While the planned event is still months away, members of Dowagiac’s Wabigon and Town and Country garden clubs are hard at work planning for the upcoming assembly of local green thumbs from across southwest Michigan this October.

The local gardening will have the responsibility of hosting the 37 other groups across the region this fall, during the Michigan Garden Clubs District III Fall meeting, which is set to take place on Oct. 22 inside Fred Mathews Conference Center at Southwestern Michigan College’s Dowagiac campus.

The annual gathering brings together approximately 250 men and women every year, with special guest speakers and events focused on gardening, nature and protecting the environment, said Town and Country Garden Club member Terrie Wade.

“Different garden clubs from the district sponsor [the meeting] every year,” Wade said. “Dowagiac has not done it for many, many years. I’ve been a member since the late ‘90s and we have not hosted it since that time, so it was our turn to do it this year.”

District III encompasses clubs from communities in Cass, Berrien, Van Buren, St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and southern Allegan counties. With so many guests expected to attend, the Dowagiac two clubs have been working since last fall to prepare for the conference, Wade said.

“It’s a big undertaking, but it’s well worth the effort,” Wade said.

The members have lined up two guest speakers for the event. Speaking in the morning time will be Wendy Jones, with Fernwood Botanical Gardens, with a talk entitled “It’s a Busy Bird World in the Fall;” talking that afternoon will be Andy Jackson with Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, whose program is entitled “Medicine Gathering Woman.”

Food for the event will be prepared by Chef Tim Carrigan, also with Fernwood, Wade said.

The members of the two local clubs met at Federated Covenant Church late last week to help prepare for the event, preparing materials for the event, including special tobacco pouches that will tie into Jackson’s program, Wade said. The pouches will be given to every guest who attends the meeting.

With all of the nearly 50 people working on the program already assigned a committee for the conference, the two clubs will be spending the next several months getting everything in line for the big shindig this fall.

“Everyone is hard at work, proceeding with their jobs,” Wade said. “It should all come together nicely in October.”