Rake & Hoe Garden Club of Westfield

Rake and Hoe Garden Club of Westfield members Tracy Criscitello, Letty Hudak, Gayle Lechner and Clare Minick fill bird feeders in preparation for the club’s participation in Cornell and Aububon’s Great Backyard Bird Count (www.birdcount.org) from February 15-18. Club members will count birds and send results to Cornell, which received 80,000 lists during last year’s bird count. Rake and Hoe is participating for the first time in the count, which is open to everyone.

Deck The Halls 2006

Members of Rake and Hoe have begun working on this year's special event: a decorated house tour to be held on Saturday December 2, 2006. Five area homes will be decorated for the holidays by club members. The houses include some turn-of-the century homes in Victorian, Craftsman and classic styles as well as some distinctive newer homes. All will be decorated with a variety of beautiful and innovative holiday decorations, highlighting the history and the décor of each home. In addition one of the homes will include a boutique of holiday items for both decorating and gift-giving. Tickets will be available from club members.

Rake and Hoe Accepts Tree for Shadowlawn

The Rake and Hoe Garden Club of Westfield gratefully accepted a lovely dogwood tree for Arbor Day from new to town, Kiehl's on Broad Street. The tree makes a wonderful addition to Shadowlawn Park established by the club in 2002. Shadowlawn Park is on the corner of Shadowlawn and Rahway Avenue, very near to the high school. Club members have thoughtfully planted perennials, bulbs, and bushes and installed benches to provide a unique oasis of nature in a peaceful setting. Several memorial trees have been planted there and the Kiehl's dogwood tree donation is a welcome addition to the park.

Erica Fried and Clare Minick, horticulture chairs for the club work closely with Jim VanBlarcom, supervisor for the Westfield Public Works Department at Shadowlawn. His staff maintains the watering system there, plants trees, and does heavy mulching and weeding for the park. Club members also weed, groom the plants and plant new plants to maintain the beauty of the park.

A new retailer to Westfield, Kiehl's from New York established in 1851, brings fine quality skin and hair care to the community. They are committed to serving their customers through quality products and also to the community by protecting and preserving the environment around them. Kiehl's is located at 132 East Broad Street in the center of town and open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 7pm, until 8pm on Thursday nights and then also on Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

Rake and Hoe Makes Donations to Westfield Schools

The Rake and Hoe Garden Club of Westfield has a long term reputation for its service to the community and donations to worthy causes. Again, this year, the Club has identified the needs of the Westfield elementary schools and tried to help fulfill their wishes. All gifts must be nature, environment or plant related which the Club hopes to help educate the students and spark an interest in gardening. This effort was coordinated by Awards Chair, Karen Jolley-Gates. Karen contacted all six elementary schools, purchased and delivered the special items that the schools wanted for their students.

Amongst some of the selections this year are the following: Tamaques School requested plants or seeds for their second grade garden; Washington School selected a series of Audubon Society's First Field Guides books which include books on reptiles, insects, birds, the weather, small mammals and the night sky; McKinley selected books about the Rainforest; Jefferson School selected emergent reader books (first and second grade) such as Flowers A-Z and Wilson and Franklin requested various garden and plant books.

The Rake and Hoe Garden Club is an organization which strives to not only educate its members but the public as well through donations of this kind and flower shows open to the public. If you are interested in joining the club, please contact Pam Kolb at 233-3596.

Rake and Hoe Juniors Learn and Show

The Juniors of the Rake and Hoe Garden Club of Westfield were very successful winners of blue, red and yellow ribbons at the State Flower Show, "A Floral Odyssey" in February. Ten members competed with floral designs, horticulture and artistic crafts against other garden clubs and schools across the state. They began preparing for the show back in December when they created their succulent dish gardens with John Bowman in a workshop at Home Depot. Kay Cross, Master Judge and florist assisted the girls in a design techniques workshop to prepare them for creating the fresh floral designs which were entered. Alice Cowell, Juniors leader, provided another workshop where the girls were inspired to make fairy houses and kaleidoscope floral mosaics. All the work paid off. Many of the girls came away with blue ribbons, first in their classes, and some even, with the coveted Youth Award, best out of several classes.

Not resting on their laurels, the girls were back to work learning about soil and water conservation at Trailside Nature and Science Center on March 30th. It was a beautiful day to learn about how soil was made and how it can be eroded by the forces of nature. Trailside is a wonderful source for education as sponsored by the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders. Located on New Providence Road in Mountainside, Trailside provides group programs for ages 3 and up, for scout requirements and even for birthday parties. Programs include subjects on animals, geology, ecology, conservation, plants, Native Americans, knot tying and maple sugaring. There's something for everyone. The facility is located on a 2,000 acre preserve containing three ponds with over 13 miles of color-coded hiking trails. Currrently, the Visitor Center is under construction but the museum and its shop plus the planetarium are open to the public. For program reservations, call (908)789-3670 at least two weeks in advance.

The Juniors of Rake and Hoe not only have a great time learning about gardening and flower design, but they are responsible to learn about conservation and to provide help to their community. They have cleaned up and planted at the Shadowlawn and Miller-Cory gardens in town and provided floral designs for Mobile Meals and a seniors home in town. If you are interested in joining the Juniors next fall, please call Alice Cowell at (908) 518-1602.

About Rake & Hoe

Rake & Hoe Garden Club celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2002. We were founded in 1952 by a group of women interested in having a vibrant active garden club.

Membership in today's Rake & Hoe Garden Club can satisfy a variety of interests. Community service, educational scholarships, stimulating speakers, courses in horticulture, floral, and landscape design, bird watching, conservation, flower shows, luncheons, workshops and trips --- Rake & Hoe offers it all.

Federated with the National Council of State Garden Clubs, and the Garden Club of New Jersey, we have between 50 and 70 members all of whom share one thing in common : a love of flowers and gardening. Our membership is diverse, spanning all ages, interests and occupations. We feel our diversity is one of our greatest strengths. Each member brings her knowledge to the group, sharing it the way a friend shares seeds or cuttings with a friend.

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