From sharing seeds to planting tips, the gardening community in Ruxton is one of inclusivity and fellowship.
Dr. Hristina Schlaggar and Betty Cohen* are two residents of the Baltimore County community who share a passion for gardening. They share not only a yard but membership in the Lake Roland Gardening Club, a group that has thrived for around nine decades.
“The goal of the club changes every year, but typically it’s for members to learn all kinds of different things about anything to do with plants,” says Schlaggar. “Every month, we do something. We can have a guest speaker or have an event and go somewhere. For example, we’ve gone to the Baltimore Museum of Art, and we had a docent take us around for an hour to art pieces that have to do with nature and outdoors and plants.”
Says Cohen: “We’ve learned about growing different things to make teas, we’ll go out to Chanticleer [botanical gardens in Wayne, Pennsylvania], or some of the other gardens.”
In the Lake Roland Gardening Club, members must participate in community service activities to maintain their status. “We actually make Christmas table arrangements for the Waxter Senior Center downtown,” says Schlaggar. “So every December, we make arrangements for their tables that last about a month.”
In their own neighborhood, Schlaggar and Cohen area also part of an informal club called “the Garden Gang.”
“There are lots of people in the neighborhood that care about gardening — and not just plants, but also food — so we just naturally organized,” says Schlaggar. “Once a year, usually in spring when everything starts growing, we’ll meet at one neighbor’s house and walk around several neighbors’ yards, and end up in another neighbor’s house, and we’ll have some drinks and food and hang out. We exchange seeds or even just some plugs.”
Says Cohen: “It’s created camaraderie. It’s just nice to know that we’re all there for each other.”
Aside from their social gardening activities, the women have thriving personal gardening lives. Cohen has more than 50 species of plants in her garden, with a variety of trees, vines, flowers, bushes and succulents. Because of the expanse of her garden, she says, “During the summer, I’m literally out here every night watering.”
In her garden, Schlaggar says she tries to only grow native plants purchased locally. “The majority of my plants I buy from Herring Run Nursery, which is a nonprofit native nursery in Baltimore. It’s part of Blue Water Baltimore, which is a nonprofit organization, and one of their missions is to make sure that we have clean water in Baltimore,” she says.
Although maintaining their yards has taken lots of effort, Schlaggar and Cohen find gardening a cathartic experience.
“I just get lost. Time goes by really quickly,” Schlaggar says. “Where there was nothing or just grass, now there are plants, there’s life, there’s color, there’s bugs, there’s bees. It just makes me so fulfilled.”
When asked for advice for novice gardeners, Cohen says, “Don’t be afraid to try things. Just do it, read the instructions. See if it requires shade or full sun. Go to garden centers. Ask. The only way you learn is by doing, and the same in cooking or anything else. Even for the most experienced gardeners there are failures — and expensive ones sometimes. It just happens, but it’s part of life!”
* Not the actual name of the interviewee
Isabel Reed is Jmore’s editorial staff intern.
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