Every month for the past 20 years, Nancy Berry and volunteers from the SouWester Garden Club have met at the Butterfield Cottage at the Seaside Museum and Historical Society to work for several hours to maintain the gardens around the historic house.

As part of the museums work to preserve the house as it was when it was first built, the garden club does the same with the outdoor space.

The goal is to not grow anything that would not have been grown in the 1920s, Berry said. So we dont actually grow anything thats new and modern because it doesnt fit.

Once a month they have a work party to prune, weed and take care of general garden needs. Each member contributes what they can to the project.

When the group first took over the gardens in 1993, Berry said the members did a lot of research into what the best, most appropriate plants would be. This included speaking with older garden club members and regular trips to the library.

Berry, who first joined the garden club in 1992, has collected pages of plants from the era with descriptions and interesting facts. For instance, Berry said, the plant Ladys Mantle was used by medieval alchemists who collected the water on the leaves of the plant for their gold-making recipes.

Through the years, the club has received several contributions and grants. The Oregon Roadside Council has provided the group with two grants, including one this year to fix the sprinkler system, and a grant from the Principal Financial Group enabled them to install a shade garden.

Berry said the Butterfield gardens are an ongoing project for the club.

In addition to maintaining the Butterfield gardens, the group also raises money for a scholarship, hosts monthly meetings and provides a tree for the annual Providence Seaside Hospital Festival of Trees, among other things.

Ruth Carroll is the groups incoming president and has been a member of the garden club since the mid-1990s.

The garden clubs $1,500 scholarship is awarded annually to a graduating high school senior or college student in Clatsop County.

It was focused mainly on (students interested in studying) horticulture, now weve expanded it into a more natural science type thing, Carroll said. She said students could be focused on anything from forestry to herbology.

Supporting the scholarship is the groups annual plant sale held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 8 at Our Saviours Lutheran Church, 320 First Ave. in Seaside.

We have a raffle item at our plant sale, and the proceeds from that raffle item we use to fund that scholarship, Berry said.

In addition to the raffle, the group sells hundreds of different plant varieties and provides expert advice to shoppers.

Those plants are almost all grown by the members, Berry said. The group is open to anyone interested in joining. Dues are $15 per year.

For more information about the SouWester Garden Club or to join, the group holds its monthly meeting with the exception of June and July at the Bob Chisolm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A, every fourth Thursday of the month.