By Susan Jonas

Garden Club of Danville

The Garden Club of Danville is once again putting the profits of its popular spring garden tours to work for the community.  

This year grants totaling $2,000 were awarded to five local non-profit organizations. This was an increase from the $1,250 awarded to three groups in 2018. Each organization was partnered with a member of the Garden Club who followed the project to completion. 

For the fifth year in a row, the club was a lead donor to the Danville Tree Project, a 10-year plan to plant 500 trees along Danville streets, with an emphasis on native trees. Centre professor Beau Weston organized this project and Fran Halloran of the Garden Club was the sponsor. 

Niki Kinkade sponsored the grant awarded to the Art Center of the Bluegrass for children’s container gardens. Each child was given a galvanized trough, soil, and a selection of succulents. Sarah Wiltsee from the Garden Club instructed the children in planting their gardens.

Funds from a grant were used to purchase shrubs and perennials that volunteers planted around the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society during a major landscaping renewal at the facility. This grant was sponsored by Linda Taylor of the Garden Club.

The greenhouse program and garden club at Boyle County High School received a grant sponsored by Diana Pullium to construct raised beds for growing vegetables. Students in the Agricultural Construction class led a demonstration to assemble the raised beds. Nearly 30 individuals attended the event, where members of the garden club answered questions about the use of raised beds. The school garden produced over 1,000 pounds of produce for Boyle County families this summer for the backpack program.

Pam Leinauer of the Garden Club of Danville sponsored a grant for an arborist consultation at Constitution Square, where the club planted the original trees 75 years ago.  Master Arborist Dave Leonard spent a day mapping and tagging all the trees in the park and noting their condition. The resulting report was given to the Fiscal Court and to Jennifer Kirchner, Executive Director of the Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau, providing useful information as the county goes about maintaining the trees for the future. 

The Garden Club of Danville raised the funds when eight local gardens were open to the ticket holders last May. A portion of the proceeds from these tours goes toward the club’s Special Projects Awards. These projects benefit the community in ways that reflect the mission of the Garden Club:  To encourage the advancement of horticulture and creative design, aid in civic beautification, and promote conservation and protection of natural resources.

Applications for the 2020 grants will be available early next year.  The Garden Club will be looking for projects with an educational component which have a strong public impact on the community.  For more information, see www.thegardenclubofdanville.org.