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T h u r s d a y, J u l y
JOURNAL
7, 2011
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Williamsburg Garden Club still growing after 75 years By John Seney
Eight gardens on tour
jseney@communitypress.com
WILLIAMSBURG - The Williamsburg Garden Club is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with a garden tour and other events. The club was organized April 28, 1936. “It’s one of the oldest in Ohio,” said Izella Cadwallader, publicity chairman for the club. Cadwallader said the 10 ladies who organized the club “hoped that by sharing their knowledge and abilities they might improve their skills of growing and arranging flowers.” Today the club has about 25 members, and meetings are held every month featuring programs of interest on topics related to gardening. The club is affiliated with the Ohio Association of Garden Clubs. Over the years the club has sponsored many projects to beautify the Williamsburg community, Cadwallader said. The club has presented Arbor Day programs and planted trees at the local schools. Trees were planted along Main Street and pots of flowers bloom during the summer on street corners and in boxes along the bridge at the village entrance. The bridge also is decorated for the Christmas holidays. In May the club holds an auction of plants donated by members from their gardens and from area nurseries.
The Williamsburg Garden Club’s 2011 garden tour will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 16, rain or shine. The self-guided tour will include eight gardens. Advance tickets with maps are available for $7 from club members. Tickets will be available the day of the tour for $8 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Windy's World, 127 W. Main St. Three area businesses are offering a 10-percent discount on purchases made July 16 to tour participants who show their tickets at check-out. The businesses are Ellis Farm and Garden, 4095 Tollgate Road; More Specialty Plants and Landscaping, 4211 McKeever Pike; and Denise's Garden, 3657 Bootjack Corner Road. For more information, call 724-3001 or 625-2602 or visit www.williamsburg-garden-club.org.
JOHN SENEY/STAFF
Williamsburg Garden Club members Carol Sandberg, left, and Sharma Hatcher work on the Memorial Garden at Spring and Fifth streets behind the old high school. In the fall, a four-weekend mum sale is conducted, and in December, the club participates in the Williamsburg Christmas Walk with a sale of arrangements and wreaths. All of the proceeds from these events are used for the beautification of Williamsburg, Cadwallader said. “We do an awful lot for the community,” said club president Carol Sandberg, who has been a member about 20 years. She said club members take flower arrangements to residents in senior housing
and help with the Meals-onWheels program. “We’re a very active bunch of people,” Sandberg said. “We’re happy we can help.” Another project the club is involved in is awarding scholarships to young people in Clermont County who plan to study horticulture in college. “We feel we need to get young people involved,” Sandberg said. The club gives out a civic beautification award each year to a resident – not necessarily a club member – who has made improve-
ments in landscaping. “We try to promote people in the community taking pride in fixing up their own places,” Sandberg said. Sandberg said she has always loved gardening. “When I moved here 20 years ago, people said to me: ‘You ought to join the garden club,’” she said. “It’s a neat group of people.” “The gardening itself is rewarding, but so is the camaraderie of the people in the club,” Sandberg said. Sandberg said she is proud of the work the club has done fixing up the Memorial Garden behind
the old high school. The garden was badly damaged during a wind storm several years ago. “We started from scratch,” Sandberg said. This year the Memorial Garden is part of the garden tour. In the Memorial Garden is a stone with the names of past club members who have died over the years. The garden tour will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 16, rain or shine. Cadwallader said it will feature eight area gardens. She did not want to divulge the locations of the gardens before the tour, but said highlights will include: • A garden that boasts a large collection of hydrangeas and more than 100 different plants. • A garden at a home on the National Register of Historic Sites. • A garden with a scenic overlook of the East Fork of the Little Miami River. • A vegetable garden that features a PowerPoint presentation on vegetable gardening.
• A working farm with a variety of farm animals and “beautiful landscaping.” Antique farm implements also will be on display the day of the tour at the Harmony Hill historical site, Cadwallader said. This is the third time the club has sponsored the tour, which is held every other year. Sandberg said when the garden tour started, it mostly featured the gardens of club members. This year, the tour organizers recruited people who are not in the club to show off their gardens. “They are people in the community willing to let other people see what they have done,” Sandberg said. “We are getting more people involved.” Another event planned for the anniversary is a luncheon in September featuring Community Press columnist Rita Heikenfeld, Cadwallader said. For information about the Williamsburg Garden Club, visit www.williamsburg-garden-club.org.
Summer camps abound at Cincinnati Nature Center’s two locations The Cincinnati Nature Center hosts summer camps each year for kids ages 5-16. Kids recently participated in a Survivor-style camp called Nature’s Edge Challenge Camp 2011: Be One With The Wild at Long Branch Farm in Goshen. They explored the farm’s creeks, checked out critters, created forts and learned wildland skills. Here are the camps the Cincinnati Nature Center has the rest of the summer at both Long Branch Farm and Rowe Woods. For a full description including age ranges and costs, visit www.cincynature.org/cincynaturecamp.html. July 5-July 8: Nature Detectives
KELLIE GEIST-MAY/STAFF
Anna Mei of Mason, left, and Lauren Hawkins of Loveland use rocks and clay to create a dam in the creek during Nature’s Edge Challenge Camp at Long Branch Farm in Goshen June 23.
KELLIE GEIST-MAY/STAFF
A group of kids in the Cincinnati Nature Center’s Nature’s Edge Challenge Camp at Long Branch Farm in Goshen work to pull together clay to make a group sculpture. From left are: Cara Kirkpatrick of Montgomery, counselor Savannah Sullivan of Goshen, Catherine O’Connell of Loveland, Julia Hoge of Loveland, Brendan Dugan of Milford, Jesse Curovchat of Anderson Township and Ali Gehr of West Chester.
KELLIE GEIST-MAY/STAFF
KELLIE GEIST-MAY/STAFF
Cincinnati Nature Center summer camp counselor Clay Kadon of Hyde Park shows a fossil to Bryce Dugan of Milford during the Nature’s Edge Challenge Camp June 23 at Long Branch Farm in Goshen.
Ben Smith of Loveland looks for creatures in the water near Clay Wall at Long Branch Farm in Goshen during the Cincinnati Nature Center summer camp June 23.
July 11-15: Adventure Quest, Little Acorns, Mother Nature’s Rainbow and Digging into Dirt. July 18-22: Creature Quest, Adventure Quest, Natural Discoveries, Art Camp, CNC: Land of Secrets. July 25-29: Nature’s Edge Challenge Camp, Young Naturalists, Natural Discoveries, Art Camp and CNC: Land of Secrets. Aug. 1-5: Creature Quest, Young Naturalists, Little Acorns, Art Camp, Aqua Adventures. Aug. 8-12: Young Naturalists, Little Acorns, Unleashing the Wild Within and Digging into Dirt. Aug. 15-19: Natural Discoveries and Aqua Adventures.
KELLIE GEIST-MAY/STAFF
Grace Hall of Loveland, left, Joel Palm of Madiera, center, and Hunter Evans of Milford check out an insect guide to help identify beetles during a Cincinnati Nature Center summer camp at Long Branch Farm in Goshen June 23.