Milton Garden Club readies for spring
As the weather starts to warm up, so will the activities of the Milton Garden Club.
That starts with the garden club electing a new president, Ingrid Bogen, who has been a member of the club for eight years.
“I’m excited,” she said. “I’m trying to do some interesting things to help our members learn about gardening. I’m excited about this. We have a lot of new members. A lot of them are new to gardening, so we try to have an educational session with each monthly meeting so we can grow and help each other, and help the town look beautiful.”
The garden club was founded in 1998 with 12 members, who would plant and weed around town. The club has since grown to 88 members. The club sponsors two major events: the garden tour in September and Holly Festival in December. The club also holds a huge plant sale during the Horseshoe Crab Festival in May.
Bogen came to Milton from Philadelphia, where she was, and still is, a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She became aware of the garden club after she saw the club’s efforts firsthand.
“One year, I decided to come to the garden tour. And I was just so impressed with this little town and how the gardeners in town opened up their gardens for people to come and see. I thought it was amazing,” she said.
Bogen said her favorite part of gardening is learning more about flowers and taking pride in making her yards beautiful. She said one of the biggest problems the club faces is fixing irrigation lines for the town’s existing gardens, which have not been working, and getting more flowers planted around town. Bogen said it would also be nice if it rains more this year than it did last.
The club’s theme is to make Milton beautiful with flowers, and the club has six gardens and nine planters around town, including the planters on the Union Street bridge and the garden at the corner of Union and Magnolia streets. Bogen said her personal favorite gardens are the planter pots around town, especially on the bridge, which add some character to the span.
Bogen said the club gives out $3,000 scholarships to students in agricultural programs at both the high school and college level. The money raised by the club goes to support its local gardens and the scholarship program.
Emely Mendoza, a two-time scholarship winner attending Delaware State University, where she is studying agriculture and plant science, said, “I was very blessed to be a recipient of the scholarship twice, and now I’m a member of the garden club. I enjoy volunteering and helping out with events. I believe it is very generous of the Milton Garden Club to offer scholarships to students in need in order to continue their education.”
Bogen said, “She’s a remarkable young lady.”
Information on the scholarships and the garden club can be found at themiltongardenclub.org.
