The Garden Club prepared Main Street for “Autumn in Moorestown”on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
On the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 3, a small congregation of women gathered to welcome fall to Moorestown. The handful of members from the Moorestown Garden Club were eager to help prepare for Autumn in Moorestown on Saturday, Oct. 14 by arranging fall pansies in the planters along Main Street.
Also, on Tuesday, the club — in collaboration with Keller Williams — affixed cornstalks to lampposts on Main Street to bring a fall air to town. Garden Club member Linda Porter said whether people realize it, maintaining the aesthetics of downtown helps contribute to the success of local businesses.
“The streetscape really adds to the ambiance of people wanting to be down here,” Porter said.
Former president and current member of the Garden Club Gina Zegel said the club’s role in beautifying Main Street dates back to around 1997. She said the streetscaping and brick work along Main Street had been recently completed, and the club’s president at the time came up with the idea of having planters outside of businesses along Main Street.
The club purchased the planters and has been maintaining them ever since, Zegel said.
Each season, the ladies breathe new life into the planters. In the fall, the women plant pansies, and come winter, the club plants a variety of greenery, which Zegel said will last until around February. In the spring, the pansies usually return, and the women may also add some additional flowers to the planters.
This past summer, the Garden Club’s petunias lasted through the entire season and were still alive and intact when it came time to change over the planters for fall. The red, purple and white flowers were in such good shape when they removed them on Sunday, Oct. 1 that the club’s 2nd vice president, Suzie Haines, took them home to repurpose for a wedding.
Around five years ago, the club purchased 11 large, round planters and decided to let members of the Moorestown community take “ownership” of them, Zegel said. Each year, planter owners are given $35 to fill planters with perennials and can do whatever they’d like as long as they maintain it.
Zegel said the township also lends its support to the club’s efforts by offering use of its watering trucks.
The group fundraises to support projects such as maintaining the Main Street planters. Zegel said the Moorestown Business Association also works hard to maintain Main Street, with people going out the weekend prior to Autumn in Moorestown to pull weeds, straighten up and ensure Main Street is looking its best for the festival. She said half the flower baskets along Main Street are maintained by the township and half by the MBA.
On Tuesday, the ladies brought their own dirt, small scarecrows and set to work. Porter said changing over the planters each season is easy work with a dedicated group of ladies on hand.
“This is a working group,” Porter said with a good-natured laugh.
Garden Club membership is always open to new guests and members. To learn more about the Garden Club, visit http://moorestowngardenclub.com/.
