One of life’s pleasures is enjoying beautiful gardens. As life rushes by, we often fail to see the beauty around us. A well-tended garden is something to admire. I want you to know about the best garden clubs on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. When residents decide to maintain and improve gardens at a local park, this is more than just community service. A public space that comes under the care of local clubs with a love of gardening, the results can be impressive.
One such garden that has impressed me is located at Fort Maurpaus park located in Ocean Springs Mississippi. The flowers are beautiful and the care they receive is something to talk about. This garden is cared for by the Ocean Springs Garden Club, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to civic beautification. People of all ages are members of the club and their efforts span other areas as well.
My wife and I love to grab a bagel and eat it on one of the seats facing the beach and the Gulf of Mexico. Stretching out in front of us are beds of beautiful flowers with not a weed in sight. The landscape design fits the space and makes the stairs, grass, and structure look as if they belong there. I am not sure how many master gardeners are members of the club but someone with a great eye for placement is watching the efforts of the others.
Garden club volunteers help with the City budget
What impresses me is that the garden club maintains the gardens which seem to reduce the cost to the City for public employees to tend the plants. The photos below show how nice their garden is. According to the Facebook page, they accomplished this task over six weeks with the help of the public works and recreation department. Very much a community affair.
The Ocean Springs Garden Club has a Facebook site that I visited. The club is quite large, as you can see by the photo below of its members taken at another park. A number of the members are senior citizens who I am sure love what they do. What a great way to spend time when you are retired.
There are many public areas in Ocean Springs that are tended by members with a green thumb and possibly young people just learning. All of the Mississippi Gulf Coast cities have a garden club. Their members tend to community gardens with the common goal of beautifying the community. Local gardening clubs are a way of giving back to the community. I for one very much appreciate their efforts.
Mississippi Gulf Coast Garden Clubs
| City | Garden Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Bay St. Louis | Waveland Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Bay St. Louis | Bay St. Louis Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Diamondhead | Diamondhead Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Pass Christian | Pass Christian Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Long Beach | Long Beach Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Gulfport | Gulfport Garden Club | [email protected] |
| D’Iberville | D’Iberville Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Biloxi | Biloxi Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Ocean Springs | Ocean Springs Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Pascagoula | Pascagoula Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Vancleave | Vancleave Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Moss Point | Moss Point Garden Club | mossp |
| Gautier | Gautier Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Bay St Louis | Bayview Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Long Beach | Dogwood Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Gulfport | Four Seasons Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Ocean Springs | Gulf Hills Garden Club | [email protected] |
| Gulfport | Sunkist Garden Club of Gulfport | [email protected] |
No two gardens are similar
I do not doubt that the homes of garden club members are models for the community. The best ways to demonstrate your skills as a gardener are to first tend to your garden. Driving or walking around Ocean Springs is an experience. Local gardens are on display. Residents must spend time on their garden design because no two properties have the same design. Without a doubt, fellow garden club members check out each other’s properties for ideas. I do.
A large part of the beauty of Ocean Springs and the other Mississippi Gulf Coast cities is their attention to the landscaping. It seems that new generations of gardeners join the local clubs to meet new friends. Many plants on the Mississippi Gulf Coast grow all year and require attention as they are growing. Camelias and azaleas can develop into bushes as large as trees. Owners must trim these each year for shape.
Ocean Springs is a beautiful city in large part to like-minded individuals who care about their property. You will not see junk cars or trash sitting around homes in Ocean Springs. The streets are clean and people walk all over without fear of treading on trash. The local community is of a mind when it comes to tending to their property and gardens.
The garden club plants flowers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Every spring, members of the garden club plant colorful flowers around the city. They tend to the Ocean Springs monument at the entrance to the city on U.S. 90 and the Vietnam veterans memorial. The clubs do much more than just pull weeds and trim the crape myrtles. They pass along information and skills to new members. They share ideas and friendship. While I am speaking of the Ocean Springs clubs. The other garden clubs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast share the same passion for floral design and fellowship.
