Post-Gazette Westmoreland Garden Club members, from left, Bertha Jazdel, Liz Crowe and Louise Muse pot plants for the annual May Mart, a major fund-raising event for them. The women are from Greensburg.

On a cool morning in Greensburg last week, a group of dedicated gardeners was trying to make up time.

Extended winter-like cold with lots of rain had put the members of the Greensburg Garden Center behind in work on the grounds of their organization's home on Old Salem Road and for their upcoming May Mart.

		Garden events in bloom at two centers Gardening events in central Westmoreland County will continue throughout the summer at the Greensburg Garden Center and Donohoe Center, Donohoe Road, Greensburg. On May 12, a week before May Mart, Penn State Master Gardeners of Westmoreland County will hold a plant sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Donohoe Center. The sale will feature annuals, perennials, hanging baskets, vegetables, herbs and native plants. Greensburg Garden Center tentatively is planning a garden tour July 14. On July 19, a Master Gardener Demonstration Garden Open House will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. at Donohoe Center. A flower show is set for the Garden Center on Aug. 4. For further information on Garden Center activities, call the center office at 724-837-0245. For information about Master Gardener events and programs at Donohoe Center, call Penn State Cooperative Extension at 724-837-1402. -- By Judy Laurinatis

The May Mart, set for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 19, is a major fund-raiser for the club, so they have to be ready. Hundreds of plants, some propagated by the members, others bought and brought in from professional growers, will be for sale. They include perennials, fruit, herb and vegetable plants and annual flowers.

But there will be so much more for sale that day.

Agnes Lapa showed off moss-covered wreaths that also will be on sale. Some are planted with succulents, others with pansies,

"These can be hung up," said the Greensburg resident. She's a member of the Horticulture Committee, which is in charge of the event.

Now, though, the wreaths lay on a shelf behind the garden house. They want the plants to grow strong roots in the few weeks remaining before the May Mart.

Below the shelf are two garden stepping stones made by members. Tile and broken china create a whimsical design on each of the stones. They will be joined by more member-made garden stones come the day of the sale.

"Most of us don't think to save a plate if we break it," said club President Diane Dale, of Greensburg. But members of her group are creative, she said.

Right now the Greensburg Garden Center has about 400 members from 13 community garden organizations and others who belong to just the garden center and are called associates.

Ms. Dale said membership has dwindled a bit over the past decade and that's not surprising.

"Women don't have time for [volunteer clubs] anymore like they used to," she said. Years ago there was a waiting list for membership.

The Garden Center was formed in 1960 under the name Garden Council of Westmoreland County. In 1969 Greensburg philanthropist and naturalist Katherine Mabis McKenna donated a new multilevel, multipurpose building to Greensburg as a memorial to her deceased son, and the renamed Garden Center was one organization to make it home. The Westmoreland Cultural Trust has offices in the facility and manages it.

Plays are presented in the Garden and Civic Center facility's auditorium and ongoing art exhibits line the halls.

The Garden Center office and library are nestled in a sunny corner where, not unexpectedly, plants thrive. All manner of gardening books and videos are available for members there.

Four master gardeners belong to the club. They include Mary Ann Artman, who was using a free hour or two one morning to spruce up the driveway entrance to the civic center.

She belongs to the Greenridge Garden Club, as well as the garden center "mother" club, as she referred to it, and also works in the Mercy Jeannette hospital lab.

She received her Penn State Master Gardener certification through classes at Gateway High School, where Allegheny and Westmoreland county residents go for training.

One of the specimen trees on the property is a small southern magnolia she planted. Ms. Artman was a little concerned because the species doesn't like cold weather, particularly in the early spring.

"It was a hard year [for plants]," she said.

But one thing about gardeners is that they are constantly learning, and plant survival is one of those learning experiences, she said.

Proceeds from May Mart and other activities go to learning, too. The garden center has a scholarship that it awards each year to a person planning to study horticulture, landscape architecture or any other related field, Ms. Dale said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Dale said, the group is going after grant money to restore an arboretum Ms. McKenna established years ago on the more than 4-acre site.

Ms. Lapa said many of the trees that were part of the original 150-species arboretum are now "past prime," and need to be replaced.

She, too, hopes people will visit the May Mart and buy plants, including the Greenridge club's heirloom tomato plants, as well as crafts and two big favorite food items offered every year, mushroom sandwiches and the Harrold Garden Club's pies.

"Big box" stores with their plants and flowers have siphoned off some May Mart customer base but Ms. Lapa said the expert advice the members can give can't be duplicated.

Plus, the big stores won't sell you a mushroom sandwich no matter how much you might want one.