About the Merrimack Valley Garden Club

MV Garden Club: About Us

	Home
	Event Calendar
	Gardening Info
	About Us Old Event Calendars
	Members

History of the Club by Linda Desmond
Aug 28, 1997
Update Sep 23, 2002

Pre-1986: The Merrimack Valley Garden Club has a long history. However, I can only relate the portions that I remember. Anyone who knows more history than what follows, please contact us at the email listed at the bottom of the page.

I inherited running the BTL (Bell Telephone Labs) garden club sometime in the 80's-it is safe to say 1986. Ken Stackhouse was the chairman at that time and getting ready to retire. I mainly took it over for two reasons:

I didn't want to see the discount that the Garden Club received every spring from Bruckmann's in Lawrence be lost (since I place a big order there every spring), and
no one else seemed to want to take command.

Prior to this the club had no formal meetings but did have a small library of books (stamped BTL). It received a modest stipend of $25/year from the Bell Labs Club Organization (this was discontinued about 6 years ago) as did most of the clubs here at Merrimack Valley. The Bruckmann's sale has been in existence for over 20 years so the garden club has been around for at least that long. That is all I know of the "Ancient History".

1986-Current (2002): Regular meetings were immediately started to get members more active and to begin to share their knowledge with each other. In 1988 we held our first Plant Fair, followed by one in 1989, 1990 and 1991.

Over the years we added to our library with some major reference titles covering vegetable gardening, perennials, lawns, and pests. The club has supported the Pioneer Environmental Committee by teaching a class at the Golden Hill Elementary School on greenhouse gardening and starting and growing seedlings. Monthly meetings on a variety of topics -- and our annual plant swap -- keep the club active throughout the year.

Spring 2000 brought our regular plant swap and also the closing of the library. Many of the book were very out of date and we had a lot of old publications and magazines. We decided to have a "book swap". Using the same rules we use for the plants we found homes for all the books among club members.

Since many of the members have retired or left Lucent over the past couple of years, I have attempted to keep members in touch through email and by an annual plant swap and lunch. A great selection of plants exchanged hands in our 2002 May swap. We held the swap offsite this year. Plans for BOTH a spring and fall swap for next year are in the making. It is a wonderful way to clean out plants you have too many of, and to get a few new ones. Our swaps have great veggie and perennial plants and members always seem to go home with more than they brought!

In July, a trip to Steven's Coolidge garden was also attended by a couple of members this summer-we took our lunch and ate on the patio overlooking the perennial gardens. Then we walked around the grounds for about an hour- it was one of the hottest days of the summer - over 100 degrees. But we had the place all to ourselves. This is a great place to visit. Check out their website at Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations site: www.thetrustees.org
There is also a nice article from the local newspaper at: www.eagletribune.com/features/towns/northandover/

As we enter a new phase in the garden club history, the construction of this website by member, Sue Engels will help to improve communication and keep us all connected since we are now no longer co-located.