Gardens, like smiles, provide a universal language. Wherever we go, there are gardens. My mother took great pride in her garden. When I went home for a visit, she found a reason to walk me among the plants she nurtured. Her vegetable garden kept our family healthy through long Iowa winters. The flowers she grew allowed her to indulge her love of beauty for the small cost of a package of seeds. She placed no dollar value on the countless hours she invested to make them flourish. Her gardens gave her great joy and she loved to share them.
Cities throughout the world, like my mother, encourage visitors to walk through their gardens. Large or small, public gardens are a source of civic pride as they provide a respite from what is ordinary by offering spaces filled with natural beauty. We cultivate Nobscot Park in Framingham, boast of the beauty of Cushing Park, guide visitors to Garden in the Woods, and drive them north and west for time at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. If we are lucky enough to travel widely, we might have spent a day meandering through London’s Kew Gardens, or crunched the gravel paths of the Tuileries Garden of Paris. In any of these gardens, we can hear languages other than our own, coming from citizens of other parts of the world. The miracle of an apparently lifeless seed’s emergence as a vibrant seedling needs no language for expression. Gardeners, and garden appreciators throughout the world fortify themselves by being among plants, vicariously transforming sunlight into energy and renewal. Gardening is a unifying experience.
As Garden Club members, we know the joy of growing plants, and the personal satisfaction that comes from working together for civic enrichment. Our continued growth as individuals and as a Garden Club is only as vigorous as what we do. For now, we consider expanding our efforts as civic garden builders, as teachers of young children about the wonders of gardening, as floral arrangers wishing to share our love of design with the community. Will we move forward with one, two or all three of these challenges? Decisions remain to be made.
Anticipating my fourth and final year as your Framingham Garden Club President, I look forward to working with you to solidify our rich menu of on-going programs, and to establishing new endeavors. Our work together, whatever form it takes, will spread the universal and unifying language of growth through gardening.
Proud to be your President,
RHE
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