Thursday, August 18, 2011 – 2pm to 6pm (no business meeting)
Farmers Market
Location: Grafton Common
The Grafton Garden Club will be at the Farmers Market on the Grafton Common talking about the upcoming year and the benefits of being in the Club. Come and help spread the word about the Club or stop by and visit with us and shop for fresh produce and plants. Call Deb to volunteer or if you have any questions.

Saturday, September 10, 2011 – 2:00 pm (no business meeting)
Memorial Planting for Josephine McNulty
Location: Willard House, 11 Willard Street, North Grafton
Please join us for a short ceremony and the planting and dedication of a holly bush in memory of Josephine McNulty at the Willard House and Clock Museum. We plan to take cuttings from the holly each year and use them as part of the Willard House decorations.

Saturday, September 17, 2011 – 1:00pm (no business meeting)
Kids and Adults Safari at the Grafton Conservation Area on Merriam Road
Location: Merriam Road (park along the entrance)
Cost: free for children and adults
Join Natural History Guide Christy Barnes on our journey to learn and enjoy the late summer wildflowers at the Merriam Road Conservation Area. We’ll also scan the fields and forests for resident and migratory birds. Bring binoculars, insect spray, and sunscreen.

Saturday, October 22, 2011 – 1:00 pm
Pruning Trees and Shrubs: Lecture and Demonstration
Location: Helens' Home
Cost: free/members; $5/non-members
Joseph Biagioni of Arbor Alliance will provide the basic steps of pruning. He will identify for us the tools and techniques used. Then, we will move outside and he will demonstrate the art of pruning trees and shrubs. Wear suitable attire for an indoor and outdoor presentation.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 – 10:00 am (no business meeting)
Decorating the Willard House & Clock Museum for the Holidays
Location: Willard House, 11 Willard Street, North Grafton
Please join us as we decorate the Willard House and Clock Museum in Victorian motif in time for Grafton Celebrates the Holidays.

Friday, December 2, 2011 – 7:00 pm
Kissing Ball Workshop
Location: Municipal Center, Room E-2
Cost: $15/members; $25 non-members
Join Tina of Bemis Farm Nursery as we create our own Kissing Ball in time for the holidays. All materials are provided. (Tina charges $29 for this workshop at her store; so we’re getting a really good bargain.) Reservations must be made by November 18, 2011 by sending your check to Grafton Garden Club, PO Box 453, Grafton, MA 01519-0453. Call Deb to charge over the phone, or see her at a meeting.

Sunday, December 4, 2011 – noon – 4 pm (no business meeting)
Grafton Celebrates the Holidays
Kissing Ball Display (upstairs)
Kid’s Workshop (downstairs)
Location: Community Harvest Barn, 37 Wheeler Road, North Grafton
Cost: free and open to the public
The Kissing Balls made by Club members will be on display at the Community Harvest Barn. This project aligns with Grafton Celebrates the Holidays. Also, we will be downstairs again with a kid’s workshop to make reusable birdfeeders out of flora and fauna shapes created by the Grafton Middle School. Please join us at the Barn if you can help.

Friday, December 16, 2011 – 7:00 pm
Holiday Party
Location: Willard House, 11 Willard Street, North Grafton
Cost: free for members, families, and their guests
Come see the Victorian decorations of the Willard House and Clock Museum and enjoy a holiday celebration. Over 80 Willard clocks are exhibited in the birthplace and original workshop of the Willard clockmakers, along with family portraits, furnishings and other Willard family heirlooms. Works by all three generations of Willard clockmakers, including famed clockmakers Simon Willard Jr. and Benjamin Franklin Willard, are also displayed. There will be a presentation of the activities of the Grafton Garden Club. We will have a cookie swap, so bring a plate of cookies to exchange.

Thursday, March 15, 2012 – 7:00 pm
Native Pollinators in Your Garden
Location: Municipal Center, Grafton, Room E-2
Cost: free/members; $5/non-members
With the alarming deaths of 30% of all honeybees in our country due to Colony Collapse Disorder, we are in desperate need of other pollinators if we hope to have fruits, vegetables, and berries in our future. Wildlife Biologist Caren Caljouw will demonstrate how we can encourage native pollinators (how many can you name?) to replace the disappearing honeybee. Ms. Caljouw currently is the Stewardship Coordinator with the East Quabin Land Trust and was the Manager of the Natural Area Preserve for the Virginia Department of Conservation for 7 years and the Director of Science and Stewardship for the Nature Conservancy before that.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 – 7:00 pm (no business meeting)
Fashion in Flowers: Ornamental Gardens in the 19th Century
Location: Grafton Historical Society Museum, 1 Grafton Common
Cost: $5/members
Christie Higginbottom, the Research Historian and Garden History Consultant from Old Sturbridge Village, will present a colorful and informative program for the members of the Grafton Garden Club and the Grafton Historical Society. Ms. Higginbottom has worked as a costumed interpreter at Old Sturbridge Village since 1981. She coordinated the historic horticulture program by researching, planning, and planting the re-created kitchen and flower gardens at the museum’s historic households. She has retired from full-time work at OSV and continues to work in costume part-time as she presents garden programs for the Village. She has lectured and held workshops at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello, The Paul Revere House, the Seed Savers Exchange, The New England Wild Flower Society, along with other venues. Now, she is bringing her presentation to The Grafton Garden Club and the Grafton Historical Society. Come and enjoy the presentation with members of both groups. Reserve your space early by sending your $5 check to the Grafton Garden Club, PO Box 453, Grafton, MA 01519-0453.

