​Fellow garden club member and nature lover Jim Lantz alerted me to the gorgeous meadow of goldenrod along Old Rte. 10 in Grantham.  It’s their very beautiful yellow blossoms that attract the pollinators as well as folks like Jim and me.  The meadow was buzzing with bees. 
 
Hay fever sufferers often give goldenrod a bad rap and blame it for their itchy eyes and runny noses.  I’d like to set the record straight.  Ragweed is the guilty party while goldenrod plants are merely innocent bystanders. 
 
The reason for the confusion is that they blossom at the same time of year starting in late summer.  Their method of pollination is very different and is the reason why ragweed causes hay fever.  Goldenrod has bright yellow blossoms to attract pollinators who pick up their sticky pollen and carry it from blossom to blossom.  
 
Ragweed looks very different. It has tiny green flowers which make tiny pollen that is windborne.  A single ragweed plant can produce over a billion pollen grains which can travel for miles in a stiff wind. If you enjoy spending time outdoors at this time of year, it is impossible to avoid inhaling some. Researches have found ragweed pollen two miles up in the atmosphere and 400 miles out at sea.
 
Before my PictureThis app identified ragweed for me, I was guilty of blaming goldenrod for the problems that ragweed cause and offer my sincere apologies. 

When the Friends of the Dunbar Free Library sent out a notice listing all the wonderful museums they offer passes to, I took advantage of the one for Billings Farm.  I had taken my children and my grandchildren there many times when they were young.  This was my first time going without kids in tow. 
 
Although I enjoyed seeing the cows, chickens, and quilts; I was most impressed by the flowers and the plants. Their large garden plot is made up of multiple gardens including herb, pollinator, heirloom, pizza, and permaculture gardens.  The permaculture garden had a Hugelkultur mound made up of layers of hardwoods, leaves, turf, compost, and soil and is where they grow perennial fruits and vegetables.  The mound provides nutrition and lengthens the growing season. 
 
The sun flower maze is quite an attraction. As expected, most everyone in the maze was looking up at the towering sunflowers.  The surprising plants were the very odd looking ones thriving in their shadow.  The plants such as red amaranth, cockscomb, and purple millet looked like Dr. Seuss inventions.  I learned that most of these plants have been used as food and medicine since antiquity. More recently, the Abenaki people grew many of them there.  
 
There’s also another great garden just a short walk away at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.  So many gardens, so little time….

Twenty people from the garden club had the privilege of touring Cobb Hill Cohousing with Helen Prussian, one of the 50 residents and an enthusiastic proponent of the sustainable lifestyle there.
 
We learned from Helen that living in the community requires a lot of work.  Residents take turns with chores like  gathering wood and feeding the garn (incinerator),  hauling manure, and collecting eggs from their 48 chickens. In addition to those chores, once a month Cobb Hill holds a 'work day' where all the residents join in to take care of the common areas. The 'work days' are open to the public and a nice way for prospective buyers to chip in and get a feel for the people and their way of life.  Helen's nickname in the community is "The Nudger" for her diplomatic way of getting people going.  Helen and other residents we chatted with are justifiably proud of what they have accomplished together.  
 
Helen guided us all around the farm and even led us through her home to see the beautiful view and check out her composting toilet.  We learned why everything grows so well there with all the composting steps over multiple years before becoming the loam that is spread in the flower  gardens. 
 
Helen is a co-owner of Hillside Herbs & Flowers and gave us the opportunity to pick flowers from her gardens full of gorgeous flowers she had grown from seeds.  Helen showed us which should be picked as buds and which after they  bloom.  She taught little tricks like shaking the zinnias and only picking those that have stiff stems.

Some of us met for lunch just down the road and brought our jars of flowers to learn more from Helen on how to keep the cut flowers fresh. Helen explained how to stop bacterial growth by cutting all the greens that will touch the water and by adding lemon juice and bleach.  She recommended adding sugar to the water to feed the flowers, changing the water every day or two, and cutting a bit off the bottom (at a slant) each time. Our flower festooned table was the envy of the Harpoon Brewery beer garden customers!
 
The pictures below show more of the tour. Go to www.cobbhill.org  to learn even more about Cobb Hill.  I know you'll be impressed.  
 
