The story of how America’s garden clubs became an unexpected force for social change—powered by a diverse cast of extraordinary women with big personalities, fabulous hats, and dirt under their fingernails who fought for suffrage, civil rights, environmental justice, and more.

During World War I, while the troops were away, garden club women trained a Woman’s Land Army to harvest the nation’s crops. They shaped what motorists see along millions of miles of American roadways. They demanded leaders address urban blight, restoring value and elevating the reputation of municipally neglected, segregated neighborhoods. They muscled their way onto state and national legislative advisory boards and testified on behalf of bills that protected thousands of acres of endangered land, from California to Florida. Members included prominent figures like Lady Bird Johnson and Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer, alongside countless cafeteria workers, teachers, naturalists, journalists, and organizers whose names history has forgotten, until now. Garden club have women worked to make America not just a more beautiful place, but a better one.

It’s past time these women were recognized for their incredible achievements.

Sweeping in its scope and intimate in its telling, this is a history of the garden club women who organized for environmental progress and community improvement while beautifying America, pioneers whose spirited, resilient activism offers a powerful reminder of the ways grassroots movements can flourish and grow.