New Vernon Garden Club

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ABOUT US

Our Mission

The purpose of the New Vernon Garden Club is to promote learning in all areas of horticulture and to encourage practices that add to the beautification of our environment and its preservation for future generations.

The New Vernon Garden Club is fully responsible for three of the public gardens in New Vernon: the Tunis-Ellicks Parlor Garden, the Sarah D. Ortman Park, and the George Washington Bicentennial Garden at the George Washington Triangle. Diagrams of these three gardens are featured in the club’s Yearbook. We also gifted and maintain “Big Bayne”, the Norway Spruce and surrounds at the entrance to Bayne Park in the heart of New Vernon.

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Our Initiatives

WE BEAUTIFY THE ENVIRONMENT!

  • We host flower shows
  • We arrange field trips
  • We host programs
  • We promote education
  • We fundraise
  • We decorate our village
  • We preserve our history
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Membership

JOIN US!

Become a member. Membership is open to all Harding Township residents regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation. Interested gardeners are invited to attend any monthly meeting as a guest. To apply for membership, or for more information, please fill out the form below or email newvernon.gardenclub@gmail.com. We look forward to meeting you!
Lucy Crotty, Membership Chair
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Become a member. Membership is open to all regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.

Interested gardeners are invited to attend any monthly meeting as a guest.

To apply for membership, or for more information, please fill out the form below or email newvernon.gardenclub@gmail.com.

We look forward to meeting you!
Lucy Crotty, Membership Chair

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Contact

NEW VERNON GARDEN CLUB, INC.
P.O. Box 1981
New Vernon, N.J. 07976-1981
newvernon.gardenclub@gmail.com

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Our Gardens

TUNIS-ELLICKS PARLOR GARDEN

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The Tunis-Ellicks Parlor Garden was established following the New Vernon Historical Society’s lease of Township property on the corner of Village and Millbrook Roads. The house, dating from the 1800s, underwent extensive renovation to restore it to its original condition. At that time, there were no gardens around the house, and the Historical Society wanted to establish a garden appropriate to the period. Cynthia Robinson – Historical Society member, landscape architect, and wedding floral designer – devised a “parlor garden” plan of clearly defined raised beds containing plants that would have been used at the time by the family for food, decoration, and medicine. Thus, each of the garden beds was designed for those purposes. Espaliered apple trees were planted along the side of the house. By current standards, this may appear rather exotic, but in the 1800s, it was a practical way to grow fruit trees in a confined area and also made picking the fruit considerably easier.

The Tunis-Ellicks House is used by the Club on special occasions. Every Active Member contributes at least one morning per year tending the Parlor Garden, which features plants that thrive in the sun.

SARAH D. ORTMAN PARK

The Sarah D. Ortman Park is adjacent to the Tunis-Ellicks Parlor Garden and contains only plant material that is native to New Jersey. This enchanting garden features a meandering, circular walkway and small wooden benches. Many of the plants in the Park were rescued from areas slated for development that would otherwise have been lost. The Park features plants that thrive in the shade.

The park was originally an unused municipal plot. The Township offered it to a Harding youth, who wished to create a pocket park as an Eagle Scout project. Ann Granbery, a local landscape architect, donated her services to draw up a plan, and various civic groups donated funds for the purchase of the original shrubs. The New Vernon Garden Club has assumed responsibility for the Park. Its focus has evolved to feature native plants, and the Club is now experimenting with some endangered and difficult-to-grow natives.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON BICENTENNIAL PARK

This garden, which features drought- and deer-resistant plant material, is maintained by Club members with the help of the Department of Public Works. It is located in George Washington Triangle at the crossroads of our village where Glen Alpin, Village, Lee’s Hill, and Blue Mill Road intersect at the one and only stoplight in town.
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Continuing Club Projects

PAULINE BERRY
GARDEN EDUCATION CENTER

The five town gardens listed below are all part of our Garden Education Center or GEC, where current plant inventories and horticultural information is maintained.
The New Vernon Garden Club continues to purchase and accept donations of quality books on horticulture and gardening, which benefit the gardening education section at the Kemmerer Library Harding Township.

BAYNE PARK

The Club, in cooperation with the Department of Public
Works, Friends of Trees, the Shade Tree Committee,
and the Environmental Commission, will continue its project
to refurbish the Park. We will work to interpret the
design, commissioned by the Club, which is now
incorporated into the Township’s Master Plan. We will
replace dead and dying trees and develop areas as the
Township finishes the hardscape.

TUNIS-ELLICKS PARLOR GARDEN

This charming garden requires weekly maintenance during the growing sea­son. All Club members are  required to work one gardening shift in the fall, spring, and summer.

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GARDEN DOCUMENTATION

This project, started in 2000, is to provide a visual and written description of Harding Township gardens at the turn of the millennium. Fifty-five private gardens and ten public spaces have been documented with photographs and descriptions; each was provided an archival accession number and is currently being inventoried. The project was completed in January 2013, at which time the albums were placed in the archives of the New Vernon Historical Society.

SARAH D. ORTMAN PARK

This native wildflower garden continues to change as the trees surrounding it die off. Special care is given to maintaining its woodland character. Research is continually being carried out on native New Jersey
species, and a plant inventory is maintained. Adding and preserving rare and endangered species is a primary goal. Club members work weekly in the Park.

KEMMERER LIBRARY
FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS

The Club provides seasonal flower arrangements on a weekly basis to beautify the main information desk at the Kemmerer Library Harding Township.

WWII MEMORIAL ROCK GARDEN

The garden is planted with red, white, and blue flowers for Memorial Day through October, and is supervised and maintained by our Club members.

GEORGE WASHINGTON BICENTENNIAL PARK

This park, which features drought- and deer-resistant plant material, is maintained by Club members with the help of the Department of Public Works.
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HOLIDAY DECORATIONS
FOR THE VILLAGE

The Club creates outdoor holiday decorations for Harding Township’s public buildings and merchants in the Village.

HARDING SENIOR CITIZENS

The Club works with Senior Citizens and presents them with seasonal floral gifts.
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MEMORIAL DAY

The Club, in addition to planting the WW II Memorial Rock Garden, fills and tends planters at the Kirby Hall Municipal Building and in the town center. Club members participate in the Harding Township Memorial Day festivities.
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COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Members of those community organizations that handle environmental affairs are invited to make presentations throughout the year. Club members voluntarily participate in the annual Environmental Commission’s Clean-Up Day in Harding Township.

ARBOREAL MANAGEMENT
INITIATIVE

As a result of devastation wrought by two storms, Hurricane Irene and the severe ice storm of October 2011, the Club funded and presented a seminar on best arboreal practices and continues to answer residents’ questions and to distribute an informational card with numbers to call when trees threaten to disrupt power lines.
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Club Officers

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President – Justine Kovacs
Vice President – Judy Buehler
Secretary – Ellen Laird
Treasurer – Judy Otterman

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