Thank you Helen for a great tour! 

The history of the plant sale continues with the transition to purchasing the plants from Jolly Farmer in New Brunswick, Canada.  Luck and timing played a major role.  Plant Sale Chair Claire Vogel was shopping in Kristina Cole’s store Remembrance Fine Lingerie one day while Kristina was looking through the Jolly Farmer catalog.  Kristina had been ordering plants for the Lebanon Garden Club for years. Claire looked over the catalog, was impressed, and started ordering from their nursery in addition to Pleasant View.  Claire continued to order from both Pleasant View and Jolly Farmer for three years before deciding to purchase exclusively from Jolly Farmer starting in 2008.   
 
The next multi-year lead was Kristina Burgard.  Kristina wasn't even a member when, at the urging of a friend,  she came to a garden club meeting to check it out.  At that very first meeting, Kristina not only joined the club but also agreed to take over the helm of the plant sale. Amazing! Kristina ran the plant sale from 2012 to the 2017 making adjustments each year including adding a pre-buy option for members, posting cards with information on all the plants, using colored sticks to indicate prices, purchasing lots of signs to promote the sale on “Saturday at 9 at Town Hall” and arranging for the donation of large scaffolds to display hanging baskets.  Kristina was a real mover and shaker in the club for many years including being the vice president in 2015 and 2017 and president in 2016 and 2018.
 
Nancy Crocker was the next person to step up to the plate and was the plant sale chair for the 2018 and 2019 sales. Everything was running smoothly until the 2020 pandemic came crashing down.  Nancy, plus GGC president Elise Kendall, and the Steering Committee made the difficult decision to cancel the public sale but felt that people needed flowers more than ever so members were given the opportunity to order flats of Jolly Farmer plants.  On a brutally hot day in May, the Jolly Farmer truck arrived. A group of masked volunteers spread out at the Town Hall parking lot to sort and then deliver the flowers.  Imagine how that must have been for folks who had been stuck at home for months to receive those hanging baskets and flowers to plant in their own gardens—a place of serenity in a world turned upside down.
 
When the pandemic was over, the smooth transition and all the moving parts that made up the sale were lost and there was no plant sale in 2021, Ray Miner and Pete LePre missed the opportunity to buy wonderful Jolly Farmer plants and volunteered to run the member only plant sale in 2022.  The next year, the club started to cautiously get back into the public plant sale business with the sale being combined with the Grantham town wide yard sale.  While it was a financial success, keeping those plants alive for a few weeks after the Jolly Farmer delivery was time consuming for Ray and Pete so the yard sale/plant sale experiment was abandoned and the club decided to go back to the original plan of pre-buy for members and public plant sale. Ray and Pete took care of the pre-buy while Kristina Cole and previous plant sale chair Claire Vogel ordered the flowers for the public plant sale.  There weren’t nearly as many plants for sale as in the pre-covid sale years, and they sold out in 90 minutes.  The plan for 2025 is to combine the member buy and the public plant sale into one large sale.  A few days before the Saturday public sale, members will have the opportunity to purchase plants from a large selection plus  enjoy a 10% member discount. 
 
As times change; the club reacts, is willing to take some risks, and makes decision as to what would be best for the club, its members, and the town.  

The Grantham Garden Club's public plant sale has become part of the fabric of our little town. I recently learned the history of the sales and want to share it with you.  In 2002 the fledgling club didn't have sufficient funds to purchase flowers in advance.  The sale was made possible by Bloomin' Acres who didn't take money until after the sale (and even took back the few plants that didn't sell). The first plant sale coordinators were Maureen D'Agostino and Joyce Coviello who handed out flower assignments to club members. The volunteers drove to Bloomin' Acres in Newport and had the pleasure of picking out pretty flowers and loading them in their cars to take to the church basement where the Town Hall was located. The proceeds from that first sale were donated to the Dunbar Free Library. Subsequent sales' proceeds funded scholarships, educational programs, and town beautification. (To date $40,500 have been awarded to students pursuing degrees in the environmental sciences.) 

