For each decade of the Boothbay Region Garden Club’s existence, please imagine the Boothbay peninsula’s environment as it was then. Not as many trees, many more birds and butterflies, and no super highways.
On April 21, 1931, the Boothbay Garden Club was created through the efforts of 10 couples who met socially and loved gardening. They wanted to encourage other local residents to look at their locale and to work on its beautification. The mission was:

• Art and Practice of Gardening
• Beautification of local streets
• Care of shade trees
• Preservation of wildflowers
• Love of birds

The dues were 25 cents (meant something in that era), and roll call at meetings was answered with a garden poem. Before 1934, meetings were held in the evenings at different members’ homes. Then at Sawyer’s Island Community Hall and the then the high school gym.
The first flower show was held in 1932. In 1933, the Club joined the Garden Club Federation of Maine. By 1935, the Boothbay Garden Club became the Boothbay Region Garden Club as satellite clubs on the peninsula were beginning to be formed. There were annual flower exhibits and an annual children’s garden contest. The top prize was $5. This prize money was raised through penny donations collected from members at each meeting. Other monies for club use was raised at card parties held in the Congregational Church Vestry. Annual flower shows were held and Club members, by 1936, were given extra encouragement to participate in Club activities.
In the late '30s, there was major concern over billboards and lack of zoning. The harbor itself was used as a dump. The club worked with town selectmen to organize a refuse disposal system and to create a harbor patrol. By now the roll call response was to give a personal experience in bird watching.
The extermination of ragweed started, with various towns participating in this project, which went on at least through the '50s!
In 1941 the club’s activities were curtailed due to the war. Gasoline rationing made transportation difficult. There was a problem too with collection of club dues, which were now $1, plus 50 cents to GCFM.
Simplified flower shows were held; 85 percent of the proceeds went toward the Army-Navy Relief Fund, the Red Cross, the British War Relief and the Blue Jacket Club (a home for Coast Guard members as well as other military personnel.
There were annual seedling sales each May. Aside from trying to eliminate ragweed from the Earth, the club also worked with the town on the elimination of the brown-tailed moth (a moth perhaps deadly to trees). During those years of world wars, the club’s goal was service to the community and the country — working together.
In 1951, the BBRGC was 20 years of age. The club’s theme coming out of the ‘40s was, the “Garden’s Answer to Our Quest for Happiness.” A pertinent theme after a decade of war. The club became very active with plantings at the town office and a waterfront garden on Commercial Street. The Boy Scouts helped with weeding and maintenance of these areas.
As there was a waiting list to join the club, membership limits were raised from 125 to 135. The difference between summer and year-round resident members was eliminated. Garden clubs nationwide influenced a balance between conservation and highway construction (super highways were being built across the continent).
Norway maples from members’ gardens were planted on the Boothbay Common. Cooperation continued between the towns and the club on the beautification of the harbor and the area as a whole. The Boothbay Town Report in 1955 was dedicated to the BBRGC.