Garden Club takes care of familiar plot

If you travel down Rockwood Boulevard on Spokane’s South Hill on a regular basis, you’ve probably noticed the triangle of land bounded by Rockwood, Sherman Street and 12th Avenue. Like other odd pieces of land around the city, sandwiched between intersecting streets, there isn’t enough space to do much more than landscape them to keep them neat.

But there is a story behind this particular piece of land, that speaks to the deep sense of community and civic pride that many people feel for Spokane.

This piece of land is the expression of 75 years of dedication to making Spokane a prettier place by members of the Rockwood Garden Club. For 75 years, this group of women from the east side of the South Hill has been sharing a passion for gardening, community and each other.

I met with them on a recent gray, almost-drippy morning to look over the latest addition to their plot along Rockwood. In celebration of their diamond anniversary, they recently had three basalt boulders installed and engraved simply with “Rockwood Garden Club, Est. 1929”.

It was obvious that they had a lot of pride in the plot. We talked about how many of the lilacs, hostas, lavender, shrubs and other plants came to the site. They told a few stories about planting and construction parties. They reminisced about members who are now memorialized with benches placed around the site. They talked about how important their partnership with the Spokane Parks Department was to their efforts.

In 1960, the City of Spokane declared Rockwood Boulevard an arterial, which meant that more cars would be traveling along the street at faster speeds. At that time the plot was owned by the Halverson family who lived directly on the other side of Sherman Street. For decades the land had traditionally been the site of football and baseball games for neighborhood kids. The prospect of balls flying into fast traffic and being pursued by inattentive children concerned the Halversons. To reduce the potential for an accident, they offered the land to the club to be used as a park.

Unfortunately, the prospects of taxes, water bills and maintenance far into the future were more than the club wanted to take on. They approached the City Council about donating the land to the city. A partnership evolved with the Parks Department providing maintenance and water while the club plans and pays for any improvements on the site.

Club members planted specialty lilacs, small Japanese maples and perennials such as day lilies and hosta. Benches were installed along some of the paths. The recent boulder project is just the latest addition.

Eventually the talk of civic pride and responsibility took a little more personal note, when I asked if a sense of sisterhood was behind the civic pride. Everyone there quickly agreed.

Elaine Erickson said that to her, the club has been many years of happy gardening and enjoying good friends. Nancy Lindsay said that the group had brought her as much learning and sharing as it had friendships. Joy Moore, who claims to be the youngest member of the group and the current president, enjoys what she calls a privilege of sharing the gardening experiences with good friends in a beautiful setting. Hope Johnson reminisced about the 50th anniversary of the group and some of the people who are gone now.

The air was cold and raw but it was easy to feel the warmth of friendship.

So ladies, happy 75th anniversary. May the soil you turn and the pieces and plants you add to the plot yield as many beautiful friendships as it does beauty for the rest of us to enjoy as we whiz by.

Confused plants

I have heard several reports from around the region that there are some confused plants out there this fall. Several people have reported rhododendrons, lilacs and even a magnolia that are blooming right now. While this doesn’t happen very often, it is not unusual and it won’t hurt the plants unless the bottom drops out of the thermometer soon.

We cooled off in August so abruptly, and stayed above freezing so late into October, that the plants thought they went through winter and it was spring again. The two and half months between mid-August and the end of October was just enough cooling to set buds and prepare for spring. Problem is, it’s only November, not April.

If it gets very cold quickly, there might be some damage to branch tips and buds that have swelled in response to the weather but most plants should realize quickly that they should be going dormant and finish the process on their own. They will probably reset new buds over the winter and come out in the spring when they really should.