The Mountain Garden Club
has been serving Highlands, NC since 1979.
The purpose of the Club shall be to aid in the protection and conservation of our natural resources, encourage civic beauty and
roadside beautification, stimulate the study of the fine art of gardening, and cooperate with other agencies furthering the interest
of horticulture and conservation. The Club will also strive to be a good citizen of the community.
What We Do:
Fund Local Scholarships and More!
Each year, our dedicated members dig and pot hundreds of mountain-hardy plants for the club's major fundraiser,
an annual plant sale, held on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend at Highlands' baseball field.
This very popular event generates money to fund college scholarships and vocational scholarships - the majority of which are awarded to Highlands High School graduates, and local conservation and educational projects.
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Currently, in 2024, we have five students that we are partially funding for all four years of their college education!
The Mountain Garden Club also tends several community gardens, including the Eckerd Living Center at the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital, the Highlands' Elementary School, and the Highlands' Historic Old Jail. We also volunteer our expertise on community projects, enhancing the Highlands' landscape. Locally, we are best known as the dancing ladies in the annual Highlands' Christmas Parade!
Highlands' Historic Old Jail
The Mountain Garden Club added a new garden surrounding the Old Highlands'
Jail on Maple Street in dedication to Wiley Sloan, who passed away in March 2020,
for his dedication to helping the community. Locals love our resident jailbird J.B.
He comes out to enjoy the holidays and special events!
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Eckerd Living Center Gardens
Each week during the growing seasons, the Mountain Garden Club lovingly tends
to the gardens for the residents at the Eckerd Living Center to enjoy. These
beautiful blooms put a smile on the faces of the ELC workers and residents.
They love to watch the flowers grow and to come outside to greet our
gardeners. We maintain several gardens with new plantings, weeding, potting,
dead-heading, watering, and all the TLC that goes into growing spectacular
Dahlias and plants.
Jill Hargis runs the weekly captains and design of the garden, and the gardens
have never looked so beautiful! Ann Maxwell is our Dahlia guru, and her blooms
are second to none.
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Highlands Elementary School
Ross Gronfield and Sara Noah have been working
hard to renovate the Butterfly/Pollinator Garden at
Highlands Elementary School. It has taken a lot of
work to clean out the old plant material. Ross has
put in new edging and created a pathway. Fall-
flowering plants have been added, Spring flowering
plants to come! Check out the Gallery for more
progress photos.
2023 Highlands' Christmas Parade
2023 MGC Christmas Luncheon
We work hard, and enjoy playing too! This year, our fabulous Christmas Luncheon was held on December 6th, at the Ann Lea Gallery in Cashiers. Joey and Janis head up the Social Committee and they put on a wonderful party. Members signed up to bring items to eat and drink - and our own Ann Lea graciously offered her galley as our venue. It's a team effort, and so appreciate by all that attended. To view all the photos from the parade and party, visit the gallery page. Happy Holidays to all!
All About Pruning. October's Speaker: MGC Member Oliver Young
Our own Oliver Young gave a fabulous educational lecture on Pruning. He covered a lot of ground including seasonal maintenance, tricky Hydrangea pruning, timing of pruning, techniques, equipment, and so much more.
He also showed us some great resources from the NC State Extension. These educational links have been added to our website under a new tab called "Resources".
Oliver has decades of professional gardening and pruning experience. We are so fortunate to have him as a member of our garden club.
Thank you Oliver, for a wonderful presentation.
MGC Rocked the Jailhouse
for the 'Seasons of Highlands' 2023 Dahlia Festival
We are so pleased that our fun seasonal display will continue to bring enjoyment to the local Episcopal and Presbyterian pre-school children! Special thanks to Ginny Dunwoody, for everything!
