Purpose/Mission
Building relationships through our interest in gardening and nature. Our motto is: We Grow, We Conserve, We Beautify.
Meetings
3rd Thursday of the Month at 6:00 pm usually at the Plainwell Ransom Library or the Otsego Township Hall.
Fiscal Year: July 1 – June 30 | Organized: 1956 | Federated: 1960
Officers
- President: Cathy McAuliffe
- Vice President: Bunny LaDuke
- Secretary: Becky Johnson
- Treasurer: JoAnne Beertema
- Council Directors: Sherri Bronson
Committees
- Arbor Day
- Awards
- Care and Concern
- Community Gardens
- Fundraiser Spring Plants Sale
- Greens Sale Swags Project
- Membership
- Memorials
- Newsletter
- Nomination and Policy
- Programs
- Publicity, Facebook, & Other Social Media
- Seed Library
Community Activities
The club works with local community officials to provide horticulture and landscaping support within the communities of Otsego and Plainwell.
CURRENTLY:
- We maintain a popular Seed Library at the Plainwell Ransom Library. Seeds are free, along with helpful gardening information.
- We will be growing vegetables in one of the many community raised beds at the Ransom Library and donating the harvested produce to local food banks.
- Our members maintain and enhance several community gardens and Blue Star Memorials in both Otsego and Plainwell and receive continued support from both cities.
- Each year we actively participate in the annual Kalamazoo Garden Council’s Greens Sale by making projects to sell, making fresh Holiday arrangements or by volunteering to work the event.
- Every other year, we are involved in the Kalamazoo Garden Council’s Flower Show. This is open to the novice as well as the experts and many walk away with ribbons.
For over 50 years, Chula Vista has held our Annual Arbor Day Project. This is a major activity where each year five hundred tree seedlings are selected, purchased, bagged with soil, and presented to all 3rd graders in Otsego and Plainwell schools. Coordinating with the school administrations and teachers, a presentation is provided on flash drives, along with the seedlings. for teachers to educate the children about the value of trees, information about the tree they were receiving, and some tips on how to plant and care for their new tree seedling.
IN THE PAST:
- In 2018, working with the City of Plainwell Parks & Trees Commission, Chula Vista initiated a landscaping plan for a fern garden area within Hicks Park in downtown Plainwell. More than 300 bare root Christmas ferns were ordered and planted by Chula Vista members, friends, and City workers. The ferns continue to flourish and enhance the beauty of the park.
- The director of the Otsego Dept of Public Works (DPW) has attended Chula Vista meetings and worked with Chula Vista on the Otsego Blue Star Memorial Garden and to develop a pollinator garden, along the walking trail by the Kalamazoo River and in front of the Otsego DPW building.
- In 2018-19, Chula Vista members partnered with the Plainwell Department of Public Works (DPW) employees to plant 75 flower boxes for the bridges in the City of Plainwell.
- In 2021 Chula Vista arranged with the City Parks & Trees Commission and the Plainwell DPW to have an Eagle Scout (nephew of Chula Vista President) construct and donate 12 new very long baskets to hold massive plantings of annual flowers on the bridges and to allow expansion of the Plainwell community flowers project to an additional bridge.
- National Garden Clubs, Inc., has made three children’s books related to gardening available over the past several years. Chula Vista has distributed them to all public and elementary school libraries, in both Otsego and Plainwell, including the latest one, Network with Nature.
Programs for 2025-2026
Monthly programs include speakers on various horticultural or environmentally-related topics or field trips to special gardens or other facilities which feature horticultural, landscaping, or environmental programs.
July 17 / Garden Walk @ Patt Hewitt’s – Meeting afterwards @ Portage District Library Time TBA
August 21 / What’s New at Blue Horizon’s Nursery by Paul & Bill, & Meeting (Plainwell Ransom Library 6 pm).
September 18 / KVCC Valley HUB Tour – ($3, Time TBA, Meeting @ Council House TBA))
October 16 / TBA
November 20 / Steps to Create Healthier Land, by Amy Seymore & Meeting (Plainwell Ransom Library 6 pm)
December 11 / Annual Holiday Potluck and How to make Evergreen Garlands, by Deb Royal& Meeting (Royal Estates, 5:30 pm)
January 15 / Mitchell Satyr Butterfly, by Nate Fuller & Meeting (Plainwell Ransom Library 6 pm)
February 19 / Raised Beds & Other Small Spaces, by Mandy Dixon (MSU Ext.) & Meeting (Plainwell Ransom Library 6 pm)
March 19 / Make and Take Stone Birdhouse & Meeting ($5) – (Otsego Township Hall 6 pm)
April 17 / Arbor Day Tree Project , light supper & Meeting (Otsego Township Hall, 3 pm)
May 9 / 1st Spring Plant Sale at Nancy Lewis’ house, 1941 Cygnet, Otsego, (9 am- 2 pm)
May 16 / 2nd Spring Plant Sale at Otsego Farmers Market, M-89/Kalamzoo St (9 am – 2 pm)
May 21 / What is an Arts & Crafts Garden, by Kathy Kienle & Meeting (Kalamazoo Council House 6 pm)
June 18 / Potluck & Installation (Royal Estates, 5:30 pm)
Club Highlights
Chula Vista Garden Club, organized in 1956, in the Plainwell and Cooper (B Avenue) area, began with 10 members. These ladies were new home owners and they wanted to learn more about flower gardening. Amy Vandegiessen, flower show judge, encouraged these ladies to become federated — which they did in 1960, and this prompted them to join the Kalamazoo Garden Council.
Over the years since then, our numbers have grown to between 35-40 members, and many of our members have been active in Kalamazoo Garden Council and Michigan Garden Clubs activities and leadership.
The 1970’s were active times for us. We had many educational programs on topics such as: wildflowers, orchids, environmental pollution, etc. For the Greens Sale we made terrariums, floral arrangements, and candle holders. For the bicentennial, we planted beds of red, white and blue flowers in downtown Plainwell and at the local hospital. It was in Spring, 1976, that our club began giving trees to local third graders to celebrate Arbor Day and to teach the students to respect and care for the earth. This project has continued and grown annually for 46+ years. We now give away about 500 trees and develop and provide a program on trees to 3rd graders in all Otsego and Plainwell schools.
We are proud to have 4 NGC Accredited Gardening Consultants (1 Master), 1 NGC Accredited Environmental Specialist, 7 NGC Accredited Landscape Design Consultants (1 Master); 11 State Life Members, and 2 National Life Members. We also have 8 Master Gardeners, including 5 Advanced Master Gardeners.
We have a plant sale each year where members donate plants from their own gardens. Community members look forward to this annual plant sale, and the club earns monies to use for projects or donations to gardening-related causes.
The Kalamazoo Garden Council (KGC) Louise Adams Beautification Award is named after our member, past club president, and past KGC President, Louise Adams, who was instrumental in organizing this award. Our Club has participated in this program each year since it has been in existence.
We participate in the Kalamazoo Garden Council’s annual Greens Sale by making greens arrangements for sale at the event. It is a festive time of year, and everyone enjoys the activity. The funds earned benefit the Kalamazoo Garden Council Greens Sale, and it is the culmination of the club’s major contribution to the event.
