Fred Yockey: Spring Tour is Garden Club’s showcase

The 578 members of the 91-year-old Modesto Garden Club use their time and talents to ensure our club’s success. We measure that success through community beautification projects, member education, gardening for seniors and children, countywide horticultural scholarships and fundraising.

This year’s Spring Garden Tour is April 18. And this year’s tour includes seven gardens in the River Heights area of Riverbank and the historic Bald Eagle Ranch built by the McHenry Family in 1893 north of town.

In 1924, when the club was founded, we helped landscape the newly developed (and very barren) Modesto Junior College campus. The next two community beautification projects were the new municipal golf course and Graceada Park. All three were partnerships with government agencies.

Partnerships with city and county government and other nonprofit organizations are important. Whether completed in 1924 or 2014, these partnerships remind us that when we work together, we can make a difference in our community!

Today, when Modesto Garden Club undertakes a community project, we plan, plant and usually maintain it. This translates into lots of volunteer hours. I estimate (conservatively) that our members donate well over 1,500 hours a year to the community through these projects.

For example, in 1998 the club took over landscape maintenance at the Modesto Senior Citizens Center at Scenic Drive and Bodem Street from the city of Modesto. Our small group called the Hackers and Wackers spends about 20 hours a month pruning, replacing plants and cleaning the landscape.

Other sites include the Virginia Corridor Memorial Rose Garden, the Briggsmore and College Rose Garden, the Courthouse Victims Gardens, the Modesto Flower Clock, the downtown flower pots, the George Lucas Plaza and the club’s downtown office with its demonstration gardens. Our members also establish gardens and work with children at local schools and clients at residential care facilities.

Why do our members volunteer?

Their reasons include giving back to their community, love of gardening, the enjoyment of creating a beautiful area that might make someone smile, and the friendships they make while working on projects.

Don’t imagine for a minute that our members are all expert gardeners. We have some who are well-versed in identifying plants by their botanical and common names. Most of us though are happy to work in the dirt and enjoy nature. Some of us don’t even use “gardener” to describe ourselves. Our common denominator: Love of nature whether in a natural setting or human-made.

For more information on any of these topics, please visit our website: modestogardenclub.org. And if you see us working at one of our community projects, give us a wave.

This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Fred Yockey: Spring Tour is Garden Club’s showcase."