As the growing season goes into full bloom, the Garden Club wraps up the 76th year of service to Simpsonville with an award-winning year of projects.  Back in August we started off the year with a grant from the Laurens Electric Cooperative that provided funding to start a Community Education and Vegetable Garden. The classes at Head Start were able to enjoy learning about the plants and patrons of Center for Community Services (CCS) enjoyed the harvest. In April, the project won a 1st place Garden Therapy Award from the West Piedmont District. The garden continues to thrive even with school ending. At the end of May we reaped the largest harvest yet of 6 cabbage, 21 radishes, and 11 turnips for the CCS food pantry. The project initiated the community garden expansion through donations of 12 more raised beds for CCS. We are still looking for community volunteers and businesses to help fill these with soil and work in the garden until the next frost. Our year concluded with a tea party and how appropriate for a state that started the tea party movement. Dr. Anne Peden shared with us the history of tea in SC which has roots right here in the Golden Strip area. New officers were installed and awards given to our most outstanding members. The tea was the final step in treatment for our plant blindness that could now be upgraded to an occasional forgetfulness of a plant name here or there. 

Another award-winning project was Hydroponics, which won 1st place for Community Service in the West Piedmont District and 1st place for Conservation of Natural Resources from the Garden Club of South Carolina. This project started with 6 hydroponic systems donated from CCS. One of these systems sponsored environmental education at Fountain Inn High School and another system sponsored undergraduate environmental and biotechnology research at Bob Jones University. Over the year, the project received grant funding from the Greater Greenville Master Gardener Association and donations of 4 more systems and parts from Mill Village Farms. Throughout the year we harvested over 50 gallons of fresh produce that was donated to the food pantry at CCS. We now have 12 full hydroponic systems operational. We are looking for high schools or people interested in learning how to grow produce using sustainable agriculture methods to help maintain and harvest these systems at CCS through the year. It’s a great learning experience that combines biology, chemistry, and engineering. 

At our May tea party, we celebrated all our club’s achievements and learned about the history of tea in SC. Dr. Anne Peden shared with us the role of SC in the tea party movement, which has roots (literally) right here in the Golden Strip. New officers were installed and awards given to our most outstanding members. Congratulations to Denise Merkling for winning Woman of the Year 2025! We are looking forward to our new club year that starts August 12. 

If you are interested in helping with any of our projects or joining our club, then please contact us through our website www.simpsonvillegardenclub.com.●