(upbeat bright music) - Will you "Consider This"?

We have 100 years of the Peoria Garden Club.

Who knew?

And also, how did Peoria, Arizona get started, and is it a grandchild or a child of ours?

With me right now is Barbara Kane.

She is the Co-President of the Peoria Garden Club, welcome.

- And welcome, and thank you for having us.

As a representative for the Garden Club, I appreciate it.

- Well, that's good.

All right, first of all, we're gonna start out with, who are you, where'd you come from?

- Okay, actually, I'm still explaining that to people at the Garden Club.

Some of them have been there for decades.

But anyway, I was born and raised in the Chicago area, suburban Chicago area.

And both of my parents gardened and enjoyed.

We were outside a lot, as our generation was, playing outside.

Mom planted the flowers and dad planted garden vegetables.

And then when we moved on to another house, he continued to do that.

But the funny thing is, I remember my mother saying, "Your dad will come home and say, "'What are all the holes doing in the yard?'"

And she couldn't decide where to put things.

And I thought, that's very much the way I am today.

You kind of, as a gardener, you have to decide, how it's gonna look.

And then sometimes you put it in and take it out.

- Because it doesn't work there because of the shade or whatever.

- Whatever, you don't like the look of it, or yeah, exactly, right.

So that's kind of funny story.

And then the next house we moved to in the Chicago area, my dad was actually quite handy at things, so he put split rail fences around the corners of the yard and grew climbing roses up them.

And he had a large garden in the back that was filled with dirt that was two railroad tires high.

So most of it was a flower garden my mom had.

But in the corner, of course, he had his corn, and his beans, and his squash and whatever else he was growing.

- [Christine] So how much room did he have?

- The yard was pretty wide.

- I was gonna say corn will take up a lot of space.

- Yeah, so that was kind of funny.

So then when we moved to, well, we went to Illinois State, met my husband, and then we moved here to Peoria in 1976.

In 1978, and on in it to 1979, we had our first home in Nalcrest, and we started redoing our landscaping.

- [Christine] Did you pull things out or just put things in?

- There's a great picture of my husband standing proudly with a chain saw that just cut down an old juniper that was totally obliterating the front of the house.

And there was a white siding and a brick underneath.

And our neighbors told us, "Well, I've been here for years "and I didn't even know there was brick."

- [Christine] Is it because they couldn't see it, 'cause of the big juniper?

And they can get outta hand.

- Yeah, right, so we started planting bushes around the house and smaller things.

We had a little porch that came forward, so we planted some smaller things there.

We redid a brick patio, and then I had a garden, a vegetable garden I was so proud of.

And it was behind the garage, the one car garage, and along the side that faced west.

And I would literally almost leap outta the car after work every day to run back and see how much things had grown and whether I needed to fertilize or cut it back or whatever.

I remember I even grew brussel sprouts.

- Wow.

- So I found out how they grow tall and hang on the stems.

But the funny story about that is that there was a volunteer sunflower and it grew taller than me.

So it was between six, six and a half feet.

And so one day, I was so excited to come home and see it and I was going to take the seeds out 'cause they had ripened to the point where I could tell that they were ready to take out.

- So you would cut it down?

- The bloom was this big.

- Right, and then you would cut it down and put it out to dry or what?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- And collect the seeds.

But unfortunately, the birds had discovered the same thing.

So when I came around the end of the garage, it was still standing, but there were no seeds in the middle.

- Oh, well.

- It's kind of a funny story - Well, the birds enjoyed it, that's for sure.

- Yeah, I'm sure a lot of gardeners have other stories like that, especially with deer or rabbits.

I've lost some hosta, even putting a deer fence around the hosta.

And you go out one day and it's there and the next day it's down to the ground.

- Just down to nubs.

They can be pesky.

- Yeah, that's right.

- They can really be pesky.

So do you have a green thumb?

- I have a green thumb for outdoor plants.

I do not have a green thumb for indoor plants.

They call it a black thumb.

I think that's what I have.

- I've heard of that before, yeah.

- I love succulents, forms of cacti and so forth.

And I bought several and I thought, "Oh, I put 'em in the window downstairs "in my basement "'cause it gets lots of light and everything."

