Sowing the Seeds
Chapin Garden Club Celebrates Its 80th Anniversary
In 1938, six women gathered together to discuss how to bring more beauty to Chapin, and thus the Chapin Garden Club was born. Now celebrating its 80th anniversary, the group’s accomplishments have reached far beyond simply planting a few daffodils. They have quietly become pioneers in the education, conservation and beautification of Chapin.
With the mission in mind, Cindy Chin, the club’s president, and approximately 20 others meet to discuss gardening and preservation and to plan which areas of Chapin to “adopt” and beautify next. Their work can be seen around town, at places like the Chapin Chamber of Commerce, where they have developed and currently maintain a Carolina Fence Garden. This garden consists of a split rail fence, a Carolina Wren house, verbena plants and a butterfly bush, all of which attract the state butterfly, the eastern tiger swallowtail. The fence is covered with trailing vines of Carolina jessamine, our state flower.
Every year on Arbor Day, the club plants a tree. This past December the club planted an eastern redbud to beautify the grounds at Town Hall. The CGC also plants and maintains the flower urns at the Chapin Library and flowerbeds at the Lexington Sheriff’s Substation (old Town Hall).
The mission of ensuring natural beauty across Chapin has grown over time and evolved into more than planting in public areas. It often means recognizing and preserving existing beauty. The sighting of a Chapin resident pouring old paint down a storm drain by one Garden Club member inspired one notable act of preservation. In an instant, the club recognized that some people might not be aware that many storm drains lead straight into Lake Murray. Not only do residents swim and boat in the lake, many Chapin households draw their water directly from it. In the interest of educating local residents, the CGC contacted Lexington Storm Water Conservation consortium who provided them with medallions to tag storm drains in Timberlake and Night Harbor. The medallions clearly indicate that storm drains ultimately lead to the lake.
In another instance of preservation, Cindy Chin contacted South Carolina Blue Bird Society in Aiken because she was concerned that local housing developers were destroying the blue bird habitat when they clear cut large masses of land for development. Couldn’t they leave some trees for the birds? She brought the President of the South Carolina Bluebird Society, Mike DeBruhl, to speak and educate about bird habitat. The conservation and preservation that Chapin Garden Club promotes often involves educating Chapin residents.
There are basically three types of gardeners in the world. One focuses on growing beautiful plants to view and experience, and another focuses on growing and enjoying the fruits (and vegetables) of his labor. The third focuses specifically on planting to draw and sustain local wildlife, which is what Cindy and some other members of the CGC do. Cindy plants what the birds, butterflies, bees and deer will enjoy, and as her vast library of photographs attests, she is quite successful.
Approximately 12 years ago, the CGC had its members attain their Backyard Wildlife Certification through the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. The certification teaches how to create a nature-friendly backyard. For a backyard to be certified, it must have a water source, a food source and shrubs (for protection) where animals can hide/nest. It’s also a very good idea to plant native plants, which wildlife can enjoy. One might assume that South Carolina, a rural, red state with seemingly endless fields and forests, wouldn’t be so interested in creating nature-friendly backyards. In fact, it has more Certified Backyards than any other state in the nation.
With countless gardens grown to enhance the town’s beauty, Cindy Chin is proudest of the impact the group has had on the Chapin community. This past November, the Chapin Chamber of Commerce awarded the Garden Club the Stanley Shealy Community Service Award. The award recognizes nonprofits in the area that make a positive difference. The Chapin Garden Club is also proud to have a great relationship with Mayor Knight and the Chapin Town Hall.
The CGC continues to bring the joys of gardening and education to groups of all ages in and around Chapin. In what they call Petal Pals, the CGC brings flowers from their own gardens in recycled containers to the seniors of Generations in Chapin. Petal Pals offers senior residents a friendly visit and a pop of lively color that they would not otherwise enjoy. In April, they plan on adding at least 5 new blue bird houses to the Chapin Community Blue Bird trail, which already has–– thanks to the CGC–– 32 new nesting boxes across Chapin. And in May, the group looks forward to working with girl scouts in a workshop at Crooked Creek Park. The club will teach the girls how to plant cuttings and rooted plants, ultimately allowing them to earn their horticulture badge.