Carole White was in charge of the perennial piece of the  sales for many years. Every member of the club donated two perennial plants which meant pure profit for the club.  This nice practice is no longer an option given the arrival of Asian jumping worms and the potential of spreading them.  Carole and JoAnn Pippin handled public relations for many years including putting up all those plant sale signs around town.  Back then the club didn't rent a unit, so Carole stored the large metal signs under her deck. 

To quote Carole White "The plant sale began outside the white church, then graduated to their basement and finally to Town Hall where we truly 'bloomed.' (Pun intended).  The plant sale grew so big, we even had a holding area where customers could leave a big box or hanging plant with us and continue shopping."
 
In 2004, plants were purchased from Pleasant View Gardens in Louson, NH. When Maureen got a call that the truck was on its way, she called the GGC’s Telephone Lead to get the telephone chain started.  Before cell phones, the fastest way to get the word out was to set up the plan in advance with folks calling the people on their list. 
 
When Maureen became ill in 2005, Claire Vogel took over the sale.  That was the year that the new town hall opened. When Claire asked to use the town hall for the plant sale, the response was understandable reticence given the idea of plants and their accompanying dirt brought into the new building.  They finally agreed when Claire promised that the room would be left exactly as it was found.  Near the end of the sale, Claire was aghast to see that the tiled floor had red and purple stains on it and realized that some geranium, begonia, and fuchsia petals had fallen and been ground in by busy shoppers.  Despite scrubbing as hard as possible, the stains could still be detected.  Active garden club member Marilyn Mullen came to the rescue. Marilyn hurried home and brought back lots of cleaning products. Sure enough, with a little elbow grease, the floor soon looked pristine. Phew!
 
Another obstacle in the those days was that the Town Hall had only two tables.  The Fire Station lent the tables that they use for their annual Old Home Day chicken barbeque.  The tables had to be transported to and from the Fire Station which makes us appreciate the convenience of all the tables and chairs available at Town Hall nowadays. 

There's more to the story--stay tuned for Part 2.  

​To help recognize and celebrate the Grantham Garden Club’s 25th anniversary, the club decided to join this year's Grantham Old Home Day parade on June 29th.  Nancy MacKenzie and Nancy Menton known as The Nancy’s took on the volunteer task to come up with ‘something’ for the parade.  The Nancy’s went above and beyond and wowed everyone with their  masterpiece—the flowered mini-cooper. (Mini-cooper provided by Nancy MacKenzie.)
 
The Nancy's made a pattern and cut out green material to completely cover the car with faux flower petals.  Volunteer teams showed up on June 5th and 10th to work on the flowers that began their lives as leis.  Eastman Rec provided a room and a bunch of glue guns to augment a meager supply. The volunteers were given carte blanche to mix and match different colored petals and glue them together in stacks of three or four to give them depth.  There were more than a few yelps heard initially when inexperienced glue gunners got hot glue on their fingers, but GGC volunteers are a tough breed and soldiered on. 
 
Armed with thousands of pretty petals, The Nancy’s took it from there.  The day before the parade, they spent the afternoon in Nancy Menton’s driveway under blue skies gluing all the flower petals onto the cloth and then attaching the flower covered cloth to the mini using magnets.  Nancy MacKenzie added the final touch with a Live Free and Bloom license plate.
 
Grantham Old Home Day has been celebrated since the 1800’s. It’s traditional for parade participants to hand out goodies to the folks lining the route.  Fittingly, the garden club contingent gave out packets of wildflowers.  Weeks beforehand, Nancy MacKenzie had put her grands to work filling little envelopes with the seeds.  One of the grandchildren had commented “I thought it would be boring, but it was fun.”  Coincidentally that's what a lot of GGC volunteers often say!
 
When Old Home Day dawned, there was intermittent rain so umbrellas were added to the signs the walkers carried.  We were more worried about all those pretty flowers but soon learned (we should have known) that flowers--even faux flowers--love a gentle rain so they were happy.  At 10:30 sharp the parade began and the rain let up so the mini convertible top finally came down to reveal The Nancy’s in their flower bonnets.  The GGC contingent paraded down Rte 10 to the sounds of “Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make my garden grow” as The Nancy’s perfect their royal waves.  Nice to think of wildflowers growing in people's yards  thanks to the GGC.
 