And I just kill 'em.

- They don't like it.

- I dunno how I do it.

And we've had other things through the past that people have given us, unfortunately.

- Do you talk to the plants?

You're supposed to talk to them.

You're supposed to like schmooze 'em.

- You are, I don't know that I did that enough apparently, you're right.

- Or maybe you over-watered if their succulents, maybe over-watered them.

- That's right, over-watered or I let it go too long before I watered and watered too much.

That's true, that's very true.

- I think they get used to you.

But you're pretty good with the outside things.

- Right, with the outside, And when we went to Peoria, when we moved from Nalcrest, then the second house, we had the basic landscaping put in and then I filled in with bushes, smaller bushes, and roses, and perennials, and annuals and pots, et cetera.

And we had a little yard area on the side that had some trees and things, and I was always in there pruning and things like that.

And then the house we have now has a much smaller yard, so I scaled down what I'm doing as far as landscaping, but always working on something and asking my fellow Peoria Garden Club members.

- Yeah, tell me about that.

How do you know what is going to work, what's not going to work, what the combination is gonna be?

At the garden club, you have a lot of members who have been through it all, been there, done that?

- Oh, absolutely, and they have huge gardens, and have the experience of working with having failures and successes.

So for instance, I lost some red twig dogwood, which is very pretty, variegated, and they got some sort of a fungus.

No one knew the answer why they had died.

Well, at the ICC Horticulture Day, the Peoria Garden Club has a stand there and Ella Maxwell was working there.

So she worked at Hoerrs for decades.

And so I asked her, and I showed her a picture of my red wig dog when she automatically knew exactly what fungus it was and what not to put there the next time.

So I put a totally different bush there next time, and now they're thriving.

- Really?

- But that's an example of the mentoring that they can do.

The ladies and gentlemen that are in the club are just so knowledgeable and friendly and impart information.

And every meeting, somebody's got a question about something.

- Right, so tell me a little bit about the club.

Well, it's been in existence since May of 1924.

- That's correct, and the lady who started it, who was the president for 20 years was as she was put in all the articles, Mrs. Deloss S. Brown.

Her name was Vonna.

And I did a little research on her.

She actually was a socialite, a very prominent family out of Wartburg, Illinois, which is near Decatur, between Decatur and Springfield.

And then I even found a article that talked about the wedding, and how- - I bet about the flower arrangements too.

- Yeah, the flowers, fabulous at 300 guests.

And this person who wrote the article possibly out of the Decatur paper at the time, I'm not sure, it was 1905 when they got married and how fabulous the wedding was.

And it was the biggest event that happened in that town for years.

So that was kind of interesting.

So as far as, did you ask me about Peoria Arizona also?

- Right, so she was the president of the Peoria Garden Club for 20 years, but then she and her husband moved west.

Is that right?

- He apparently moved west before they got married.

- Oh, oh.

- So I don't know how often they went back and forth.

- But that was tough travel, that was in 19, wow, yeah.

- Before this turn of the century.

- Before 1920, yeah, exactly.

- That's right.

- [Christine] Gosh.

- And what happened there is that he and Mr. Greenhut, who was the biggest whiskey distributor in the country, if you can imagine, along the Illinois River with the corn supply, et cetera, et cetera, he got involved with Mr. Deloss Brown, I think it's Deloss Brown.

Anyway, and he was a land developer.

So they put their heads together and they knew another gentleman called Murphy who was building an Arizona canal to water the fields, and I don't know where the canal originated, but to water the fields out in Arizona.

So they went out there in the 1860's or '70s, I believe, 1877 I think.

And they went out there to see whether or not they could develop a land.

- Some kind of an irrigation system too.

- Exactly, irrigation system in a town.

- Okay.

- And they did, and they filed for land tracks in 1897.

And then there was a couple who moved there a couple of years later was his land manager.

And he had his family there, and they lived, there was even a picture of a little hut that they lived in 'cause almost no one was there except him.

And then it grew to Peoria, Arizona.

They named it after Peoria Illinois.

So a lot of people, I guess don't know that story.

- I love that story.

