Emily Cleaveland (better known as The Dahlia Lady) has graciously agreed to allow the Grantham Garden Club to host an open house on her property as a fund raiser for the club. Emily's dahlia gardens are not usually open to the public so we appreciate this rare treat to see her amazing Dahlia gardens. For Springfield's 250th celebration, Emily ran an open house which included a path through her native plant area. This time around, GGC volunteers cleared the path. In May when our band of GGC volunteers first visited Emily's place and walked through the flat land where native plants would grow, we thought “piece of cake.” Then the rains came, and came, and came, and turned the landscape into a lush jungle. The good news was that there would be lots of healthy native plants and ferns for people to see. The bad news was that we had to keep clearing the path which kept getting overrun.
 
Grantham Garden Club volunteers are a sturdy bunch so, undeterred, they attacked that path. They brought weed-whackers, rakes, clippers, wheelbarrows, and shovels. Emily provided lots of guidance, tools, and elbow grease. 
 
Moments after a hemlock tree in Maureen Connelly’s yard was chopped down, it was chipped into little bits and driven to the native plant trail where we spread it over the path.
 
Meanwhile, Emily was planting, fertilizing, and applying her usual tender loving care to her dahlia gardens. Wait until you see her spectacular dahlias! Emily will explain to visitors how she does her magic, while GGC’er Leslie Keeling will lead folks on tours through the native plant trail.
 
People who come to the August 14th Open House can opt to take a handout that explains what each of the 39 numbered trees, shrubs, and wildflowers are, or they can take the plunge and participate in a “Name the Native Plant” game. The correct responses spell out a mysterious message that only Emily knows. By writing their name and contact info on the back or the decoded message, people can enter a drawing with the winner receiving a fresh bouquet of dahlias compliments of Emily.
 
Like the very popular Mystery Garden Tour, we are suggesting a donation of $15 from each visitor. We’ll also be selling flower note cards, goat milk soap, yummy baked goods (thanks to other GGC volunteers), and plants. We hope to raise lots of money to fund scholarships, grants, educational programs, and civic gardens.
 
Plan to join us on Saturday, August 14th, between 1:00 and 4:00 for a delightful afternoon. The address is 256 Hogg Hill Road in Springfield (but Google Maps insists it is Grantham - so enter that if you use Google maps).
 
You won’t be disappointed.

​From the bright flower signs showing the locations of the mystery gardens to the maps handed out sending visitors to different starting places to alleviate traffic jams, everything was carefully planned. The hard working team of Maryellen DeJong, Janie Clark, Pat Brooks, and Paul Mercier started planning the Mystery Garden tour in February when the gardens were under a foot of snow.
 
The Grantham Garden Club conducted seven mystery garden tours starting in 2008, but this one was different. The Pandemic was the big unknown back in February before vaccinations were available. In addition to picking amazing gardens, the committee took their size into consideration in case social distancing was still recommended. The Club agreed that walking in beautiful flowers and seeing people in person was very much needed. They were so right.
 
Historically the Club raised money through an annual spring plant sale, but it had to be cancelled for the last two years. So for the first time, donations were requested to help the club fund scholarships, grants, and educational programs for the community, and to help the Club maintain the civic gardens around town.  In addition pop up markets as some of the gardens sold goat milk soap, fresh baked cookies, perennials, and note cards with photos of club members’ flowers.
 
Another benefit of the tour was the wealth of knowledge the owners and volunteers shared with avid gardeners. I overheard lots of very specific questions about plants, soil, fertilizers and all kind of gardening talk. For myself, I just enjoyed all seven gardens. Each one reflected the gardener’s personality. Susan Neet Goodwin’s garden showed her artistic sensibilities and highlighted her environments concerns by illustrating how you weave a solar installation into a garden. Jane Verdrager peppered her garden with lots of whimsy including an antique baby crib, a bird cage, and an old water pump. Paul Mercier created an ecological haven on his unique property. Janie Clark’s garden is a wonderful example of a lush, colorful garden that gets very little sunshine. Sally Findley, Sheila Schulman and Liz Knox’s not only have lovely gardens but also have water views.
 
Thirty-seven volunteers helped make the day a delight for the more than 120 people who oohed and aahed when the much anticipated mystery gardens were finally revealed. 

A wonderful way to step into the past is a visit to Muster Field Farm, a short 20-minute drive from Grantham. Lovers Lane, a narrow dirt road through a thick forest, leads to the farm and is the perfect way to enter your trip back in time.

Matthew Harvey and his family settled there in 1772. One cold winter night, their first house burned down. Neighbors got together and made a one-room home complete with a fireplace in one day. That tiny house was added to and still stands there to this day.

The spirit of neighbors helping neighbors is very much alive today as a team of dedicated volunteers work the farm and maintain the historic farm buildings and artifacts that were brought there for visitors to see. I spoke with a few volunteers who happily answered my many questions. When I saw a bunch of just-picked beets being carried away, I hurried to the farm stand which is a re-purposed chicken house. Produce is purchased using the honor system with money left and change made from an old tin box with a picture of George Washington’s honest face. (That evening I roasted my beets and can report that they were scrumptious.)

Muster Field Farm was a place where citizen soldiers from Sutton and the surrounding towns would drill and parade. The first recorded muster was held there in 1787. Although the main reasons for the musters were to prepare men to defend their towns or join the army as a group, the annual gatherings were a great excuse to party. I imagine many of the troops and their families camped out and enjoyed communal dinners and impromptu dances.

​If you stand very still and gaze across the flat land, you can almost hear the faint sounds of a fiddle playing along with a subtle whisper telling you to “remember.” 

Lots of folks have encouraged me to visit New London’s Tracy Library garden which I never seemed to get around to doing. When I came across John Lennon’s quote “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans” I scolded myself. As writer of this blog and an avid flower photographer, what was I waiting for?

I finally went a month ago and have been back three times since. Now that I know where it is (half way between Colby-Sawyer College and Tuckers Restaurant, but across the street and behind the library), I’ll make a point of stopping by whenever I’m in New London. Every time I go, there are different flowers and plants to see.  A month ago, the garden was surrounded by lilac bushes of various hues. Right now 45 rose bushes are in bloom.  The difficulty in putting together this blog was deciding which flower photos to omit because I couldn’t possibly include them all.
 
In 1926 Jane Tracy summered in New London and had the foresight and finances to have a library built and, for the icing on the cake, the design and planting of the garden behind it. She hired the Olmsted Brothers’ landscape architectural company to design the garden. Their firm also designed gardens in Acadia National Park and Yosemite Valley not to mention the entire park systems of Portland, Oregon, the City of Roses.
 
Originally the garden park consisted of four beds of flowers around a children’s wading pool. The stonewall perimeter enclosed a variety of shrubs, vines and trees. When Mrs. Tracy died in 1944, the garden beds were grassed over, the pool was filled with dirt, and the hedges removed. Then in 2000 when the Tracy Library was renovated, it was the right time to bring back the garden. The New London Garden Club and the library joined forces and raised $175,000 to restore this half-acre plot of land and rebuilding began in May of 2002. A bronze water fountain made by well known sculptural metalsmith Dimitri Gerakaris replaced the wading pool. The garden is lovingly maintained by a head gardener and an army of volunteers and is a sight to behold.