BLUE STAR MEMORIAL GARDEN (Since 2016) ** On June 8, 2021, Plantation Lakes Garden Club dedicated a Blue Star Memorial Byway Marker and Pollinator Garden in front of the Community Center at 29787 Plantation Lakes Boulevard.
Now that the memorial is in place, our focus shifts to caring for it and the surrounding garden. The Blue Star Memorial is an NGC project dating back to World War II, and there are thousands of these memorials located along highways and byways across the continental U.S., Alaska and Puerto Rico. There are seven new Blue Star Memorial gardens in the Sussex County area of Delaware.
YOUTH COMMUNITY GARDEN (Since 2020) ** early summer of 2020, garden club members measured the interest of children in the community for planting flowers by providing mini-flats of begonia plants for them to plant at home.
With this success we moved on to planting a pollinator youth garden outside of one of our community area pools in 2021. It’s located between two wooden benches for sitting and seeing the delights of busy pollinators completing their work. Children are able to witness pollinators moving from plant to plant. The youth garden has been planted with the help of the community children and teens. On occasion it has been used as an educational garden. We maintain the garden through the year by updating the perennial pollinator plants with new varieties.
MAY BASKET CELEBRATION (Since 2016) ** The community of Plantation Lakes dresses up on May Day, when PLGC members and participating non-members display a creative arrangement in front of our homes or for someone special.
The goal of this project is to “beautify our community one front door at a time.” We offer a workshop every year to teach members and non-members the meaning of May Day. We demonstrate how to make a May display by using baskets or other containers with cut flowers, potted flowers or any other original idea,
PENNY PINES — (Since 2016) As some of you may already be familiar with this program when it was called Penny Pines, the new name “Plant-A-Tree” better reflects the program’s mission and will help us reach a wider audience.
This is a partnership between National Garden Clubs, Inc. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service that helps to restore trees indigenous to an area destroyed by fire, flood or another natural catastrophe. support this project through donations of spare change at our monthly member meetings. Once enough money has been donated to meet the designated amount to purchase a tree, It can then be sent to NGC. At this time members can then request a certificate “in honor of” or “in memory of” someone.
PLANT AMERICA (Since 2017) ** Plant America was introduced as an NGC project in 2017. Each year a club can decide on a specific project. In previous years we had a part of donating to DFGC project TREE-mendous Delaware Tree Planting at Delaware Botanic Gardens (which is located just six miles from Plantation Lakes).
Since then, we have also planted bulbs at the community center, built pollinator gardens, had educational programs at some of our meetings with the subject content being about planting small trees, various native plants, landscaping tips and tricks, and house plants.
PUBLIC EDUCATION (Since 2018) **
PUBLIC EDUCATION (Since 2018) **
In 2023, our public program was “Stop the Invasion” — a presentation by the Delaware Department of Agriculture on the dreaded spotted lantern fly.
Currently in 2024 we planned two Educational Speaker Series luncheons in the slower winter months. We created flyers to promote and invite members and the public to attend each date. Our first speaker was from Brittingham Farms which educated the attendees about benefits of growing lavender, the soil conditions needed and all about raising a heritage breed of sheep. Our second speaker was from Story Hill Farms, who presented information about meadow gardens and the importance of flowers for pollinators. Each of these speakers presented valuable information concerning our area and planting correctly to sustain the growth of native insects, butterflies, moths, and bees.
Our goal with these yearly educational series is to inform, educate and show the benefits of belonging to a garden club. Due to the success of these educational events, we will continue to offer the public a variety of speakers each year.
We also provide our members with a monthly PLGC newsletter titled “Growing Together.” Our newsletter has written tips, updates, ideas and detailed information concerning special events.
SCHOLARSHIP — (Since 2017) Plantation Lakes supports the DFGC Scholarship by purchasing a life membership to Delaware Federation of Garden Clubs. Each life membership is an annual award for outstanding support of our objectives by one of our garden club members.
The donations from individual clubs for a life membership helps to fund college scholarships for students of horticulture, land planning, conservation, and other majors that are consistent with the DFGC objective. We have also, donated themed raffle baskets to help support the DFGC scholarship fundraising project. To date, honorees have been Mary Williford, Margaret Woda, Sylvia Heidbreder, Debbie Darr, Patricia Minnigh, Patti Kircher and Janet Parham
WEBSITE (Since 2016) ** The award-winning website for Plantation Lakes Garden Club is the club’s primary vehicle for internal and external communication.
We use it for educating community residents about what we do, promoting our fundraisers and at specific times accepting payments, and providing a “members only” area for a directory of contact information for members and forms used to conduct garden club business. Information and current updates for the website is provided by PLGC committee chairs
YOUTH ACTIVITIES (Since 2017) ** A Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl poster contest was the first youth activity during our first full year as a garden club. We have tried to keep this a current program each year
In 2024 we chose an evening program that began with a team of PLGC members explaining the importance of Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl. At the end, each child was asked to create a poster about what they learned. These posters were submitted to DFGC to be judged. The PLGC team makes sure each child who attended receives a small gift item plus a personal certificate (created by National Garden Club).
It should be noted that children in the community helped the club by coloring pictures of flowers to give patients at Atlantic Shore Rehab & Health Center during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The planning of each of our projects are intended to spark children’s interest in being outside with nature and experience the rewards of gardening.
Easter Flowers for Mothers Day (2024)
The kids in our community colored flowers today before the Easter Egg Hunt began. We will use them to decorate the windows at the community centers for Mother’s Day along with the Luminaries. Here are a few pictures of the smiling faces, hard at work !
Footnote ** indicates this program is: “A Focus on Community” Project