Shelby Gardeners Club decorates Heritage Garden

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — In the latest addition to Heritage Garden in Shelby Township, the Shelby Gardeners Club installed birdhouses and colorful flowers.

The Shelby Gardeners Club has a committee that decides which plants to put in each spring at the garden, which is located on the township municipal grounds. 

The birdhouses and flowers were installed at the end of May.

Linda Pelloni, a Heritage Garden committee member, said that each year, the garden club takes time to shop, pick out and place or plant items in the garden.

“We shop, compare prices, decide on colors and amounts, prepare the gardens for planting, and finally plant. The preparation and planting is a whole-club project. We saw a catalog from a company called Proven Winners and decided to use an idea similar to one in … their catalog,” she said via email.

Pelloni said she was the shopper and more for the installation of the birdhouses.

“I was the shopper (Hobby Lobby for the birdhouses), painter, sealer and installer of the birdhouses seen in the pictures with the help of my husband, Greg. I tried to use the colors of the flowers that were in the pots they were installed in,” Pelloni said.

“It was a fun project and has received many compliments. Gardeners could easily incorporate this project at home,” she said.

Ivy Schwartz, the club’s media contact, said people really respond to color.

“This is the first year that the garden club added the birdhouses. Change and innovation bring viewers to Heritage Garden. A side bar in reference to pot composition: One needs a thriller, spiller and a filler. A taller vertical object could be used as a thriller accenting the coverage of the filler and draping of the spiller. For example, petunias serve as the filler augmented by the hanging vinca vines,” she said in an email.

The club was founded in 1971 and has been involved with Heritage Garden since that time. The municipal grounds are located at 52700 Van Dyke Ave.