Garden Club RFD plans calendar of events

This year marks the 68th year of existence for the Garden Club R.F.D. Their home is the historical Little Red Schoolhouse on the corner of Nut Swamp and Dwight Roads in Middletown. Through the years, you may have gotten some good gardening advice from its members at the annual plant sale each May before Mother's Day.




The Club will begin its calendar of events this year with a visit on September 15, 2009, to The Grove in Shrewsbury. The visit, that begins at 11 a.m., will include lunch at D'jeet (new this summer) and a garden tour of The Grove and The Grove West.

One new feature at The Grove West is a program called From Seed to Need. It is a community organic vegetable garden. The Grove has been working with local school children to teach them the benefits of growing an organic vegetable and herb garden. Students from Rumson Country Day School have been donating their time to work with nature to help those in need. Under the direction of the Grove's Master Gardener, the students are getting a hand-on experience in the planting, watering and maintenance of the garden. 100% of the produce has been donated to local charities. This summer Lunch Break and 180 Turning Lives Around have benefited from the program.

Garden Club R.F.D. is interested in this new program as they have been running a program for the past four years at the New Jersey Blind Citizens Association. Under the direction of Bernice Berger and Ruth Korn, a vegetable and herb garden has been maintained at the Association's facilities called Camp Happiness on Burlington Avenue in Leonardo. Charles Blood is our liaison at the Camp. The blind and visually impaired campers help in applying mulch, planting seeds, watering and picking the results. The produce is used in the lunches provided at the facility and surplus goes home with the campers. Vegetables like zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, celery, tomatoes, potatoes along with herbs like basil, oregano, parsley and mint help to brighten their day—particularly the scent of the fresh cut basil. We are awaiting the results of our plantings of watermelon and pumpkin! Hopefully October will bring a 100 pound pumpkin.