Friday, April 20, 2012 – 7:00 pm (no business meeting)
Changes in Flora and Fauna from Thoreau’s Time to Today with Peter Alden
Location: Community Harvest Barn, 37 Wheeler Road, North Grafton
Cost: free
Come hear Peter Alden, a world renown naturalist, lecturer, ecotourism guide and author of 15 books on nature, talk about the changes in flora and fauna from Henry David Thoreau’s time to today. In Thoreau’s time, over 90% of New England, south of the White Mountains was a sea of grazing fields and farms, sprinkled with tiny patches of woodland. The landscape, its use (and misuse), as well as the number and variety of plants and animals have changed drastically over the last 150 years. Today the land is mostly wooded, flanked by jungles of invasive plants and an ever-expanding sprawl of roads, chemlawns, McMansions, and soccer fields. Thoreau didn’t know the moose, deer, beaver, and turkey that have stormed back in recent years. Other species that used to live here have been lost. Learn how and why the landscape changed and what effect it has had upon the birds, mammals, and plants over the years. Enjoy the presentation with members of both the Grafton Garden Club and the Grafton Land Trust.

Saturday, April 21, 2012 – 9 am to 2 pm (no business meeting)
Grafton Garden Club Presents: Grafton Community Day
Location: Grafton Common
Cost: Free for all
Help clean up Grafton! This is the 7th year of this community-wide event and it is a great way to come together for the good of our neighborhoods. Letters to the editors of the Grafton News and the online Grafton news (Grafton Patch and The Daily Grafton) complimented the volunteers who created and maintain the Welcome to Grafton sign plantings. That was done as part of the first Grafton Community Day! Create a team and clean up the neighborhood. Then come to the Common at noon and enjoy lunch and activities for the kids. Call Dawn for details, to help on the Common, or to form a cleanup team.

Saturday, April 28, 2012 – 10:00 am (no business meeting)
Work Party to Eradicate Oriental Bittersweet in Grafton
Location: Forbush Sanctuary Trail, North Street
Cost: free
Come prepared to do bittersweet battle. Bring gloves, insect repellant, and loppers (if you have them). The trailhead is at 38 North Street, which is between Chestnut Street and Merriam Road. Parking is along the curb on North Street and on Chestnut Street. Contact Ken for more details at ken.webb2@verizon.net.

Sunday, April 29, 2012 – 9:00 am (no business meeting)
Official Opening of the Grafton Community Garden
Location: Lee Knowlton Community Garden, Estabrook Street
Cost: free
The Grafton Community Garden committee will be opening the Community Garden that was named in honor of Lee Knowlton. There will be a short meeting where we discuss the goals of the community garden and provide a short introduction to the garden for new “renters” of the plots.

Saturday, May 19, 2012 – 9:00 am – 2:00 pm (no business meeting)
Annual Plant Sale and Raffle
Location: Grafton Common
Cost: Varies; items for sale
The Grafton Garden Club Annual Plant Sale and Raffle provides the majority of our scholarship and grant money. We offer annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, herbs, vegetables, along with raffle and bake sale tables and activities for children of all ages. There will be a barbecue lunch. All members are encouraged to help out on the day of the sale. Call Carolyn at 508-839-7497 for details or to volunteer. Fun for the whole family! For your convenience, credit cards are accepted.

Saturday June 9, 2011 – noon
Annual Meeting and Luncheon
Location: 17 Fitzpatrick Road, Grafton
Cost: free and open to MEMBERS ONLY
We will have the Annual Meeting and luncheon in Barbara’s beautiful gardens. Please bring your own lawn chair and wear your favorite sun hat.

Sunday June 10, 2011 – leave Grafton at 9:00 am
Carpool trip to The Mount in Lenox
Location: depart from the back of the Municipal Center, Grafton
Cost: $28 (entrance to mansion and gardens)/members and their guests
Edith Wharton designed and built this extraordinary Georgian Revival Style mansion in 1902. She spent nearly as much money on the construction of her gardens as she did on her home. We will visit her mansion and her walled, English, French, rock, kitchen, and cutting gardens and terraces. The first female novelist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Wharton fashioned a world of beauty where she could write in peace and entertain her distinguished friends.