- So, historical facts, I went on the website for "Peoria" magazine in 2012.

They had a feature on how this all...

It said, "The other Peoria", if anyone wants to look it up.

So, interesting, so I don't know how he met Vonna was her name, but they got married in 1905.

And in 1924 she, along with some other people in town, and I'm not quite sure who they were, prominent citizens that they probably knew formed the Garden Club.

- [Christine] Socialites.

- Social, yes.

- Probably, yes.

- Yes, and who had homes up on the hill off Detweiller Drive, or especially, Moss Avenue, or Glen, where the Pettengill-Morron House is and so forth.

And fiberglass gardens, and so they had an interest in it, so they decided to form this club.

- And it's been with the exception of World War II when you were just on hold because of the war and postwar, you've been running really, that was just five or six years that you were on hold?

- Yeah, from '44 to '51, it was not running.

And then it started back up again with a new president.

And it's been going ever since then.

Either there's been one person or co-presidents.

And it's interesting, we have scrapbooks that go back to the '30s that have been kept.

- Pretty fascinating.

- It's fascinating.

A lot of newspaper articles, there was a byline specifically about gardening and plants, and there was part Peoria Garden Club members were featured in it a lot in their gardens and themselves, and several prominent members of the garden club through the decades.

Some of the ladies who were in the club now had mothers or aunts who were prominent members who are now in the club and carrying on the tradition.

- From back in the day.

And you have people of all ages in the club now.

- Yeah, I was just gonna mention that.

We really would like to get more younger members, but anyone's welcome, and all skill levels are welcome.

- Okay, brown thumb, black thumb.

Preferably green thumb.

Or at least- - Wanting to learn.

- The will to ask some questions.

- Exactly, and they'll be somebody who will be able to answer their questions, no doubt.

- So what do you do in your meetings?

Or how often do you meet?

- We meet, and it's been established for quite a while, we meet the first Thursday of every month from September through May excepting for January at the McKenzie room in the Peoria North Library.

That's the big room right when you walk in the double doors to the right.

- Out on Allen or off of Allen Road.

- Correct, off of Allen Road, correct.

And we start at noon and we have a social half hour.

We have cookies, tea, coffee, and water.

And everyone says hi and gets to know each other, and can just go in.

You register your name.

And if someone comes in as a guest, they can be a guest for three times before they decide whether or not they'd like to join.

So that's about a half hour.

And then we have a short, it's not really business meeting, it's just announcements that we think the entire membership should know about that the board, which is made up of the positions that are serving as well as the committee chairs.

- So President, vice president, treasurer, secretary?

- Exactly, exactly, past president.

And then we have committees also like the social committee.

We have a workshop group, we have a membership group, so forth.

So they're all a part of the board, and they're the voting members.

So we relay the information that we feel people should know or they can ask questions about things.

And then usually about one o'clock, the program will start.

- And who does the programs?

Who do you schedule for those programs?

- Well, there is a committee that does the programs.

They schedule 'em for the whole year.

- [Christine] And they all have to do with plants?

- [Barb] No.

- Oh, okay.

Oh, but horticulture, wildlife?

- Exactly.

- [Christine] Okay.

- Yeah, it's not limited just to plants.

And we have a lot of programs on pollinators, wildlife.

- [Christine] Oh, that's really important right now.

- Yes, exactly, and we have a lot of speakers from the University of Illinois extension office here, or the Farm Bureau, or individuals who are very well versed in their area.

For instance, there's a man locally, I don't remember his last name, but his first name is Herb, and he is a bluebird expert.

and he has built over 100 bluebird houses.

And he spreads 'em all over the community.

And he keeps track of them.

And he has people record if they have a nest, and how many eggs, and if they fledge.

And so that's an example.

Another gentleman speaks on coyotes.

Someone would speak on pollinators.

People have lovely gardens that they display.

And our last program of the year was how to make your garden more whimsical.

And she tuned her whole backyard into a garden.

- Really?

- Yes, it was amazing.

- So, with flowers and plants, or a combination and then Little fairies, little statues?

- Exactly.

- Little gnomes and things?

- Exactly, she had part was a fairy garden, part was a covered area where you could sit and enjoy it from sitting outside.

