Bumper Crop of Garden Clubs
Bill Stolarik strolled down the path of his community garden, checking for wayward berry bushes, rotten tomatoes and the biggest scourge of all--weeds.
First he spotted a sunflower exceeding the six-foot maximum. Then a mammoth zucchini too plump to possibly be edible.
“That’s not right,” said the 81-year-old garden cop. “That’s just plain old neglect.”
Citations will be forthcoming.
Every few weeks, Stolarik and three other green thumbs turn their critical eyes on the crops grown by members of the garden club at the Casta del Sol retirement community in Mission Viejo. Sloppy gardeners are not tolerated--which is clearly spelled out in the club’s two-inch-thick rule book.
If a plot doesn’t pass muster, Stolarik’s squad will slap the member with a citation. If the problem persists, the gardener will be called before the club’s nine-member Board of Directors and could lose a cleanup deposit, which can run up to $40.
“And if he has a bad attitude about it, we may just ask him to resign his membership,” said Stolarik, the club’s president. “We run a tight ship here.”
The club has collected more than $100 in cleanup fines this year--mostly from members who left the group without clearing away dead plants and weeds.
As for all the rules, most club members say they don’t mind. It keeps the gardens shipshape and the club running smoothly.
“It’s a good thing,” Frank Bazso, 72, said of the regulations as he toiled over his garden of parsley root, sorrel, leeks and kohlrabi. “It takes a lot of nerve to manage it all. It’s a big job.”
Most of the club’s 148 members take gardening just as seriously as Stolarik and his squad. They spend hours watering, weeding and nurturing.
“I’m out there every morning, except Sunday, from about 7 a.m. till noon,” said Raymond Dooley, 77, a founding member of the club, which was formed in 1979.
Some members have set up their gardens with elaborate irrigation systems, sturdy fencing and rows of crops so straight it looks as though a measuring tape was used to mark them off.
Even the club’s “junkyard” is organized, with wooden stakes, chicken wire and other miscellaneous items neatly sorted in a fenced-in corner.
For many seniors, gardening clubs offer an opportunity to remain active, physically and socially, said Dr. Gary Small, a geriatrics psychiatrist and director of the UCLA Center on Aging.
“It’s important that people be involved in things that have personal meaning to them,” Small said. “The fact that these seniors elect to be involved in gardening clubs suggests they are doing something that’s meaningful to them, and they have the added advantage of being with other seniors who have similar interests and the physical activity that is going to help them with their mobility and cardiovascular health.”
In many senior communities, the gardening club is among the most popular organizations.
With a membership of 125, the gardening club in the gated retirement community of Palmia, also in Mission Viejo, is one of the largest, said club member and City Councilwoman Gail Reavis.
Reavis said her club doesn’t have a book of regulations, just “a little pamphlet that we give to new members.”
At Leisure World in Laguna Woods, the gardening club is 200 members strong, said Barbara Brounstein, its president.
“It’s a terrific group to belong to,” said Brounstein. “It’s nature at its best because everything grows if you give it a chance. . . . It sort of becomes like a child. You start with something tiny, and with care, hopefully it will grow and flourish.”
Members in the Palmia and Leisure World clubs pay annual dues of $7--about half as much as Casta del Sol members--to cover the cost of guest speakers at monthly meetings. They share planting tips and cuttings and take field trips to nurseries and botanical gardens.
So do the members at Casta del Sol. Recently, a botanist from Disneyland spoke to the group. Members still rave about that presentation. They also throw pizza parties, a potluck in the spring and a sit-down holiday dinner in December. They share their harvests with one another and with neighbors.
Earlier this year, the club spent $23,000 to install decomposed granite walkways that meander through the 2.8-acre garden, now brimming with a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Club members lobbied the Casta del Sol homeowners group for money every year for five years and came up with $13,000. They covered the rest themselves.
Stolarik said the project was necessary because the old paths were hazardous when wet.
“One morning I heard a voice calling for help--a club member had gotten stuck in the mud,” Stolarik said. “Another time, someone slipped and we had to wheel the member out in a wheelbarrow.”
Thelma Cullings, a Casta del Sol member for more than 20 years, said the club activities have helped keep her “young and healthy.”
“Everyone thinks I’m 10 years younger than I am,” said Cullings, who admits only to being older than 70. “I have no health problems, and I attribute it to the garden.”
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Garden Patrol
A 2.8-acre garden in a Mission Viejo retirement community has its own set of “garden cops,” who make sure each plot is well-groomed and properly cared for.
