Plant, Grow, Connect: Ramona Garden Club Springs into the Season

Ramona Garden Club now has 90 members, according to the club co-president, Jane Vidal. They enhance the community through various horticultural initiatives. “There’s quite a lot of stuff we do,” says Vidal. 

Members maintain areas at the Collier Community Park twice a month by planting native and water-wise plants in the southeast corner. In this area, they take care of trees, larger plants, scrubs, succulents, and the Australian garden in the corner. The middle section is a large garden with native plants and a wide variety of other plants. Vidal says her co-president, Teri Schmidt, started maintaining gardens at Collier Park, and she is amazing. The park also has a children’s garden. “It’s a nice community project right in the middle of Ramona.” Vidal says they have a rose garden near the side of the tennis courts and a crew of folks that maintain that area.

The Ramona Garden Club has an ongoing beautification project at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. They maintain the Chandler Herb Garden near the Tiger and Elephant exhibit. “We were asked to help beautify it,” says Vidal. “It’s our thing.” They also have flowers in front of the Ramona Library and donated a floral arrangement to the Ramona Senior Center.

The Ramona Garden Club has awarded $47,000 to 42 high school seniors who are pursuing an education in the general field of horticulture, agriculture, and environmental science. They have just entered their 17th year of scholarship giving, with $ 5,500 slated to be awarded this year.

In 2024, The Ramona Garden Club awarded three grants: San Diego Humane Society, Ramona Community Montessori School Garden, and Chandler Herb Garden at Safari Park. They donated funds to provide three trees to the Penny Pines Restoration Project, a conservation initiative to replant and restore national forests in California that have been affected by fires, pests, or other natural disasters.

The Spring Plant & Craft Sale is coming up on Saturday, May 3rd, from 10 am to 2 pm at Ramona Oaks Park, with all proceeds going to the High School Scholarship Fund. They will feature a variety of plants and scrubs, as well as flowering plants and succulents. They will be selling beautiful crafts for the garden. “Just in time for Mother’s Day,” says Vidal. “And a nice way to spend a Saturday.”

The club has committed to an annual purchase of four plantations, totaling $272, to support the Cleveland National Forest reforestation program. People donate at every meeting toward the reforestation of California State Parks, and they chose to designate the money to Cuyamaca. They try to budget three certificates, $68 each, which buys an acre of trees to be planted in Cuyamaca State Park.

The Ramona Garden Club contributed $300 to the California Garden Clubs Inc., President’s Project. CGCI is a non-profit organization that promotes gardening, floral design, and environmental responsibility. The Ramona Garden Club has won a blue ribbon award from CGCI, held many craft and propaganda workshops to produce products to sell, organized two successful plant and craft sales, provided plants for Mountain View Community Church landscaping, enhanced our local library with flowers, plants, and a decorated Christmas tree, decorated a tree at Collier Park for the holidays, and initiated a “Propaganda Team” for their plants sales.

The club enjoys field trips to places like Agave Hidden Ranch, Ramona Humane Society, Ramona Protea Farm, Waterwise Botanicals, Gnosis Nursery, Poway Kumeyaay Center, Kathy & Vern Kilcrease Gardens, and a train ride at Mary Ann Rodarte’s home.

Ramona Garden Club meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month at Mountain View Church at 11:30 am. Members bring food for potluck lunch, and the public is welcome. At their monthly meetings, they learn from informative speakers like Marsha Cook, Linda Bresler, Daniel MacDonald & Stephen Leonard, Dean Karras, Debbie Gomez & Ramona Valencia. In March, their guest speaker, Roy Kilburn, gave a talk: “All About Tomatoes.”

Due to the heat, the Garden Club takes the summer off. Their last meeting is in May. In June, they have the installation of officers at Collier Park with a picnic and start back up in September. The fee to join the Ramona Garden Club is $30 for an individual and $40 for one additional family member.

The Ramona Garden Club fosters a sense of community and encourages a love for gardening among residents. Come join us!

Photo courtesy of the Ramona Garden Club.