The tour offers many delights - homes, gardens, flower arrangements made from our members' own garden flowers, a complimentary afternoon tea and a Garden Shop. Here are some photos from past tours. We invite you come enjoy this year's tour in person!
Rain gardens are special landscaped areas designed to capture runoff from paved areas and compacted soils. As rainwater flows over impervious surfaces, it picks up sediment and pollutants and carries them directly into streams and lakes. A properly designed rain garden can absorb the runoff, treat the pollutants via the plants and soil microorganisms in the garden and lessen the flow into stormwater systems.
Hudson's Clinton Street Rain Garden was installed in 2006. Hudson Garden Club provided the funding to purchase the plants and worked with the city, individuals, organizations and businesses from our community to make the project a reality. The garden club's BUGs did the intial planting and have been maintaining the site ever since. The garden was designed to function as a natural area that requires no supplimental watering, fertilizing or temporary plantings.
The garden features 2000 square feet of low-maintainance natives, hardy perennials and grasses which provide habitat for wildlife. The garden controls the nearby parking lot's stormwater overflow from going into Brandywine Creek which is located directly behind the garden. Recognized during the Hudson in Bloom competition, the Clinton Street Rain Garden has helped Hudson's ecology and is a beautiful addition to downtown.
Our club participates in the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz Program (BLBB) program. It is an Ohio-wide citizen science program aimed at evaluating the current state of native and exotic coccinellids (aka lady beetles). Monitoring lady beetles is a good way to educate the public about the importance of biodiversity and to engage volunteers in the scientific process of monitoring biodiversity. Lady beetles are beneficial predators, several species occur in residential habitats and the species are relatively easy to identify. Yellow sticky card traps and an identification card are used to collect beetle data twice during the summer. The data is then reported to the program coordinator at The Ohio State University. We use the Community Garden on Ravenna Road as our monitoring site. For more information about the program visit www.ladybeetles.osu.edu/
Club members create floral arrangements for the homes on the Hudson Home and Garden Tour using flowers picked from our members' own gardens. Each is designed specifically for the room in which it is displayed. The unique flower arrangements are one of the many touches that make the tour so special.
Field trips to interesting and educational places are a great way to get to know other members. The times and locations are announced in our club newsletter. We meet up, form a carpool and drive to the location. We've taken field trips to private and public gardens, tea rooms, nurseries, and even had a factory tour. Just about any gardening-related idea is considered. The trips are generally free or have a very minimal charge.
At our October 2010 meeting, the Board provided a soup supper for the club members as a way to thank them for all they do for our club and community. A variety of homemade soups and breads were served. The dessert was unique—pudding with cookie crumb topping that looked like dirt, topped with gummy worms. Just perfect for us gardeners!
We hold two Plant Exchanges a year—spring and fall. Gardeners bring divisions of plants from their gardens, exchange them for tickets, and use the tickets to “buy” plants. It’s a great way to meet other gardeners, share your excess plants and get new plants---all for free! The event is open to the public. Don’t come late for this event--these great bargains are quickly snapped up.
Several times a year, we organize a learning session for new gardeners. Experienced club members have shared their gardening knowledge on a variety of topics. The events, open to members only, are announced in the club newsletter or via our club email list. Examples of past mentoring meetings include hands-on workshops on seed starting, making faux hypertufa troughs and a Q&A session on how to deal with garden critters. We've also held demonstrations on container planting, garden photography, pruning and beekeeping.
