The Reading Garden Club has finished rescuing plants from the Reading Public Library in preparation for the library’s upcoming renovations. In 2009, RGC created the garden at the library entrance in celebration of the club’s 50th anniversary in 2006, winning two awards from the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts: A Certificate of Merit for Civic Projects, and The Virginia F. Thurston Landscape Design Award as a result.
RGC members, with help from the DPW as well as a group of RMHS students and Boy Scout Troop 702, relocated the rescued plants to a new garden at Town Hall. “The Civic Beautification Committee including Camille Anthony, Leslie Marsh, Donnan Barnes, Deb Collins, Audrey DiPillo, Liz McCarron, Sue Kneeland and Lauri Johnson have changed focus, on a dime, from the work planned for this year on the front of the Town Hall, to the back,” says Reading Garden Club President Ania Knap. “This is a great opportunity to show Reading residents how to recycle and repurpose plants, other than composting them.”
Established in 1956, the Reading Garden Club’s mission is to encourage an active interest in horticulture and conservation among the amateur gardeners in the community and to further the knowledge of beautifying town and home. RGC continues to work diligently on its mission with a variety of activities including planting and maintaining the period gardens at Parker Tavern as well as decorating it for its biennial Holiday Open House, organizing the town’s Adopt An Island program, and installing and maintaining the gardens around the public library, Town Hall, and train depot. The Reading Garden Club also cultivates community connections by annually awarding college scholarships to Reading residents, coordinating visits to Daniels Nursing home, and collecting donations for the Reading Food Pantry. Popular fundraisers include the May “Geraniums and More Plant and Bake Sale,” which includes plants from members’ gardens and the December “Memory Tree Lighting Ceremony,” at which lights are lit in honor/memory of special people or events. Anyone interested in learning more about the Reading Garden Club activities and/or membership is enthusiastically encouraged to visit www.readinggardenclub.org or contact Membership Chair Linda Aiello at swedelna@gmail.com. The Reading Garden Club is a member of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts (Middlesex District) and National Garden Clubs, Inc. (New England Region).
