From April until frost a dedicated team of gardeners from the Club meets weekly (as needed) to tend several of the town’s gardens: the Circle Garden at the Town Library, the gardens flanking the main entrance door, and the Triangle Garden at the corner of Center Road and Meetinghouse Lane, which was dedicated to charter member Adella Baldwin Stuart on the 30th anniversary of the Club in 1963. The Thomas Darling House Perennial Herb Garden was designed by member Leslie Martino in 2007. In 2011 the Garden Club was asked by the Woodbridge Fire Department to design a memorial garden to commemorate those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Leslie Martino designed the 9/11 Memorial Garden and the Garden Club of Woodbridge financially supported this very special project.

Periodically, the Artistic Design committee leads workshops to educate and guide members in designing and arranging fresh flowers. Workshops are designed for all levels of interest. Some serve as a refresher course while others are new to the design field. Most monthly meetings feature an artistic design component in which designated members have the opportunity to create a floral design tied to a theme and members who have qualified as Flower Judges by the Federated Garden Clubs of CT offer constructive feedback and support. For the past few years, the Club has participated with several other local garden clubs in decorating The Osborne Homestead Museum in Derby for its annual holiday tours. The Osborne Homestead Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and is part of Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Tour.

Horticulture is of interest to many members and an educational horticultural component is included at many meetings in which members learn about native plants, planting and care, and can share specimens. Horticulture Therapy benefits people in areas such as motor skills, communication, memory and mental health. At various times, the Club has participated in horticulture therapy activities at an assisted living community In Woodbridge and planting at a long-term care community in town on request.

Annually, the Garden Club of Woodbridge offers a $500 scholarship to a graduating senior at Amity Regional High School who is a resident of Woodbridge with plans to attend an accredited institution and pursue studies in one of the following fields: Agriculture, Horticulture, Floriculture, Landscape Design, Botany, Geology, Plant Pathology, Environmental Studies, Wildlife Science or Land Management.

Recent past recipients include:

2023: Violet Bisset, a 2023 graduate of Amity High School, who will attend Saint Lawrence University where she plans on pursuing a degree in Environmental Studies-Geology.

2022: Benjamin Rickel plans to attend Ratcliffe Hicks School of Agriculture at the University of Connecticut in Storrs to study Urban Forestry and Arboriculture.

2021: Allison Su will attend Barnard College and pursue a major in Environment and Sustainability.

2020: Laurella Marin plans to attend Dartmouth College and will major in the fields of Environmental Science and Engineering.

2019: Summer Schaaf will attend Florida State University where she plans on pursuing her interest in Environmental Sciences.

2018: Vera Ting will attend the University of Michigan where she will pursue her childhood dream of becoming an ornithologist. She will major in Evolutionary Biology and Art.

Members of the Club meet monthly from September to June. Meetings generally include an educational component or special theme. Past representative topics include landscaping, horticulture, historic and international gardens, foraged materials, vegetable gardening, pollinators of all kinds and wildlife. The Garden Club shares programs with the Garden Clubs of Bethany and Orange. We host joint meetings in alternate years with these two neighboring garden clubs.

We share information about birds and conservation and inform members about pertinent legislation and activities of interest.

Periodically the Garden Club hosts a plant sale open to the public featuring specimens from members’ gardens as well as plants donated by local businesses. This is one of the Club’s primary fundraisers. Proceeds benefit civic beautification, educational programs, scholarship, and our other activities.