Westborough Garden Club volunteers in action
Submitted by Cela Dorr of the Westborough Garden Club
Westborough Garden Club’s plant sale is Saturday, May 22, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. at Hastings Elementary School
WESTBOROUGH – With spring fully upon us, green and brown stalks of perennials are pushing themselves up from the ground, shaking off their winter’s slumber. The daffodils, forsythia, tulips, bluebells and other cool weather plants are blooming, reaching for sun’s warming rays. The scent of freshly spread cedar mulch is easy to recognize as it dances with the breezes that also carry the delicate perfumes of lilacs and hyacinths. The bees have also started to get to work; diving into the center of each budding flower to then emerge wearing pollen like a badge of honor. Birds and squirrels do their daily patrols of yards, trees and bushes, to find tasty treats and items to make their nests. The natural world outside is busy this time of year, doing all of this while we type away at laptops, watch our children’s soccer games and check out the latest on social media apps.
Town Beautification Volunteers
Irises planted by the Westborough Garden Club adorn a fountain near the Westborough Town Hall
As you traverse the main streets and side roads of Westborough, these scenes dot the landscape in almost any way you shift your gaze. Many of these well-manicured visions are through the work of a large team of volunteers within the Westborough Garden Club, some individuals having been with the club for multiple decades. For almost 90 years, this “Garden Army” of sorts deploys to 19 different sites in Town. This includes children’s fairy gardens, veterans’ memorials and gardens within high garden islands located in highly trafficked main thoroughfares. It’s a labor of love and fortitude that these men and women take on without fanfare or public recognition. Standing on ladders at the Horse Trough on the Rotary, kneeling on granite curbing at School and West Main Street, hunched over planters that take up seasonal residence on sidewalks, each volunteer brings their individual energy, knowhow and techniques to these sites throughout the growing season. Their mission is a simple one: make this spot beautiful. These are the quiet heroes that contribute to a Town’s charm and appeal.
Annual Plant Sale
The giving of this group extends beyond these more public displays as well. Each May, the Garden Club holds a Plant Sale, with donations from member’s own gardens, for purchase by the public. Herbs, bushes, flowers and other landscape plants are tenderly dug up, placed in recycled pots then transported to be priced and sold.
The Westborough Garden Club preps items for its annual plant sale.
Supporting Garden Club’s mission
With each purchase, not only does one help support the funds needed for their work and scholarship monies, but it creates an even wider loop of impact from that Club volunteer. A little piece of from their home and heart, to make another corner of the world even more pleasant to look at. Without ever knowing who donated and who bought these transplants, an invisible, gentle ribbon that ties itself on a shared gift. These might be considered little sacrifices by the Garden Club volunteer, but they are certainly encapsulating the philosophy of “greatest good for the greatest number” by giving of their talents with those around them.
Whether you choose to purchase plants on Saturday, May 22 from 9 – 11:30 a.m. at Hastings Elementary at 111 East Main Street, or enjoy what your eyes set upon as you move around town, think of the Garden Club volunteer and what they did you for your enjoyment in that moment.
