General 5 — The Garden Club of Johnstown

One of our most important service projects is Civic Development, where our mission is to “work in cooperation with local governments and nonprofit organizations to enhance public gardens in the Greater Johnstown area.” Currently we have 16 sites which are pictured below.

Seed Money Received for Incline Plane Gardens for 2023 Year

The Garden Club of Johnstown received a Seed Money grant ($50) from the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania, our state chapter, to reclaim the Inclined Plane Gardens at the visitor’s viewing platform after a 2 year rehabilitation of the historic 133 year old railway which was built to carry people, horses and wagons to the hilltop.

The seed money is intended to give us a start on the project! Watch here for Before and After pictures.

Memorial Flame- Point Park- Wide Shot- Fall

Wagner Ritter House Garden- Pot of Rosemary

Wagner Ritter House Garden Beds- Long View

Wagner Ritter House Garden-Produce for Food Kitchen

Roxbury Bandshell-Front of Stage- Long View

Roxbury Bandshell- Back Area Near Main Sign

Sandyvale Memorial Gardens & Conservancy- In Bloom

Sandyvale Memorial Gardens & Conservancy- Workers During Covid

City of Johnstown helpers Joe Slis and Steve

Roxbury Bandshell during performance 7.30.2023

BottleWorks Preparing for Planting 1 2023

BottleWorks Preparing for Planting 2 2023

BottleWorks Preparing for Planting 3 2023

The Point/Memorial Flame Front Bed CloseUp 2023

BottleWorks Rooftop Garden Side Plants 2023

BottleWorks Parking Lot Garden CloseUp 2023

YWCA Roses, Black Eyed Susans and Milkweed 7.2023

Roxbury Park- 2024 Season

At their work days in May, the Roxbury workers readied the gardens for the summer season, with a clean up, followed by planting, mulching and watering.

Later in the season, August 20, found the gardens in full bloom.

Wagner Ritter - 2024 Season

The Morrel Preschool of the GJSD toured the garden on Tuesday, May 14, 2024

In mid-August, Wagner Ritter gardens produced a nice bounty of cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, and basil.

In early September, the garden harvest consisted of cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, and black-eyed Susans.

All proceeds from this garden are donated to the local food kitchen.

This produce was from mid-August.

This produce was from early September.

Trying to keep the nutsedge in check.

The Point- 2024 Season

PNG Park 2024

Many groups work at the park to care for its different sections. The Garden Club of Johnstown does the large pots that are seen throughout the park.

YWCA 2024 Season

The YWCA’s entrance as of August 13 of this year. The two flower boxes on the porch and the foundation plants on either side of the stairs can be seen in the top photo. The two photos below it show the foundation plants on the left and right side of the main stairs.

The side of the buiding near the ramp shows black-eyed Susans and common milkweed plants in the background with blue rug ground cover in the front. A close up of the pods are between the large common milkweed leaves on the plant. The photo with the three curved glass windows show goldenrod plants before the yellow flowers are in bloom.

Roxbury Bandshell 2025

Garden Club members, led by Coralie Krisko and Roxie Hauger, spruced up the park bandshell in May, in plenty of time for the summer concerts!

Flood Museum Clean Up 2025

Joan Polster and Charlotte Crissey spent a spring day at the Flood Museum, getting it in shape for visitors.

The Point/ Memorial Flame

August 3 and 4, 2025

The Point Memorial Gardens, has two beds, a main bed and a smaller one.

Main bed: A large serviceberry tree is in the middle of this bed. The front has day lilies, Knockout rose bushes, and Karl Forester grasses. In the middle are threadleaf coreopsis plants. The rear has more Knockout rosebushes and Karl Forester grasses. Over the last few years, there was a problem with nutsedge in the back of this bed, so the daylilies that were in the back were removed and the area was weeded. We tried to remove as much of the nutsedge contaminated soil as possible and heavy cardboard was laid on top of that soil. The entire bed was then topped with wood chips. We are hoping that if enough cardboard and wood chips are added each season the nutsedge can be kept in check. The nutsedge is highly invasive and the seeds can live for a long time, so there are no plans to plant anything in that area.

The smaller bed has a couple daylilies in the front and a large cypress bush in the back. In the middle of this smaller bed is the Memorial Flame,which is dedicated to the victims of the 1889 flood. It is here that the worst devastation occurred, when 2,209 lives were lost as a result of the South Fork Dam breaking.

The Wagner Ritter House and Garden, located on Broad Street in the Cambria City neighborhood of Johnstown, was restored by the Johnstown Area Heritage Association. The house and museum illustrates the lives of a typical immigrant family who worked in the mills. This house is a modest one occupied for 130 years by three generations of a steel worker’s family from the 1860s to the 1990s. The garden in the back is maintained by The Garden Club of Johnstown and depicts a 19th-century German raised garden with a few modifications. The food raised here is donated to a local food kitchen.

Wagner Ritter Garden

One harvest from the garden in August, 2025.