Gardening is not just good for the community, the environment and the wildlife. It’s good for the mind, body and soul too. Many doctors have completed studies that prove there are unintended health benefits of gardening. One study completed in 2010 found evidence that gardening can promote relief from acute stress. Another showed that regular gardening cuts stroke and heart attack risk by up to 30% for those over age 60. Gardening has also been proven to alleviate depression, maintain brain health, increase self-esteem, and even promote immune regulation. And regardless of what the doctors and studies say, any 6-year old can tell you, plain and simple: digging in the dirt is fun! So while gardening yields beautiful flowers and landscape, and provides food for the birds and the bees, it also helps the gardener himself.
The 80-year old club that seems to have only older members is a concern for Cindy. There are yearbooks documenting the work and many projects the club has completed around town. Cindy’s favorite photos are from the beginning when women wore hats and gloves, and many of their meetings involved enjoying a proper tea. “This is a Chapin history,” she implores. “I want it to continue.”
Chapin Garden Club welcomes anyone who is interested in learning about gardening. The group, usually kept to around 25 people, currently has 21 members, some of whom are avid gardeners, and others who are there to learn and contribute their time to the cause. They meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month, August through May. They have workshops and programs at each meeting that address specific topics (like growing and propagating African violets, vermiculture, and kokodama.) Upcoming programs include touring the historic gardens and homes at the SC Governor’s Mansion in March and learning about bees and the health benefits of consuming local honey from Danny Cannon of Bee Trail Farm. If someone is interested in learning about just a certain topic, they are welcome to drop in.
To grow a garden, you don’t need a green thumb, but you do need to like being outdoors, and you have to have a little bit of patience. Some of the easiest plants to grow in our climate are knock out roses (assuming color is the goal) and lantana, which requires very little care. While knock out roses may be plagued by Japanese beetles for a month or so, they are easy to grow, produce abundant flowers and do not require the rigorous care and maintenance of hybrid tea roses. (Cindy is often asked by her neighbors, “How do you keep the deer from eating your roses?” Her answer is simple. “Plant more than they can eat!”)
Lantana, a perennial––which returns year after year––is a huge draw for butterflies and hummingbirds. If you can dig through the clay that is sometimes found in Chapin, it’s easy to plant these two, and there is no pruning required.
Another plant that grows well in our area, even underneath the ever-present pine trees, is the azalea. For foodies, rosemary is as hearty as plants come, and can easily thrive outdoors. Basil can be treated as an annual outside as well. As cold weather approaches, all the leaves of a basil plant will dry up and fall off, and it will seed. Birds love the seed and, with a bit of luck, some of the seeds will germinate and produce a new plant in the next spring.
For indoors, Cindy prefers easy to care for plants such as philodendron or Sansevieria (snake plant) with orchids and Bromeliads being good choices for beautiful, long lasting flowers in the home. For the garden her favorite plant is society garlic. A perennial, which requires little care, it draws butterflies and hummingbirds. The delicate purple blossoms lack the pungent odor typically related to the species, and it continues to bloom until the first hard freeze. Cindy has shared the society garlic she brought from Charleston 12 years ago with everyone in the garden club. It’s all over Timberlake. It’s gone to Spartanburg. It’s gone to Rock Hill... Her personal mission is to spread society garlic––and the joy it brings–– across South Carolina and beyond. The key to gardening is simple: don’t be too perfectionistic about it. “Keep an open mind when you’re gardening,” Cindy advises. Don’t worry if the deer eat some of your flowers, because others will come up. Parsley planters may initially be disappointed when they see caterpillars eating its leaves, but if one leaves those caterpillars alone instead of trying to “save” the parsley’s plant, the result will be a kaleidoscope of Swallowtail butterflies.
Photos of Cindy’s backyard seem contrary to her advice. The perfectly pruned plants and flowers displayed and the wildlife teeming upon them look like they belong in a meditation garden in the valleys of Nepal. Perhaps practice (and just a bit of pruning) make perfect.
To learn more about the Chapin Garden Club, email Cindy Chin at chinhome@aol.com.
Photographs by Cindy Chin.
