Knowledge and Friendships Bloom

Members of the Ho-Ho-Kus Garden Club concur that if there’s one thing they know about gardening, it’s that there’s always more to learn.

Take Sue Robertson, who has been part of the club for more than 30 years. She says she picked up some gardening know-how on a superficial level from her parents (tomatoes would sprout from their compost pile, an occurrence that always intrigued her dad). But she wasn’t particularly interested in gardening until she moved to Ho-Ho-Kus at age 50 and decided she wanted to delve into the art.

“I joined the Garden Club and was so intent on learning as much as I could that I would eavesdrop on conversations,” Roberton says. “I’d be talking and listening to neighboring discussions with one ear. What I’ve learned from the club is endless—it goes on and on and on.”

And yet, she wanted to know more. About eight years ago, she decided to become a master gardener, attending classes in Hackensack for 9 months and completing 100 hours of volunteer work.

“Becoming a master gardener makes you feel like you know nothing—there are people who have degrees in soil science, for example, not to mention all the other subtle aspects of gardening,” she says.

The varying degrees of experience, knowledge, ideas, and skills each person brings to the club are among the things participants love most about the group, longtime member and current president Lynda Byer says. That and the fact that no one judges others for what they may or may not know.

Paul Magliano and his wife, Pat Magliano, moved to town five years ago and are grateful for the community they’ve found within the club.

“Joining something new can be intimidating, but there’s no intimidation,” Paul says. “We’ve made such wonderful friendships in the past four-and-a-half years. It doesn’t matter if you have zero knowledge; no one looks down on you. The club is very welcoming and friendly.”

Growing and Evolving

When the Ho-Ho-Kus Garden Club was formed in 1919, it was a men’s club for vegetable gardeners. By the time the 1950s and ‘60s rolled around, more women were getting involved, and the plantings also became more diverse.

In the 1960s, the Johnson Beautification Program—a nationwide urban beautification and environmental improvement initiative championed by Lady Bird Johnson during her time as First Lady—had repercussions locally, and the club purchased dogwood trees to plant along each side of Route 17 in the borough.

When environmental interests were nationally stirred in the 1970s, the club lobbied state officials for maintenance funding in support of the Green Acres Environmental Protection Plan and donated dozens of fruit trees to Ringwood State Park to advance the initiative.

The 1980s brought greater reach, with the club planting a tree at Great Falls in Paterson and helping fund the renovation of The Stable in Ridgewood.

In the borough, the club was and still is vital to beautification, putting its touch on so many outdoor spaces throughout town. From providing $1,500 worth of shrubs and trees at the Police Department/Ambulance Corps building (pre-renovation), to planting more than 1,500 bulbs along the Ho-Ho-Kus Brooke embankment and providing dogwood trees to any residents who wanted one for a period of time.

Byer, who is on her second tenure as club president, says her mom was always a green thumb, and when she had her own home in Ho-Ho-Kus, she wanted to start her own garden.

“I started like many people, with not so much knowledge,” she says. “The first time I planted based on colors and plants I liked, and I quickly learned it’s really all about the sun and the shade, and what the deer and other animals will and won’t eat.”

She joined the club in 2004 after a friend convinced her to attend a meeting. Byer has fond memories of attending the club’s annual plant sale on the green, a longstanding tradition, and purchasing a fern plant wrapped in aluminum foil for $1.

“One of the things that I always tell people I appreciate so much about the Garden Club is that I have met people that would not have known any other way,” she says. “In town, you meet people through the school and your children, but Garden Club people are fascinating, interesting people from all aspects of life.”

Nicole Zanetakos, the program director and one of the club’s younger members, agrees.

Like the others we spoke to, after gardening with her father growing up, she says she realized she was still a beginner when she began her own garden at her Ho-Ho-Kus home.

She says she has gained a wealth of knowledge from other members and the amazing programs and speakers the club prides itself on hosting.

“Gardening has been very therapeutic for me,” Zanetakos says. “I think it’s very important to garden—it does something for our emotional wellbeing as a species. Humans have been working with the land for hundreds of thousands of years; to suddenly stop is not good. It feels good to keep working and gardening.”

Giving Back

One way the Garden Club supports future gardeners is by providing annual scholarships to qualified local-area college students majoring in horticulture or environmentally related studies. Byer says the club has a particularly good relationship with Bergen Community College.

Funds for the scholarship are raised at the annual plant sale on the green, where perennials (many dug from members’ own gardens), annuals, hanging baskets, and gently used gardening equipment are sold.

Members say it feels good to give back to those starting their education in the field. They also feel great pride walking around town and seeing the various spots they tend to.

Whether it’s the garden along the Ho-Ho-Kus Brook named for longtime member Sally Ditton—a “brilliant gardener,” according to members, who shared her expertise and artistry with the club before her passing in 2015, or the plantings at the Hermitage, Sycamore Community Church, or the library, where an herb garden was also recently added.

Paul, who says he’s always liked planting, maintaining, landscaping, and beautifying his property, and coming up with solutions to problems (namely, how to keep those pesky deer from eating everything he grows), says seeing what the club contributes to the borough is meaningful.

“Beautifying the town and even your own property or street feels good,” he says. “People walking by might comment that they love your flowers and maybe you’ve brightened their day for a few minutes.”

Robertson adds that half the fun of being involved with the Garden Club is that it’s fun.

“It isn’t just work, or commitment to the community, or the responsibility of gardening, which are so important,” she says. “But also, everyone is so nice, and you feel like you’re part of a community, and that contributes to your enjoyment.

The Ho-Ho-Kus Garden Club meets from September through May on the last Monday of the month, usually at Sycamore Community Church at 7:30 p.m. For more information about the club, visit the website, hohokusgardenclub.com, or the Instagram page @hhkgardenclub.

Photographs by Joe Nolan 

Sarah Nolan is a writer with a passion for telling people’s stories. A Ho-Ho-Kus native, she believes in the power of local journalism to connect and inform residents and foster a sense of community.