OXFORD – The Oxford Garden Club (OGC), the non-profit community beautification group, started working on landscaping the newly expanded Oxford Memorial Library at Fort Hill Park at the end of April. Donna Schindler, Elva Hawken, Jeanne Cline accompanied by spouses John Farran, Ken Hawken, and Lyle Cline weeded, pruned, dug, planted and watered areas outside of the landmark library. The volunteer labor only followed after weeks of careful research, planning and designing. It took more than one planting session, but everything will be groomed and mulched to perfection for the library’s new Community Room Dedication Ceremony on May 31.

All plants were selected by the experienced Club members for their hardiness, attractiveness, and adaptability to the soil and light. Once decisions were agreed upon, a landscaped design was created.

Some of the new and winter hardy plants you’ll see outside the library are a ‘Miss Kim’ lilac shrub and a ‘Blue Bunny’ hydrangea. The, later than usual, modest blooms of the Miss Kim have the most intoxicating aroma of all lilacs and the shrub stays manageably small. The Blue Bunny produces an abundance of blue and white flowers in late summer until frost.