On Going Club Projects


Civic Beautification

Seasonal plantings and maintenance are provided at the Acton Town Hall oval and planters, the Acton Memorial Library, the Acton Center trough, the West Acton trough, the barrels in West Acton, the Citizen’s Library, the Public Safety Building, the fire stations, and selected intersections.
The general planting schedule includes pansies in early spring, summer annuals after Memorial Day, mums in early October, and winter greens by mid-November for a beautiful display throughout the town of Acton.Seasonal plantings and maintenance are provided at the Acton Town Hall oval, the Acton Memorial Library, the Acton Center trough, the West Acton trough, the barrels in West Acton, the Citizen's Library, the Public Safety Building, the fire stations, and selected intersections. The general planting schedule includes pansies in early spring, summer annuals after Memorial Day, mums in early October, and winter greens by mid-November for a beautiful display throughout the Town of Acton.

Acton Arboretum Herb Garden

The Acton Arboretum Herb Garden, maintained for the Town of Acton by the Acton Garden Club as one of our community service activities, is sited in an old stone foundation and features herbs that might have been grown in a mid-nineteenth century kitchen garden.
In this garden, designed by Club member Sue Whitcomb and planted in 1989, herbs are grouped according to their mid-nineteenth century usage for household, medicinal and culinary purposes, as well as for teas and fragrance. The garden provides a beautiful and educational focal point in the main area of the Arboretum. 
For Historical Information Click on the picture

Meeting House Hill Gardens
Wildflower Garden and Daffodil Run

Meeting House Hill, the geographical center of Acton at Nagog Hill Road and Main Street, was the site of the Town's first meeting house, the establishment of which was one of the conditions of the act of incorporation of the Town of Acton from Concord in 1735. Since the l960's the park has been open to the public.

Wildflower Garden
Our wildflower garden is planted along Nagog Hill Road with many New England wildflowers (some rare) and other choice species. The Meeting House Hill garden site is a wonderful woodland setting featuring many special trees and shrubs and offers benches for visitors who come to enjoy the garden.
Every year new plants are added to the garden to enhance existing plantings and to prolong the season of bloom. The garden is a great source of pride to the Acton Garden Club, and plant divisions are a significant addition to the Club’s annual plant sale. Civic Beautification Seasonal plantings and maintenance are provided at the Acton Town Hall oval and planters, the Acton Memorial Library, the Acton Center trough, the West Acton trough, the barrels in West Acton, the Citizen’s Library, the Public Safety Building, the fire stations, and selected intersections. The general planting schedule includes pansies in early spring, summer annuals after Memorial Day, mums in early October, and winter greens by mid-November for a beautiful display throughout the town of Acton.
This year the face-lift continued with the addition of many new plants and continued removal of invasive species. Most recently, the transition zone was completed with the addition of six new azaleas (most of them fragrant) and one early-blooming witch hazel.
All the many generous donations of plant material have made wonderful additions to the garden and are gratefully accepted.

Daffodil Run
Located on the embankment along Main Street near Nagog Hill Road, Daffodil Run is the most visible garden of Meeting House Hill. This historically sited garden displays massive plantings of daffodils, forsythia, daylilies and flowering shrubs in addition to flowering hydrangeas in the upper garden. It is a spectacular showcase of gorgeous spring and summer blooms. Committee members are assisted by the Town tree warden and the conservation officer for lawn and tree maintenance and are provided with deliveries of topsoil and mulch as needed. High school seniors also volunteer on ABRHS Community Service Day to rake, fertilize, and mulch the garden at the beginning of the season. New plant material continues to be added to the garden in keeping with its original design.

 
For Historical Information Click on the picture
Garden Therapy
Emerson Hospital
From September through June, the Acton Garden Club offers garden therapy to patients at Emerson Hospital on Wednesdays. Under the supervision of an occupational therapist, the Club members help the participants create fresh flower arrangements in a basket filled with Oasis. The participants not only take their floral arrangements to their rooms, but they take a sense of pride with them as well. Members of the Club give the flowers a fresh cut to improve longevity and may make recommendations on how to arrange the flowers.

Annual Student Scholarships
The Acton Garden Club awards one $1,000 scholarship annually. The winner is an Acton resident from either Acton-Boxborough Regional High School or Minuteman Regional High School of Applied Arts and Sciences who intends to pursue a career in environmental sciences, i.e. conservation, botany, forestry, horticulture, or related disciplines.
The 2008 scholarship recipient is Benjamin Morris Carlson. He will attend UNH or Hamilton College where he will major in Environmental Sciences. Over the past several years Ben has worked year-round with his father to maintain Pratt’s Brook conservation land in Acton.

Acton Garden Club Teacher's Grant
The Acton Garden Club has established, initially with memorial gifts from friends and family, a grant program in memory of two longtime members, Janet Bubier and Elinor Miller. This grant opportunity, in the amount of up to $500, is open to educators in the Acton Public and Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools. It provides funds for environmentally related programs or projects to enrich existing or develop new curricula. The grant is provided annually, subject to the approval of the Finance Committee and the Board of the Acton Garden Club. The Board determines the procedure for application and award. Due to the number of worthy projects and since no grant was awarded in 2007, three grants were awarded in 2008.
This year’s recipients are:
Mary Ann Brandt – Merriam School 5th Grade – ‘Outdoor Classroom Clean Up and Services Project’ will remove invasive plants from the outdoor classroom area, clean up, and weed it.
Debbie Kay – Douglas School Kindergarten – In ‘Enhancing Outdoor Spaces’ the children will plant and grow seedlings in planter boxes installed on the side of a modular classroom blocking their view of the outdoors.
Maura Sharp – Douglas 5th Grade – ‘A New Back Porch’ is a seedling and gardening project that will enhance the back stairs leading to the playground.

Junior Gardeners
The Junior Gardener program is open to preschool and elementary school children who are the children or grandchildren of Acton Garden Club members. This group has been dedicated to promoting educational projects that strive to teach children a love of gardening, an appreciation of nature's beauty, and the value and protection of our natural resources. The group setting provides a forum in which to teach children methods of cultivation and utilization of plants to enhance our quality of life, as well as responsibility towards the environment and civic beautification.
Activities for the coming year will include a floral arranging workshop, fall floral design project, a visit to Life Care Center of Acton for a Thanksgiving garden therapy session, two horticulture programs, personalized garden stepping stones, and bulb planting at the Acton Arboretum.

Annual Plant Sale
Our Annual Plant Sale and Raffle is held in May. Preparations begin early in the year. This is a major fund-raiser for the Acton Garden Club and has 16 committees that coordinate all the different aspects of the sale, not to mention all the individuals who dig and pot up the plants needed for our inventory of over 1300 perennials.
The week before the sale is the most intensive with the digging, potting and sorting of the plants. Signs and posters are placed around town. Raffle items are collected from local businesses and club members. This all culminates in a festive display on the Acton Common of perennials, colorful annuals and tent canopies.
This endeavor is our major fund-raiser for the year with total Club support. The proceeds go to maintain several public gardens in Acton, provide for community service projects, scholarships and grants, and fund civic beautification for the town.

Gardening with Young People
The Gardening with Young People program has been activated in rotation with the Junior Gardener program. Four times per year, different groups of young people from the Acton-Boxborough community are invited to participate in a hands-on education project involving one of the following interests: horticulture, floral design, conservation, civic beautification, and garden therapy. The Gardening with Young People committee provides assistance and funding, if necessary. In the past, the committee has worked with cub scouts, boy scouts, brownies, schools, and the Acton Memorial Library Children's department. Although our Gardening with Young People program is currently inactive, we hope to renew this program in the near future.

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