Southern live oak trees are another item that needs attention. Southern live oak trees are protected In Mississippi so young ones must be “trained”. Once that big branch covers your driveway it may be too late to cut it. If you are in doubt check with your local garden club or an arborist.
Recently in the City of Long Beach, a developer decided to build a hotel on a vacant lot except the lot was not vacant. It contains three large southern live oak trees. One is much older than the others and they are all in good health. The dilemma is that the property owner has the right to sell the property and as a property owner myself, I can see how difficult it may be to develop around these magnificent trees.
The Long Beach Garden Club went into action
The Long Beach Garden Club sprang into action and rather than try to prevent the development, they asked an arborist to look at the tree and determine if it can be safely trimmed to accommodate the hotel building. The result was the tree could stay and the building could be constructed near it. The city council had a public meeting and the room was filled to capacity with residents who have grown up with this tree. They can get to be many hundreds of years old.
The mayor concluded that the developer should look to modify the tree and build on the property which would solve the issue. At this writing the discussions are ongoing. My point in bringing this topic to the screen is that local garden clubs do much more than just plant flowers, they try to preserve our heritage. Their persistence means that all sides will get a fair hearing and that trees are not indiscriminately cut down or trimmed out of existence.
There are many empty lots all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast thanks to hurricane Katrina and its predecessors. At one time all of the lots had buildings on them including stately homes. The giant southern live oak and magnolia trees were part of the property. When the structures were destroyed many of the trees remained.
Now the lots are being sold at a rapid pace for development and many have protected trees on them. It’s a challenge to build around the trees, in some cases it’s not possible and the lot is sold for parking a park or other use.
Garden clubs are not-for-profit organizations
Local garden clubs know about most of the historic trees in their communities and do their best to protect them by speaking with city officials and property owners. This is just one of many things they do as mentioned above all at no cost to you or your community.
Many members of local garden clubs are senior citizens who love what they do. Tending to their own gardens gives them pleasure so they offer their time to help improve other local gardens. Garden clubs are created as a not-for-profit organizations. This allows them to apply their collected green thumb toward civic beautification.
They often care for the local war memorial or other memorial places. A local garden club is a good place to find guest speakers for your event. They can talk about their work or something specific such as the southern live oak trees and their preservation effort.
All of the Mississippi Gulf Coast communities have garden clubs
This article has a focus on Ocean Springs because I live there but what I have said about the efforts of that garden club can be applied to all of the garden clubs along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. You will find a table above that lists all of the garden clubs and their contact information. I strongly encourage you to volunteer some of your time, it’s a great way to learn more about garden design.
In fact, if you new homeowner and in particular new to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, joining local gardening clubs is a way to understand the local flora.
Reading through the Long Beach garden club Facebook page, I learned that garden club members are not just interested in landscape design but they have a wide range of common interests. Among those interests are how plants pollinate. Beneficial insect management and much more contribute to beautiful gardens. Environmental responsibility is part of local clubs’ goals.
Most garden clubs have Facebook pages
The Pass Christian Garden Club has scheduled a garden program “How to design a pollinator garden”. As of this writing, it is scheduled at the Pass Christian Library. If you miss this program no doubt there will be others, check their Facebook page. A talk about the benefits of bats was included in their monthly meeting. Most clubs take field trips visiting local areas with unique native plants. I learned on their Facebook site that most bumblebee queens nest just below the ground under piles of brush in the winter.
As I was browsing around looking for information about local garden clubs, I came across a website http://gulfhillsgardenclubms.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_17.html which lists even more garden clubs than my table above. I encourage you to look at their webpage and make note of the several additional clubs that I was unaware of. For example, I listed the Gulfport Garden Club and yet there are two more listed on the site above located in Gulfport.
Keep up with your garden club activities
If you can’t find the time to participate yet have a love of gardening, consider donating to your local garden club. Garden clubs need funds to buy plants and tools. Some have an annual plant sale so take advantage. Attend their educational programs as mentioned above.
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