Part of it was a little patio.

And depending, like you said before about the exposure to the sun is very crucial.

And amount of rain, and also the soil is very crucial.

So we all talk about amending the soil.

So that's the first thing we'll say, "Don't forget to amend the soil," when we're talking to someone about planting something.

- So what does it mean to amend the soil?

That's add some organic something or another, or compost or?

- Exactly, depending on the plant, how much drainage it needs.

You said exactly right, like compost, maybe a little sand needs to be added, mixed with the dirt, certain proportions.

And it makes a big difference when you initially plant something.

A lot of homes are planted with clay soil, or have clay soil, or timber soil, which is more sandy and loose, so you may have to dig a bigger hole and amend it all the way around the roots to get your plant to grow better.

- But you find somebody to talk to when you're about to buy the plant.

You said you've even gone to nurseries and you'll talk to somebody and say, "Okay, here's what I have, "here's where I wanna put it."

- There's experts there.

Most of the nurseries are owned by families I've found.

And so these people have been working there for decades in some case, so they have a lot of information.

So I call it pick their brain.

So I'll go into a nursery and pick somebody's brains about, "Well, this is the exposure I have "and this is where I'm going to put it.

"And what would you recommend?

"And what maybe diseases it could get or whatever?"

And they have great advice for you.

- And they're happy to help?

- Oh yeah, oh, absolutely.

- What about the cicadas this year?

Did a lot of things get attacked with the cicadas?

We didn't have any in my neighborhood.

- Yeah, that's a good question because that was a big conversation.

And we had a lady who's in the Garden Club, Nancy Crawford, and she spoke about the cicadas.

She knew someone who was an expert that she got information from, as well as her own knowledge.

Anyway, she talked about when they were gonna come, they stayed for about six weeks.

Now, personally, I'm on the northwest side of Peoria.

in a new neighborhood, newer, so we didn't get very many, but some people who had older trees had loads of cicadas.

And so she recommended putting netting over the younger trees because the female cicada could slit the tree and plant their eggs in the bark.

- Right, but then somehow, they get down underground for however many years.

- Apparently, they crawl out as nymph after they hatch and drop in the soil.

And if you look around a tree, now, that may still be there, it may not, you see the little tiny holes.

- Little holes, right.

- That's where they crawled out.

- Okay, yeah, well, and you'd think that maybe it was aeration or something, but no, it was cicadas.

- [Barb] It was cicadas.

- How about it?

All right, so your meetings are on?

- Every first Thursday of the month through the year.

December, we usually do have a Christmas luncheon.

We do have fundraisers where we have raffles.

Let's say we usually have someone come in at the Christmas luncheon, and make lovely arrangements.

This arrangement, I purchased this morning for Christine.

- Look how cute it is.

This is a Mason jar.

It's a pretty Mason jar.

- I know, I found that.

Anyway, and we have that going on.

Our other fundraisers, we were not able to have the Green Acre sale at Metro, but we are gonna plan to have it this year.

I believe it'll be the first Saturday in May under the covered area at Metro Center where all the vegetables are offered, so forth.

- And you stagger these fundraisers like on even years and odd years or free try?

- No, that one isn't staggered, but the garden walks are staggered.

- [Christine] All right, so tell me about garden walks.

- We had a garden walk a year ago in June of 2023, and I thought I'd show the flyer.

It was in one neighborhood called High Point.

And Seven Gardens offered us access to the gardens and worked very hard to make them look very pretty.

And we sold tickets.

The tickets are very reasonable.

I think they're $15 and $20 the day of the garden walk.

And you get to see all the gardens, and the owners are there and they talk, about their garden and they talk about their plants.

And that's one thing.

Another thing we do, excuse me Christine, I'm gonna pull this out here.

And we have 100th anniversary committee that's been working for a year, and they made some objectives.

The first one being, giving back to the community, educating members in the public.

We gave a special scholarship besides the two we annually give to students at ICC in horticulture or agribusiness or some form like that.

- And how long have you been doing those scholarships?

Or do you know?

- Oh, that's a good question.

I don't have the answer for it.

- As long as you've been a member.

How long have you been a member since?

