GARDEN CLUBS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19750, 17 March 1934, Page 11

GARDEN CLUBS

Mrs. Russell Colgate, of Llewellyn Park, West Orange, N.J., was among the interesting visitors who called at Auckland aboard the luxury liner Lurline. Mrs. Colgate is a member of the Garden Club of America, a nationwide organisation consisting of members of individual garden clubs all over America, which has done remarkable work in the cause of civic improvement.

To be eligible for membership of a garden club, Mrs. Colgate told a representative of the Sydney Morning

Herald, citizens must first have fine gardens of their own—not one made by a gardener or gardeners, but one of which they have themselves a practical knowledge. The members of garden clubs individually and collectively undertake to develop street and roadside plantings, to inculcate in the community a knowledge and appreciation of plants and shrubs, and, above all, to prevent the destruction of all natural beauty and the defacement of the countryside with objectionable hoardings and advertisements. Through their work on these lines the garden clubs have not only been able to add to the beauty of their own localities, but have influenced legislation to a point where vandalism has been greatly checked. Mrs. Colgate was very interested to learn of the many bodies in Australia which have similar ideals to those of the Garden Club of America.