BRIGHTEN UP MOE

PP LEN CAIRNS — SEP 10, 2021

Rotary Moe ‘Brighten Up Moe’ by planting Marigold flowers in garden beds and Wheelbarrows

Article by the Rotary Club of Moe PP Len Cairns

With the support of District Grants, Rotary Moe has been able "Brighten Up Moe" by planting roundabouts, garden beds and small wooden decorative wheelbarrows with a floral emblem - Marigolds.

Moe (pronounced Mow-ee) is a small town of around 12,000 energetic people found in the Gippsland Region of Victoria. The Rotary Club of Moe, chartered in 1949, has just under 30 members.

Some decades ago the club, with the then Moe City Council, established the Moe Botanic Gardens in an area near the CBD and next to a small creek. The President of the Club, who was also the Town Clerk, and members drew up a plan to provide trees and paths over a large site. This has developed into a beautiful area for relaxing walks and picnics, much used by locals and visitors.

Moe garden beds with Marigolds

Over the past four years the Rotary Moe has campaigned under the slogan "Brighten Up Moe" using a floral emblem - the golden Marigold (being M for Moe). With the assistance of two Rotary District Grants over two consecutive Rotary years, the club convinced the Latrobe City Council (the new amalgamated entity from the 1990s) to plant roundabouts and other Moe garden beds with Marigolds.

Wheelbarrows were planted with marigolds 

With the first grant the club arranged for the local "work for the dole" group to make 8 small wooden decorative wheelbarrows. Small Rotary signs were added and the wheelbarrows, with Council permission, were planted with marigolds and put in the care of shop keepers in the main street. Each wheelbarrow had to be brought indoors at the shop overnight and watered when needed.

The wheelbarrows were displayed in the CBD of the town from November till Christmas. We lost one when the local pub could not find it one evening. Another disappeared but the soil and flowers were left behind. A feature article in the Latrobe Valley Express Newspaper led to many community members purchasing these wheelbarrows from the "Work for the dole” group. A number of Club Rotarians also bought wheelbarrows for their home gardens. In the second year, with another District Grant the club increased the number of wheelbarrows to 20 spread across two streets in the Moe CBD.

People in the Community responded very favourably to the flowers in the CBD. However, the Moe Rotary Botanic Gardens did not have flower beds, just many beautiful trees, and some walkers in the Gardens suggested we consider adding some flower beds. This led Rotary Moe to apply for a further District Grant in the 2019-20 year. This application led to the construction of a large flower bed near one of the main pathways. This took longer to construct due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however it was completed in early 2021. The flowers in this first season were 50 yellow Daffodils planted in a "Rotary circle" surrounded by 40 Blue/purple Dutch Irises and 50 yellow and blue Pansies. Rotarians weed and water when necessary. Comments from the many walkers and visitors have been very positive. We plan to have lots of Marigolds in Summer.