By Joette Kunse
Special to the Clarkston News

The Clarkston Farm and Garden Club is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2023.
To be a working club in the Clarkston community for 75 years is a statement of creativity, organization, and friendship.
The club was formed in Nov. 1948, a time when not many women in the community were working outside of their home. The Clarkston and Independence Township population around that time was under 5,000 people, so the town was small. A group of about 20 women met and decided to initiate a garden club under the auspices of the National Woman’s Farm and Garden Club that had begun about 30 years before.
For their first endeavor, the club tackled a rather large project in 1949. They wanted to beautify the approach to Clarkston on M-15. The club members sponsored rummage sales with funds to go towards landscaping the highway from Beaches Corners (Dixie Highway) to Clarkston. The state highway department and garden club provided the money necessary for this project.
With the funds, 60 oak trees, 49 flowering crabs, and 23 pine trees were planted. According to the Oct. 26, 1950 edition of The Clarkston News, “you may have difficulty locating the plantings as some are very small.” The story said the club will continue to raise money to plant in the village.
Another one of the club’s projects in the late 1960s was the creation of a Clarkston phone book with the Clarkston Jaycees. Michigan Bell began publishing a larger telephone book and the club members felt the convenience and intimacy of the small town telephone book was lost. Thirty members of the club took 30 pages each of the larger directory to cull only the Clarkston phone numbers. Students at the Northwest Oakland County Vocational Center typed and retyped the lists. Local merchants purchased ads to defray the cost of the booklet, which sold for $1.25 at the Fourth of July parade and in local businesses.
In 1968, long before the beautiful planters that grace downtown Clarkston today, there was a planter with a sign board at the corner of Main and Washington streets, where the parking lot is today. Again, the Jaycees and the garden club teamed up. The Jaycees built the planter and the garden club maintained the flowers in the brick planter. In the 1980s, the club placed half barrels along the side walks of Main Street and started plantings in the spring, summer, and fall. These barrels, which had a short life due to the freeze-thaw action, evolved into the planters of today around 2004.
In 1986, as part of Arbor Day and the 150th birthday of Clarkston, the club planted a pine tree with students at each of the elementary schools, and wrapped and gave 3,000 white pine trees to the elementary students. Member Gini Schultz wrote a play about the state tree, the white pine, and how to plant it before the students were given their trees to take home. Members of the club and a husband (Bob and Doris Beattie, Kay Robertson, and Gini Schultz), went to each elementary and performed the play on April 24.
Some club members would move away, but many members of the club have continued their active membership for many years. Three members have over 50 years of membership with the club and about 10 members have 40 years of service to the club. The majority of members in the club have 20 or more years, and there are people joining each year to add to the tradition to continue service to the community.
If you visit Depot Park, look for the tulip tree that was planted in 1992 by the club. Tulip trees grow anywhere from 80 to 120 feet. The club in an article in the Clarkston News cited the straight trunk can be as large as 2-5 feet and was used for canoes and cabin building in the 1700 and 1800s. Daniel Boone was said to have a 60-foot canoe he moved his family in down the Ohio River made of tulip wood.
When the playground was created in Depot Park, the club placed a mini truck that is still used by youngsters today.
The club has given scholarships to Clarkston students for over 65 years and continues to do so in 2023. Teachers were given scholarships to go the Department of Natural Resources Camp in the 1970s. Today, teachers can apply for mini grants to provide their classroom with extras that involve biological science and environmental activities. A fourth grade assembly on Michigan mammals is a yearly gift from the club.
The club began doing landscaping and flower planting at 90 North Main Street, when the township hall and the library were located there in the 1950s and 1960s. Members continued planting, watering, and maintaining the landscaping at the newer Clarkston Independence District Library on Clarkston Road for over 50 years.
Beginning in the early 1950s, the club began to sell greens at the “white clapboard church” on Main Street. Pictures show the pews were still in the First Baptist Church of Clarkston as the members displayed their greens. Today, it is the location of the Clarkston Union restaurant. Wreath and roping sales continue in 2023 and fresh, green Christmas arrangements are still made by members for sale.
The club is a big supporter of the Clarkston Family Farm as the students of the community can learn farming and gardening lessons there.
In July, the club held its 18th Clarkston Garden Walk, an event that helps support the projects they are involved in.
New members are always welcome to attend meetings and join the club. The club has always taken field trips and held meetings with programs about gardening and farming topics. Being a member of the club brings new friendships, projects, and creativity into your life, still going strong after 75 years.
For more information on the Clarkston Farm and Garden Club, visit clarkstongardenclub.org or email clarkstongardenclub@gmail.com.

PHOTO: The Clarkston Farm and Garden Club earned the Community Landscape Beautification Award from the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association back in 2021 for its work on the grounds of the Clarkston Independence District Library. Photo: Clarkston Independence District Library