Dexter Garden Club Continues Agricultural Legacy with Scholarships for Future Environmental Stewards

From Joan Lansdell

“Land suitable for farming!  Tradesmen needed!  Land at low prices!” 

Advertisements placed in Detroit and “back East” newspapers in the early 1800’s by Michigan territorial governor Lewis Cass caught the attention of farmers largely from New York and New England.  And come they did!  Settlers and their families travelled west to Michigan territory drawn by the promise of good land and a fresh opportunity to seek their fortunes. 

Agriculture was the draw.  Early settlers around Dexter raised corn, wheat, pumpkins, wild rice, potatoes and planted fruit orchards.  Local mills ground their wheat and corn, turned their apples into cider, sawed their trees into lumber and produced feed for their animals.

A home garden kept each family alive.  A settler’s home garden provided above ground and root vegetables for food and enhanced the quality of their lives with plants for medicine, dyes, fragrances, flowers and herbs.

Members of the Dexter Garden Club know that agriculture and home gardening are still important to our local community.  This group of avid gardeners is committed to supporting horticulture, raising the awareness of the rewards of gardening and conserving the environment by investing in education and our community in multiple ways.

The club is offering five $1,000 scholarships to high school seniors planning careers in horticulture, agriculture, environmental public policy, ecology, environmental studies, conservation, landscaping, organic gardening, horticultural therapy, botany/plant science, or forestry.  Past scholarship recipients have chosen to study Environmental Engineering, Fish and Wildlife Management, Environmental Science, Sustainability and Business, Marine Biology, Horticulture and Plant Biology among others.

The club also offers grants of up to $500 for local residents, educational groups, and not-for-profit organizations that provide horticultural education and/or horticultural therapy. Past grant recipients include the Dexter Senior Center, Gordon Hall, Dexter Area Historical Museum, Webster Township Historical Society, Dexter District Library, Washtenaw County Juvenile Detention Center, Dexter Schools, St. Joseph Church, and the City of Dexter.

To view grant and scholarship applications, submission requirements, and selection criteria, visit www.dextergardenclub.org/resources.  Scholarship applications must be submitted through the Dexter High School Counseling Office.  Please mail grant applications to Mary Robinson at 3275 Dover Street, Dexter, 48130.

Funding for the grants and scholarships comes from the annual Dexter Garden Club Plant Sale and Green Day, held in Monument Park the Saturday after Mother’s Day, which this year is May 17, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.  In addition to the reliable, hardy perennial and ornamental plants club members donate from their own gardens, specialty annuals and perennials grown just for this sale are also available.  Garden club members are on hand during the sale to answer horticultural questions, discuss possible solutions to design challenges and offer advice on best gardening practices.  Green Day also offers educational resources, products, and programs relating to Dexter’s Creekside student gardeners, Michigan’s parks and natural areas, bee keeping, sustainable lifestyle choices, plants that are native, invasive, or edible, and other horticultural concerns. Green Day booklets are packed with special offers and discounts from local businesses.

Founded in the mid-1990’s by a group of Dexter friends with an interest in gardening, the Dexter Garden Club’s mission is to raise awareness of the joys and rewards of gardening and the need to conserve the environment through education and community beautification.

“The best thing about our club is that we’re passionate about plants,” say co-presidents Stephanie Cottrell and Mark White.  “We have a wide spectrum of member interests, ranging from vegetables and flowers to pollinator and native gardens.  Members’ backgrounds range from beginning to master gardeners and there is something for everyone.” 

Members and visitors enjoy educational presentations during the club’s monthly meetings held the second Tuesday of the month from September to May in St. Andrews Parish Hall, 7610 Ann Arbor Street in Dexter, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The public is welcome.  More information about the Dexter Garden Club is available at www.dextergardenclub.org. Image: Facebook