Local club brings home four awards from Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut

Written by Flo Vannoni
Thursday, 05 November 2009 00:00

The Redding Garden Club received four state-wide awards from the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut on Tuesday, Oct. 21, most notably for their civic beautification projects and ongoing efforts to help control deer overpopulation.

“These awards are a wonderful reflection not only on the hard work and dedication of our membership, but on all of Redding, whose beauty and nature constantly inspires us,” said Ruth Moran, co-president of the local club.

The Redding Garden Club received the prestigious Pauline B. Tyler Award for working toward passage of a state bill that would have included deer population management and ultimately led to a reduction in cases of Lyme disease.

The club reached out to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, members of the state Environmental Committee, and other garden clubs to help spur efforts to pass this legislation. Although the legislation failed, the club was not dissuaded, and now works on a local level to control deer overpopulation and to combat Lyme disease.

The club also took home the Award for Civic Creativity, which is awarded to a club for an outstanding creative project in the area of civic responsibility. The club, which maintains 19 public gardens or planters in Redding, developed a system of teams and notebooks for each garden. With the system in place, there is now a site map and permanent record of the history of the plantings, as well as notes on specific maintenance requirements.

The Garden Club received two additional awards at the ceremony. A Certificate of Merit was awarded for the membership brochure designed by past president Sharon Epstein and Debora DeCarlo-Rosa, and a Certificate of Individual Achievement went to Jill Kotch for her work in supporting local environmental and conservation issues.

A certified Master Gardener, Ms. Kotch is currently the chair of the club’s Conservation and Horticulture Committees and creator of “Saving Natural Redding,” an ongoing partnership with the town designed to educate the public on how to control invasive plants and replace them with Connecticut natives. This past year, as chair of Saving Natural Redding, she arranged for a group (along with the Redding Conservation Commission) to clean up part of Saugatuck Falls, one of the town’s natural areas, and replant the area with native plants.

In addition, she provided substantial, researched material for the “Saving Natural Redding” section of the club’s Web site, www.reddinggardenclub.org. This section includes FAQ’s, Redding’s worst invasives, 15 of the best native plants for the garden and an extensive native perennial and shrubs list.

For more information on the Redding Garden Club, including planting tips and membership information, visit www.reddinggardenclub.org.