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New Lansing Garden Club marks beginning of a greener Lansing

by Melanie Jongsma

LANSING, Ill. (January 22, 2019) – “We’ve come to announce the creation of the Lansing Garden Club,” said Diane Lund and her husband Rich during the Public Comment portion of last week’s Village Board meeting. “We’re very excited.”

Lund is an avid gardener, and her yard is a Certified Natural Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. She retired last year from her job as librarian at Heritage Middle School, where she also built gardens, including a Certified Natural Habitat designed to attract monarch butterflies. She and her husband were also part of Lansing’s Beautification Committee, a volunteer group that took responsibility for the plantings around Lansing’s welcome signs, in the planters along Ridge Road, and at focal points such as the History Garden and Fox Pointe.

Diane Lund is an avid gardener, and her yard is a Certified Natural Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. (Photo: Melanie Jongsma)

She’s hoping to find other garden enthusiasts who understand the importance of gardens and gardening. She describes the club as “a non-profit informal club whose members love to garden, whether it is growing a large formal garden, a small vegetable garden, or patio containers.” The mission of the Lansing Garden Club is to stimulate a love of gardening, native species, pollinators, and birds in the community and at home.

Beyond the Garden Club

In fact, Lund would love to see Lansing become certified as a Natural Habitat Community by participating in the National Wildlife Federation’s Community Wildlife Habitat program. She had downloaded a checklist of the certification requirements (PDF), and she informed the Board, “This is very doable. And there are some nice grants available as well.”

Rich and Diane Lund have experience in becoming certified. (Photo: Melanie Jongsma)

Lund’s dream of seeing Lansing become “a visionary community that preserves and nurtures nature while promoting business growth and desirable residential areas within its boundaries” is not out of reach. Lansing has already shown movement in that direction. In 2016 the Village offered free rain barrels to residents; in 2018 the Lunds were instrumental in changing an ordinance that had prevented beekeeping; the Lansing Garden Club will be a next step in being green, and a few minutes after the Lunds’ presentation, Village Administrator Dan Podgorski described a new parking lot plan that had earned a grant as a Green Infrastructure Project.

Joining the Garden Club

The Lansing Garden Club will meet on the third Tuesday of each month, 6:30–8:00pm, in the community room at the Lansing Public Library.

The Lansing Public Library is located at 2750 Indiana Avenue in Lansing, Illinois.

Melanie Jongsma
Melanie Jongsma
Melanie Jongsma grew up in Lansing, Illinois, and believes The Lansing Journal has an important role to play in building community through trustworthy information.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Congratulations, Diane! This is awesome. There is historic precedent for the Garden Club! I looked in up in the Historical Society files today. A Lansing Garden Club was formed in 1951. They put out trash containers along Ridge Rd. and had a float in the 1954 Centennial Parade. They were still in existence in 1979. I’ll have to look up more info to find out when they disbanded.

  2. Do you have to be a resident of Lansing to join? Do you have garden walks?
    Do you know or have knowledge of Dolly Foster? I nominated her for Master Gardener Golden Shovel Award in 2017 and she won,does lots of work on monarchs! Lives in Hammond Indiana gives great presentations on all life stages of monarchs!

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