Garden clubs – like gardeners and gardens – are all unique. They have their own stories, their own missions – indeed, their own personalities. Shasta Lake Garden Project is no exception. While many clubs focus on gardening and horticultural education and outreach – the Shasta Lake Garden Project is all about civic pride and beautification.
Shasta Lake Garden Project as an idea germinated in the late 1990s – just a few years after the area’s 1993 incorporation. Project founder Lynni Miller could no longer stand to look out her window from work and see an old “weed patch” running down (literally and figuratively) the center of Shasta Dam Boulevard in the City of Shasta Lake. In her mind it should and could be a flourishing garden. She gathered a group of like-minded women and began brainstorming on how to raise funds to improve the site and from that day to this the group has become a member of California Garden Clubs, Inc., fluctuated between 10 and 20 members, developed and raised funds for multiple gardens around town, and every year hold traditional High-Tea and Garden Tour fundraisers to support their projects. Photo: Shasta Lake Garden Project Member’s (from left to right) Betty Head, Lynni Miller and RoseMary Walter in their Clock Tower Garden on Shasta Dam Boulevard.
The amount of work and positive community impact that one gardening group can have never ceases to amaze me. The sense of place – and pride of place – that can be articulated through a garden, especially a public garden, is particularly well illustrated in the City of Shasta Lake and its several public gardens put in and tended to by the Shasta Lake Garden Project. On a perfect late summer afternoon recently, I walked the gardens with founder Lynni Miller (owner of Antique Gift and Garden in the City of Shasta Lake, which has wonderful old garden decorations and accessories), Betty Head and Rosemary Walter, two dedicated members since the project’s early days. Had it been windy and rainy, I think these garden project members would still have shown their gardens with pride. While the three ladies walked me around answering questions about the project’s history and future goals, a handful of other members, including Jane Layne and Gennie Seeley, worked in the gardens – weeding, trimming, replanting and, of course, socializing. The gardens – complex and interesting plantings though they are – perhaps more importantly serve as a form of commons for the gardeners and the small community as a whole. Photo: Overview of the Shasta Lake Garden Project’s largest garden on Shasta Dam Boulevard. Photo by Member Darlene Brown, copyright 2009.
Three distinct spaces currently comprise the project’s gardens on Shasta Dam Boulevard. Running east to west, they are the Clock Tower Garden, a formal parterre of colorful and textural hedged shrubs outlining a narrow portion of the greenbelt median, complete with a Victorian style Clock Tower. To the west of the Clock Tower Garden, the Veterans Memorial sits across a break in the median. The garden project members have recently revived the plantings in and around the Veterans Memorial itself, which serves as gateway of sorts into the project’s largest and most ambitious garden: the Memorial Garden. Covering nearly two acres, this garden is largely made up of drought tolerant perennials, trees and shrubs. Its paths are partially lined with memorial bricks – with room for more – and each large tree and bench along the curving pathways create additional memorial tributes for family and friends of the town’s citizens. On its easternmost side, this garden includes a demonstration memorial rose garden with plants primarily donated by Jackson & Perkins rose growers. On its western-most side, across a small creek and wetland swath dividing the space, is a native plant garden, with plants chosen specifically for their usefulness in Native American tradition. Overseen by member Gennie Seely, an educator of Wiyot descent, the native garden includes prolifically blooming California fuchshia, ceanothus, sedges and cattails. Photo: Restful benches and arching carex in the Shasta Lake Garden Project’s Shasta Dam Boulevard Gardens.
Of the rose garden, member Darlene Brown says: The red roses within the Veterans Memorial Garden were a special addition to our garden. The 20 red roses titled ‘Veterans Honor Hybrid Tea Rose’ were not only donated to us through my good friend at Jackson & Perkins, but J&P included this message in their response to our request for a donation: ‘These commemorative red roses are honoring those who serve our country’ and this commemorative red rose also graces the grounds in Arlington Cemetery, Washington, D.C.’ So you understand why we thought that this was absolutely perfect for our garden in honoring our Veterans. The other roses (a white one is shown in front on the picture) were privately donated and are all ‘Patriotic and Presidential’ commemorative roses from J&P. I hope to have a plaque made soon to put on a rock so that visitors will know the history and name of our beautiful roses.” Photo: Memorial red and white roses in the Shasta Lake Garden Project’s memorial rose garden on Shasta Dam Boulevard. Photo by Member Darlene Brown, copyright 2009.
After touring these main gardens, which are seen by most visitors to the small town as they drive along Shasta Dam Boulevard, the Garden Project ladies took me to see one of their peripheral projects, a garden close to the Shasta Dam, the building of which precipitated the first large scale white settlement of the area in the early-mid 1900s. This garden sits at an intersection of two small rural roads near the dam itself and is a little pocket of grass, trees and plants, and now tables with checker boards built into them, commemorating the many men and women who waited here many hours if not days for work.
This November, as part of the Veterans Day celebration, the Shasta Lake Garden Project will dedicate a Blue Star Memorial Marker to commemorate the men and women serving in our armed forces. The Blue Star Memorial Project began in the first half of the 1900s as a way to commemorate the men and women serving in our armed forces. The Shasta Lake Blue Star will be placed in front of the Veterans Memorial that sits in the middle of the Garden Project’s two most prominent gardens. The installation and celebration of the event will take place during the town’s Veterans Day celebration on Saturday November 7th from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. The Blue Star Memorial dedication is scheduled at 9:15 a.m. followed by the parade at 10 am.
The Shasta Lake Garden Project has no lack of pride in their town, and now their work is being publicly acknowledged with pride by their town and by many people even further afield with the Blue Star Memorial. Congratulations Shasta Lake Garden Project!
Look for information about Shasta Lake Garden Project’s upcoming events, high-teas and garden tour fundraisers on the In a North State Garden’s Online Calendar of Regional Gardening Events. For more information about becoming a member or helping the cause, contact current President Georgia Haddon at roberthaddon@att.net, or 530 275-1209. You can also read current news or past history of the club at: http://www.shastalakegardenproject.org/.
If you would like to be added to my weekly email list and receive information about upcoming programs and gardening events, email me at: jennifer@jewellgarden.com, with Add to Mailing List as the subject line.
In a North State Garden is a weekly radio- and web-based program celebrating the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region. It is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time and is supported in part by the Gateway Science Museum – on the campus of CSU, Chico. Podcasts of past shows are available here.
