The Koochiching Men’s Garden Club is looking for a few good men.
With membership aging and in decline the club needs new gardeners to carry on its civic and social goals. Interested men are invited to attend a meeting at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at Barney’s Restaurant.
Tom Barthell, club president, said that members have fellowship and pride in the organization and want new members to “continue to beautify and enhance the overall appeal of International Falls.”
“Our numbers are down and our ages are up,” said Orin Simon, vice president of the gardening club.
Simon said members enjoy the informal social aspects of gardening and performing a civic duty. He said new members, with or without gardening experience, are invited to join and will learn a lot of skills.
Members enjoy anything to do with gardening and are not limited to flowers, said Simon. They also talk shop on everything from apple trees to vegetable gardens. Simon is himself a tomato expert who gives away the fruits of most of the 50 varieties he grows annually.
“Everybody likes to see flowers,” Simon added.
Tom Sakry, club secretary, said he wants people to know the club offers a great service opportunity without a big commitment.
“They are not saddled to it,” he added. “It’s pretty loose and fun.”
Founding members got together for floral projects at the county fairs in the early 1950s, according to Sakry. There was a large membership at the time, including Bob Richmond of Richmond Floral, Charlie Johnson and Charles Knoblauch.
The club was established in 1956 when Don Petman brought the enthusiastic gardeners together to beautify areas around town. That dedication and the organization grew.
“Don Petman was a walking encyclopedia,” said Simon. “He had a lot to offer. Whenever there was a question he had a handle on it.”
A lot of the trees for projects came from the maples on Petman’s eight hole woodchip course in Kabetogama.
“He had a green finger,” said Sakry. “He started (the club) with a unique group of people, who all have a distinct love of watching things grow, and like to make things beautiful in summer.”
The gardening club, like most social organizations, is experiencing a decline in membership as working parents with two jobs are discouraged from making commitments and joining groups, said Sakry.
“Eventually, if we don’t have people volunteering to do this, it’s going to dry up and the city is going to have to pay to have it done and it would be expensive,” said Sakry.
Older members were raised on or worked on farms and gardening was part of everyday life, said Sakry. Younger people don’t have those experiences, which could add to the club’s lack of new members.
“That farm connection is drying up,” he said. “That farm connection is a valuable experience.
“You will find the old timers are very receptive and want to pass along information without being critical,” he added.
Steve Johnson, Falls Streets and Parks commissioner, said the city receives many positive comments about its flower beds. The gardens are located in city parks and lots, cemeteries, across from the Falls High School, and along with entryways to the Good Samaritan Center, the Chamber of Commerce.
The city hauls in soil, railroad ties and the plants. The club members offer the time and labor to plant, weed and perform other chores. They bring skills to design gardens and knowledge of soil, insects and plant diseases.
Without the gardening club, the gardens could not otherwise be maintained to the level the are, said Johnson.
“What they do is obviously very noticeable and positive,” he said. “They are the ones that should get credit for what they do.”
Future projects are on hold, said Johnson, as the decline in membership makes it difficult to accomplish more work without additional help.
For more information call Barthell at 283-9567, or Simon at 283-4076.
