Sisters Garden Club takes on new projects

Now that the isolation of COVID-19 is over, the Sisters Garden Club is undertaking several new projects. After a club field trip to the Harmony Farm Sanctuary for animals last November, the club decided to provide volunteers to engage in some gardening activities around the Sanctuary.

"Seeing the rescued animals, many of us knew we wanted to get involved in volunteering to help with some projects that needed to be done," said Ruth Palmer, communications coordinator for the Club.

Tim Toth agreed to build some planter boxes for the vegetable garden where members will grow a variety of produce to be fed to the animals. Two aspen trees were recently planted by members Monica Tomosy and Jeff Swanson in the pig pen area to provide them with some shade. Club volunteers will make certain the trees are well watered during their first growing season. Palmer is coordinating a team to clean, prepare, and plant the vegetable and flower garden area.

For more than two decades, the Club has produced the Quilts in the Garden tour on the Thursday of Quilt Show Week. As the event has grown in scope over the years and in numbers of visitors to the gardens, it has required more work and more volunteers (60-70). During COVID, the tour was not held. A decision was made by the board to schedule the tour every other July starting in 2024 to reduce the workload on the members. The amount of work involved required the planning for the next year's tour to begin as soon as the current tour was concluded.

This year, in place of the tour, the Club will be hosting a garden party in a member's garden that is open to the public. On Thursday, July 13, the party will be in the garden of Cookie Kutz. It is free of charge with donations welcome. There will be three local craftspeople displaying and selling their creations. Water and lemonade will be available as well as cookies. Visitors will be free to tour the garden and its charming yellow garden house.

The Garden Club will be selling their 25th anniversary jigsaw puzzle as well as their new garden journals for gardeners to record one year of gardening activity. Proceeds from the journal sales will help replace the income from the garden tour not being held this year. The Club has contributed thousands of dollars to the community since its inception in 1988.

The Club has monthly meetings, some of which include field trips to spots of interest to gardeners, and others with guest speakers.

Every December they have a holiday brunch, and all the members contribute gift cards to be distributed to local families.

For more information on the Sisters Garden Club visit their website at www. sistersgardenclub.com.