Sharing the Delights
It has been my great honor to serve as your President this 2023-2024 Club year. I could not be more delighted with what we’ve accomplished together. You will not find a more hard-working Board, committed to Cultivating Delight through Gardening and Community Service than this one.
From our support of the Laguna Beach school gardens to the pollinator gardens at Heisler Park and Bluebird Park. Providing support to Hortense Miller Garden and the butterfly garden at Blue Bell Foundation. The pollinator garden at the Sawdust Festival grounds. Tending the Laguna Presbyterian Church rose garden and pocket park. Supporting the Glennwood House kitchen garden and welcoming their residents into our Hive, bringing us such joy. Providing scholarships to Laguna Beach High School and Saddleback College students. Sawdust Green Day, Taste of Laguna, Arbor Day, Memorial Day, the Patriot’s Day Parade (just wait until you see what Diane Kloke has planned for 2025!). Participating in Doheny State Park’s butterfly garden refurbishment and Earth Day celebration. We have forged new friendships enjoying our Trips & Tours to Descanso Gardens, the Huntington Library and Gardens, The San Diego Botanical Garden, the South Coast Garden Show and the Green Thumb events. You have filled my ‘little red pony’ with 1,295 empty egg cartons, giving them a second life and providing enough cartons to cover the Laguna Food Pantry’s needs for an entire year.
We have forged a new partnership with Laguna Art Museum as part of their Art + Nature program. And we continue to support Laguna Canyon Conservancy, Penny Pines and the Xerces Society.
I have no doubt our 2024 Gate & Garden Tour will be our best one yet. It’s the tour and the revenue it generates that allows us to do all the wonderful
community service projects we do. Both the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register describe us as the premier garden club tour in SoCal. High praise and well- deserved.
Our line-up of speakers is world-class. No one says “no” to speaking to our Laguna Beach Garden Club thanks to our stellar reputation.
Speaking of speakers, who could have guessed that only 18 short months after Matt Willey’s ‘The Good of the Hive®’ presentation at our September 2022 meeting we would have our very own ‘The Good of the Hive®’ mural gracing the walls at LBCDW? When the mayor says “every time I pass by the mural I smile” you know you’ve done something good. This mural is a beautiful metaphor for seeing the connectedness of all things and reminding us that we need to think collectively, like bees, as we work toward solutions for the good of our Hive called Planet Earth.
The crowning delight was the proclamation recognizing the first Saturday in May (coinciding with our annual tour) as Laguna Beach Bee Day, now and forever more. This provides a special day set aside each year to celebrate bees and the essential role they play in our lives.
We are financially sound. We have grown our membership to over 240 delightful people. We have elevated our presence in the community. Being a member of the Laguna Beach Garden Club is an honor. We are ‘not your granny’s garden club’ and the community knows it. It’s a year to be proud of!
Like a healthy hive, it takes every member of the hive doing their part. This upcoming 2024-2025 club year I challenge each of you to get more involved. Pick something and dive in. Start small. Or start big! I guarantee you will discover more delight and joy in your life and make life-long friends. We will be celebrating our 100 year anniversary in 2028. Get involved now to make the next 100 years even better!
– Jane Leary