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Civic Projects
Inloes Park
Since 1979 the Des Fleurs Garden Club has designed and maintained the landscape at Inloes Park. The park, located at the corner of High Street and Locust Avenue, offers a beautiful, relaxing spot for community members to enjoy. It’s also a wonderful ‘drive-by’ garden, presenting a splash of color for the passersby.
The Inloes Garden Committee meets at 9 am every Thursday morning from May through September to work in the garden, socialize and educate themselves and each other. If you are interested in participating, simply show up at the appointed time.
Hanging Flower Baskets
Hanging baskets on lamp columns are one of the easiest and most effective ways of brightening up the city streets with flowers and greenery. Streets filled with bright flowers and lush greenery are not only nicer to live and work in, they are better for business too.
In 1998 club members took on the monumental task of convincing the City of Oxford and the community of the need to beautify the streets of Oxford. To accomplish this goal, the club raised $20,000 to begin the Des Fleurs Beautification Fund at the Oxford Community Foundation to fund the project.
Originally, the club provided funds for hanging baskets on each street corner along High Street, from Beech Street to Campus Avenue. The club also purchased a tank and pump that the city installed on a truck to water the planters. Members of the club designed and chose the plants for the baskets, helped install them in the spring and helped trim and care for them during the growing season.
It didn’t take long for the project to outgrow the club. The City of Oxford continues the project and has expanded it to include many more street corners and entrances to city buildings. Des Fleurs contributes about $1000 per year as a token of appreciation to the city.
OCAC Landscape
Des Fleurs Garden Club joined the Oxford Community Arts Center family in 2005. After a year of planning and fundraising the club was able to facilitate the landscaping along the entire front of the Arts Center. With the expert assistance of local landscape designer, John Devore, garden club members provided ideas, some labor and all of the funding for the project.
Club members continue to care for the gardens – providing designs, labor and funds. They also organize work crews of Miami University students to clean and organize the gardens in the spring and fall.
The Children's Garden at OCAC
While continuing to maintain and fund the first phase of the OCAC gardens, the Des Fleurs 
Garden Club began building a children’s garden in the spring of 2007. With input from club members, Margarette Beckwith of Beckwith-Chapman Associates Landscape Architecture designed the garden. Funds were provided by a significant grant from the Dewald Family Foundation, grants from the Oxford Community Foundation and other community organizations and the generous contributions from members of the community.
The garden provides a hands on gardening experience for children attending the annual Gardeneering Camp and environmental education opportunities for elementary school children. These programs are facilitated by the Oxford Community Arts Center and the Environmental Mobile Unit. Read more ....
Lane Library Book Project
Practically from its inception, Des Fleurs has researched, purchased and donated gardening books for the Oxford branch of the Lane Library. Members of the club are proud to encourage and educate gardeners and support our local library. Below is a list of books donated most recently.
2011 Book Project Donations
American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants – 2004 edition
Collecting contributions from 100 distinguished horticulturist
s, the handsome and lavishly illustrated American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants is a truly definitive gardening reference. With its 1,092 tiny-print pages, this may not be the book to tuck into your pocket as you weed and mulch, but what this encyclopedia lacks in portability, it certainly makes up for in scope. Hardy and tender plants, heirloom varieties and the latest hybrids--they're all accounted for here, with growing tips and background information about native habitats and ornamental features. You'll also find a fascinating section about botany, as well as information about basic gardening techniques such as mulching, staking, pruning, propagating, and protecting plants for winter. But the encyclopedia's main attraction is the individual plant entries--more than 15,000 of them, embellished with 6,000 full-color photographs and illustrations. From the visual glossary of leaves to the map of growing regions, The American Horticultural Society A-Z of Garden Plants provides an unsurpassed wealth of botanical information, making it the yardstick by which all other gardening references must be measured.
Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture [Paperback) Toby Hemenway
The first edition of Gaia's Garden, sparked the imagination of America's home gardeners, introducing permaculture's central message: Working with Nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.
Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening--which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants--can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it's fun and easy to create a "backyard ecosystem" by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:
· Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
· Catching and conserving water in the landscape
· Providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
· Growing an edible "forest" that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods
This revised and updated edition also features a new chapter on urban permaculture, designed especially for people in cities and suburbs who have very limited growing space. Whatever size yard or garden you have to work with, you can apply basic permaculture principles to make it more diverse, more natural, more productive, and more beautiful. Best of all, once it's established, an ecological garden will reduce or eliminate most of the backbreaking work that's needed to maintain the typical lawn and garden.
A Calendar Year of Horticultural Therapy: How Tending Your Garden Can Tend to Your Soul
Janice Hoetker Doherty
Tending to your garden can tend to your soul and in this book, the potential therapeutic benefits will make gardening enthusiasts shout for joy; and smile at what they have known for awhile. With over sixty projects, this book is a must for anyone who wants to create a hands-on session for their care facility. Caretakers of children may also find the simple, yet engaging projects useful and fun. The evocative imagery and historical detail create an engaging and meaningful experience. You will shake your head in wonder at the meaning, language and usage of plants and flowers, and smile in delight at some of Jan’s personal experiences. With deep insight that only a life long horticulturalist can provide, this book is for anyone who knows the peace of gardening, or for anyone who can stand in awe at the natural beauty with which we are gifted every day.
2010 Donations
The Dry Gardening Handbook: Plants and Practices for a Changing Climate
By: Olivier Filippi (Author)
Designer Plant Combinations: 105 Stunning Gardens Using Six Plants or Fewer
By: Scott Calhoun (Author)
The New Encyclopedia of Daylilies: More Than 1700 Outstanding Selections
By: Ted Petit (Author), John Peat (Author
Flowers and Herbs of Early America
By: Lawrence Griffith (Author), Barbara Temple Lombardi (Photographer)
Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season
By: Michael Dirr (Author)
Great Botanic Gardens Of The World
By: Sara Oldfield (Author)