Grantham Garden Club
  • Home
    • Flowers & Folklore Blog
    • Calendar
  • PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES
    • 2022 Programs & Activites
    • 2021 Programs & Activities
    • 2020 Programs & Activities
  • SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS
    • Scholarships
    • Grants
    • Meet our Recipients
  • JOIN US
    • Join Today
    • Volunteer Opportunities
  • RESOURCES
    • Starting a Victory Garden
    • Links & Helpful Happenings
    • Pollinator Information
  • MEMBERS ONLY
    • 2022 Leadership >
      • 2022 Steering Committee Meetings
      • Leadership History
    • Volunteer Signup >
      • Civic Gardens Signup
      • Fundraising Signup
    • Forms & Documents >
      • Meeting Minutes
      • Treasurer Reports
    • Bulletin Board

If you build it, they will come

7/30/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture
Dahlia
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.
Picture
Emily Cleaveland--The Dahlia Lady
Picture
In May, Kathy Houghton in the foreground and Leslie Keeling in back
Picture
Penny Willoughby holding Willow taken in May with bare dahlia garden in the background
Picture
Helene Perirer and Martha Sweeny in among the ferns on the native plant trail in July
Picture
Leslie Keeling, Kathy Houghton, and Emily Cleaveland identifying the plants
Picture
Hemlock tree
Picture
Hemlock wood chips
Picture
Kathy Houghton, Penny Willoughby, Martha Sweeney, and Leslie Keeling hard at work
1 Comment

Mystery Garden Tour

7/23/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Liz Knox's garden on Mill Pond
​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. 
Picture
Sally Findley shares her gardening secrets to a grateful audience
Picture
Paul Mercier's lush garden
Picture
Janie Clark with visitors around her Bell Garden
Picture
A whimsical garden by Jane Verdrager
Picture
Sheila Shulman's vibrant coneflowers
Picture
Susan Neet Goodwin's artistic garden
0 Comments

A Time and Place to Remember

7/16/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
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.” 
Picture
For directions go to musterfieldfarm.com.
Picture
Farm buildings on display beyond the flower and vegetable gardens
Picture
A field of yellow hawksbeard in September, 2020, on the Muster Field
0 Comments

The Accommodating Cosmos

7/9/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Some flowers are almost impossibly for me to capture despite aiming over them, under them, or beside them. The cosmos on the other hand looks lovely from every angle. Widely revered as one of the easiest flowers to grow, the cosmos flower can be planted just about anywhere. They germinate in five to ten days. Planting them once is all that’s needed because their self-seeding ways create flowers year after year. A bouquet of cosmos is a great gift for a person with an October birthday. It's the official flower for that month.

​
Their seeds look like miniature pine needles. Like pine needles, the flowers with tiny yellow central disc florets spiral in a Fibonacci pattern. Isn’t Nature astounding. The word “cosmos” is a direct derivative of the Greek word “kosmos,” which means world order so symbolizes harmony. The flowers originated from Mexico but have spread all across the U.S. They thrive from summers to fall. Cutting flowers for bouquets promotes more blossoms. They are the most accommodating of flowers. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Carpe Diem

7/2/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
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. 
Picture
Bellflowers
Picture
Tea rose
Picture
Peony
Picture
Solomon seals
Picture
Lilacs
Picture
Enkianthus campanulatus
2 Comments

    Archives

    June 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Grantham Garden Club, P.O. Box 1232, Grantham, NH 03753
granthamgardenclub.org
© 2022, Grantham Garden Club.  All rights reserved.