Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Luckey Garden Club, started by Marlene Long and Stephanie Schumski nine years ago, is a small group of residents and neighbors who look to help make their town look beautiful throughout each year, highlighted by their efforts with a free community garden over the past seven years.
“The community garden was formed as a place for people in the community that maybe didn't have a sunny yard, maybe they lived in an apartment or they wanted to learn about gardening,” Luckey Garden Club’s director Lisa Skriba said. “Various members of the community have their very own garden at the community garden. We have raised beds. In addition to that, we have built more beds where we grow strictly to give that food away. The people who take care of it are the people who garden at the community garden.”
Aside from Skriba, who is a former council member in town, Carla Rahrig serves as president, while Linda Clay and Wilma Meyers are both treasurers. The duo of Cindy Fellman and Rachel Geiser serve as managers of the community garden, where they schedule work days and staffing, among other things.
In total, the group has a core of around 13-14 women. A third of them are at least 70 years old, and Skriba said it’s a passionate group who want to make Luckey a more beautiful place.
“We have always put our extra food out on a free table,” she said. “This year has been phenomenal. I pick usually in the morning, or another gardener, and we will put trays out of produce, and it is gone by the afternoon. As fast as we can get it onto that table, it is gone. Maybe somebody's taken more than they should, and I’m sure you have that, but it's these cute little senior citizens who come and, ‘Oh I saw you had tomatoes. We're going to take a tomato. Is that okay?’ I'm like, ‘Absolutely, that's what it's there for.’ I just feel like the need is great out there and what we’re doing, a lot of small communities don’t do.”
The community garden doesn’t have a physical address, but it’s located behind and to the side of the Luckey Library.
“In the beginning, we didn't have a lot of money,” Skriba said. “We had enough money to buy flowers, and that was it. We used to go door to door to people who had cute flowers in their yard, and we would give them this little pamphlet, and we would say, ‘Hey, we're starting a garden club. Would you like to join in?’ And we would give them flowers.”
The club purchased flowerpots for downtown Luckey, which they plant and maintain each spring. They decorate the village for fall and Christmas. They clean up village-owned areas. They also maintain areas around the town hall, Triangle Park and Basic Park. On top of that, they have helped with and organized village events like summer picnics and holiday celebrations in the past.
The group’s big passion, though, is the community garden.
“We've shifted focus a little bit in the last few years,” Skriba said. “We still do what we do with decorating and trying to make the village a more beautiful place, but the community garden has become more of our focus. That is what we're constantly trying to raise money for. We don't have a huge budget. We maybe bring in $2,500 a year in flower sales. We sell flowers. We have donations. We don't have a huge amount of cash flowing in. Where we put the bulk of our money is into the community garden with buying seeds, buying plants, adding new raised beds. Our big thing this summer, while it's going to happen in a couple weeks, we have an old greenhouse that was donated when they tore down the Luckey Elementary School almost 10 years ago. It's in disrepair, so we are doing some repairs to that this year.”
The club does four fundraisers per year to purchase what they need supply-wise for the community garden, including the upcoming mum sale, a hanging basket sale, a garage sale and a holiday bake sale. Local businesses donate for pot sponsorships, and their names are displayed on signage on the pots. They’ve also had a few bigger donations from Hirzel’s for compost in the garden, Amplex to help with greenhouse repairs and Mike and Aj’z Ice Cream Shack for an IBC water tote.
A few years ago, the group had a couple students from BGSU that helped out. Last summer, they paired with the Luckey Library to teach kids about pollinators, going on hunts around the garden looking for good bugs and bad bags. They also have various speakers come in and educate the group, including organizations like the Wood County Soil & Water Conservation group that taught them about soil, which they tested at the community garden and discussed afterwards. They also had a mindful beekeeper who came in.
“They know who the garden ladies are around here,” Skriba said. “We're downtown watering at the community garden. We're doing a lot of things around town. We just pulled all the weeds out of the sidewalk in the whole downtown. That's what we do.”
If you’re interested in joining the group or just helping out in general, Skriba recommends searching Luckey Garden Club on Facebook and sending them a message.
“We’re always looking for help, and we are always looking for donations,” she said.
