phone recycling program.
Tricentennial Memorial Park
Marge Hildebrand & Judi Eisenberg, Co-Chairmen
Members have developed a four-phase plan for improving a parcel of land in the center of town, in conjunction with the Conservation Committee and the Boxford Trust Funds Commission, which is responsible for the funding of the project. In addition, the club is sponsoring an Eagle Scout Project in which hundreds of bulbs were planted along the stone wall and a bridge across a small stream connecting two ponds on the property will be constructed.
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BVGC Fundraisers
| | In order to support the club’s many activities, many of which are described above, BVGC must raise substantial funds each year. Below is a brief description of the events by which this is accomplished.
Apple Festival
Lillian Belyea, June Baldwin, & Els Dini, Chairmen
BVGC participates in this event each September by hosting a booth at which crafts, gardening items, and dried flowers are sold, and information on gardening and conservation issues of interest is made available to the public.
Holiday Fair
Sally Arrigo & Jan Ferland, Co-Chairmen
In late November and early December, members have several workshops to make boxwood trees, holiday bows, beautiful swags, baskets of greens, and other popular decorative items which are sold at the Holyoke French Annex on the first Saturday in December.
Plant Sale
Rose Cordes. Chairman
All members participate in what is the largest fundraiser for the club by digging up and dividing material from their gardens, then potting them up and nurturing and growing them on throughout the spring into healthy plants which are sold to the public on the third Saturday in May. Experts from the club are on hand to provide information on how best to grow the plants, and information on earth-friendly gardening and composting is also available. | | | | |