- Since 2015, so even before that.

And usually, we give two a year.

They're $1,000 each, and then an additional one this year.

Plan a special civic project, which we've been doing various and have a joyful time.

But anyway, some things that we've done in the past as a group, way before my time, we grew and planted two gardens at Luthy Gardens, specifically one for children, an educational garden, we call it.

Wildlife Prairie Park, we put up and we just recently gave them money to plant pots, refurbish the pots around Wildlife Prairie at the Peoria Airport, Civic Center.

- You're just beautifying everywhere.

- I know, Pettengill-Morron House, Neighborhood House, Friendship House.

The one I would like to focus on this year, we gave money to five different civic projects in the community, plus we upkeep the pots in front of the Peoria North Library, it's called CREW 309.

- CREW 309, okay, tell me about that.

- Yes, CREW 309, we have a member in our garden club that's involved in this.

It is an organization that rows to keep healthy as they're all breast cancer survivors.

- [Christine] Rows as in row, row, row?

- Yes, actual rows, and they row out of East Peoria.

They have a boat moor there, I guess.

Maybe a couple of 'em, I'm not sure.

And I think they have about 50 members.

And then they have a space inside next to Ardor or- - Across the street from Ardor?

- [Barb] No, just next door to Ardor.

- Oh, okay.

- They're in that building.

And they have a space that has rowing machines, so they can go there and work out.

They have lockers.

This has all been donated by local doctors.

- [Christine] Interesting.

- Yes.

- So breast cancer doctors or cancer doctors, or you don't know?

- I don't know if it's limited to breast cancer doctors, but yes.

- But what a great idea.

- [Barb] Yeah, it's a great idea.

- That they can stay healthy and get to stay in shape.

- Exactly.

- And you're supporting them how?

- Well, they came to us and asked us to fund, there are what they call six by six raised concrete tree pits, that's what the City of Peoria calls them.

And the one that was in front of their entrance on the corner of Liberty and Water was just dead.

It was just full of roots, so nothing was in it.

So they dug down, they planted bulbs for the spring that came up.

The city came and planted a small red bud.

And right now, it's full of petunias and canna lilies, and I'm not sure, another blue flower, I'm not sure, a perennial.

So they planted perennials and annuals in there and then they might change it out for the seasons.

But they took it over and then we- - The CREW 309 people took it over?

- Yes.

- So they water it and weed it and do whatever?

- They take care of it.

And that's one thing that we request of the civic projects people, is that they have to maintain it after we give them the money.

And there's a few other projects at Kellar Primary School at the Elise Ford Academy, 4-H Learning Garden at Wildlife Prairie Park, Limestone Key Club.

So it varies year to year.

- Good for you.

So in order for anybody to get more information, where do they go to find you?

Or is there a phone number to call, or there's gotta be a website.

- Yes, yes.

- I do know there is a website.

- We are updating our website, and updating our Facebook page.

So if you are a Facebook person, you can Google Peoria Garden Club on Facebook and it'll come up.

I believe, did you say you?

- I did, I saw it.

- Yeah, our website is all one word, peoriagardenclub.org.

And it is up and running, but I believe so, but we are still adding some information to it.

- Good, good, so it's been fun for you to be involved in this, and at least your thumbs are green when they're outside.

- Yeah, the camaraderie is wonderful, and the helpfulness.

There's somebody there who can answer a question no matter what it is.

- Which is a relief when you think of the investment in a little bush, a little plant, a little whatever, you wanna make sure it's gonna be green.

- Yes, and I know there's more interest in natural planting and native plants.

There's some experts who are master gardeners and master naturalists who could answer your questions there also.

So we have a variety of experiences in the members that we have.

- [Christine] Fascinating.

- But we want anyone to join and it's very reasonable.

It's only $25 a year.

- Well, happy 100th birthday to the club.

- Thank you!

- And thanks for being here, and sharing your story, and the story of the Peoria Garden Club.

- I was glad to be here.

Thank you so much - And I hope you enjoyed it and these lovely things.

And just stay with us.

Stay with us all the time.

"Consider This" anytime.

Have a good evening.

Stay healthy and well.

(upbeat bright music)