The Pinole Garden Club

Small towns are all about community. The Pinole Garden Club has been beautifying Pinole since 1956, fulfilling its mission to “promote and encourage the knowledge and appreciation of gardening among members and to take an active part in civic beautification and the protection and the conservation of our natural resources.”

When it comes to beautifying the city, no one can hold a pruning shear next to the Pinole Garden Club. Since its establishment in 1956, the Pinole Garden Club has more than lived its mission. Its activities include Arbor Day tree planting; decorating the Christmas Tree and setting up the Candy Cane Contest at the Pinole Library; performing a skit, “A Tree Grows in Pinole,” for local schools; doing bi-monthly garden therapy at a local nursing home; and fundraisers.

Another project is sprucing up the Jessie Howe Clark Memorial Garden on Tennent Avenue by the Pinole Public Safety Facility and City Hall. Jessie was Pinole’s historian and Poet Laureate years ago. Club members will have the tree pruned and clean up the area under the tree, working in conjunction with the City of Pinole.

The club has also weeded, pruned, and periodically replanted the garden area surrounding the City of Pinole Welcome Wall, near the entrance to I-80 on Pinole Valley Road, to keep it looking beautiful. And, not coincidentally, the Pinole Historical Society is indebted to the garden club for lovingly taking care of the Faria House rose garden, which will one day be the entrance to the Pinole History Museum.

The club gives back to the community in other ways, too. Each year the club awards two scholarships to deserving students for their horticultural studies at a local college.

Through its participation in these and other local projects, the Pinole Garden Club contributes to the improvement of our city and our environment. Their members embody the meaning of “community.”