Garden club digs into strengthening roots

Carolyn Lowry-Nation usually has a smile on her face and a little dirt under her fingernails — two signs she’s a gardener.

Lowry-Nation is also the founder of the Gardeners Out East Club. While she doesn’t go a day without gardening, the Esplanade resident says she actually started the club to grow and cultivate friendships, not only to propagate plants.    

Gardeners Out East is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Despite a bumpy start in 2014, the club has made its mark on the Lakewood Ranch area over the last decade, and now has some 40 active members. 

The club has installed a butterfly garden at Summerfield Park, a Blue Star Marker at Town Hall and a Gold Star Marker at the Lakewood Ranch Library, among other accomplishments. The markers honor active and fallen members of the military and their families. 

Photo by Lori Sax

Gardening and environmental issues are the focus of the club’s activities, but supporting veterans and active military members has become the mission of the club’s philanthropic side. 

In 2014, there were only six friends in the club. They needed 10 to become a part of the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs. They recruited four more members, and became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 

The next challenge? They discovered they had no place to hold meetings. 

Lakewood Ranch Town Hall wouldn’t accommodate them because another garden club was already meeting there. Undeterred, the gardening group began meeting at each other’s homes and took field trips. They also used a room inside a Northern Trust Bank office. 

When the Robert Toale & Sons Celebration of Life Center opened in 2022, meetings were held there. Ten years after forming, the club recently found a permanent home, at the Lakewood Ranch Library on Rangeland Parkway.   

In addition to the Gold Star Marker that stands across from the library’s exterior stairwell, Gardeners Out East donated a wooden flag that hangs inside the library’s entrance. The hand carved flag was purchased from Heroic Flags, another Lakewood Ranch nonprofit on a mission to support veterans. 

The markers are provided through a National Garden Clubs program, which provided the Gardeners Out East with a direction. From there, members started looking for other charitable endeavors that benefit service members and veterans. 

The club gave Vets 2 Success a donation because its services fit the club’s philanthropic mission and passion for gardening. The culinary program taught veterans how to cook with homegrown ingredients. 

“Our next venture will be to raise funds for scholarships of children of veterans or whose parents are still serving,” Club President Nancy Schneider says. “We’re going to have a plant sale.” 

The club’s next field trip will be to Celery Fields in November. Members will be led on a nature and birding tour by an Audubon docent. 

Celery Fields is an easy drive down Interstate 75 to Fruitville Road in Sarasota, but the group has caravanned as far as Bok Tower Gardens — two hours away in Lake Wales. 

There are over 40 members in the club, and the Gardeners Out East welcome everyone — women, men, even those who don’t live out east or garden.

“If they want to come, they’re more than welcome,” Schneider says. “You meet a lot of people that you wouldn’t know without the garden club.”

Last July, members met former HGTV star John Gidding when the club hosted a stop on his book tour. Over 100 people attended the event to get gardening advice from the former host of “Curb Appeal.” His book, “At Home with Nature,” recommends native plants to reduce watering. 

The club is picking up where Gidding left off for the welcome meeting in October. Karen Eckert, former club president and master gardener, will discuss gardening for residents who have moved to the area from other climates. 

The club meets monthly from October through May. The meetings cover a range of topics. 

In January, members are scheduled to learn about the importance of ponds from Biologist Sean Patton, who specializes in habitat restoration. February’s meeting, meanwhile, will cover Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Attendees will watch a demonstration and then make their own arrangements to take home. 

“The members are not all active gardeners, but they’re active friends,” Lowry-Nation says. “We talk about environmental issues and a lot of things besides gardening.”