The Grantham fire trucks led the parade so they could be the first ones to the Recreation field to help with their famous chicken barbeque. Renee Gustafson was waiting at the GGC table to hand out business cards and tell people about the club.  All the parade vehicles parked on the rec field so people could check them out up close. When an admirer asked who the vendor was that made the flower cover for the mini-cooper, The Nancy’s knew they had done a professional job. 
 
A great big thank you to The Nancy’s and all the volunteers pictured below.

I hope you’ve noticed the barrels of flowers at the library, fire station, post office, and town hall. They were designed by this year’s civic garden team leads Bill Weeks and Anke Clews who ordered the flowers from Jolly Farmer back in November.  On May 19th, they met up with their team and gave them the flowers and the designs to follow.  Volunteers Diane Cameron, Janie Clark, Mike Mulcahy, Martha Sweeney, and Susan Terwilliger were this years planters and the latest in a long line of volunteers stretching back 24 years.
 
One new idea that was tried out last year and worked well was asking businesses in town if they would be willing to fund the cost of the flowers which leaves more money for the scholarship and educational program funds.  If you do business with them, pleases thank them.   This year's generous sponsors are:  
Bar Harbor Bank
CG Shepherd Realty
Coldwell Banker Lifestyles
Lady Grantham Apiary
Willis Auto Repair
 
Now that the flowers have been planted, there’s a 19-week watering/deadheading schedule to fill with volunteers.  Our amazing webmaster Diane Cameron has prepared on-line sign up to make it easy to volunteer. I’m pleased to report that nine of the 19 weeks have been filled.  Please consider signing up for a week by going to "Sales & Signups."  
 
In researching the club’s archives for the June 7th celebration (you’re all invited!), I found the picture below of GGC members Janice Whitcomb and Debbie Pierce planting the Triangle Garden in 2000.   Imagine all the flowers that have decorated our beloved little town since the club began.  

What a week the Grantham Garden Club had with this year's plant sale involving hundreds of people and thousands of plants.  The sale took an amazing amount of volunteer time and began last November when Ray Miner and Pete Lepre, with the help of webmaster Diane Cameron’s nifty on-line sign up, collected all the plant orders from club members and the civic garden leads Bill Weeks and Anke Clews.  Kristina Cole and Claire Vogel had fun shopping using Jolly Farmer's on-line catalog for flowers they knew would be popular with the Public Plant Sale customers including Dragon Red Begonias, Tiktok Orange Calibrachoa, and Super Hero Mixed Marigolds. 
 
In March, Ray and Pete started growing vegetable plants from seeds to sell at the sale.  Unlike the flowers which the club purchases, Ray and Pete donated all the vegetable plants with 100% of the sales ($1,152!) going to the club’s scholarships and educational programs.
 
When Ray was alerted that the Jolly Farmer truck would arrive at 9 a.m. on May 16th, the word went out and 14 club members were poised to help unload. Then the truck was delayed to 1 p.m. when lots of those morning volunteers had commitments elsewhere. In true GGC fashion, a team of 16 people were soon on board for the 1:00 arrival. Then the truck was delayed again!  I was away for the truck's final arrival around 3:00 but was told that it was hectic at first but that it all came together with the hardworking crowd of volunteers. I hated to miss this wonderful photo op, but Diane Cameron took over and her fantastic  pictures are included below. 
 
On Friday, the Town Hall was set up for the Public Plant Sale including the arrival of Ray and Pete’s healthy vegetable plants. Kristina Cole and Diane Cameron were in charge of arranging the table of flower plants, herbs, hanging baskets, and donated house plants.  With the help of Bob Munson, Ray, and Pete; they set it all up keeping the room’s feng shui in mind.   

On Saturday morning the 22 volunteers donned their GGC aprons and were ready for customers who started lining up at 8:30.  Promptly at 9 a.m. the shopping frenzy began with half the plants sold in the first 30 minutes and all but a few orphans sold by 10:30.  As they were packed up, some vegetable plants were sold from the back of Ray and Pete's car and the last hanging basket went to a late arriver who noticed it in Kristina's car. 
 
Volunteers Don and Joyce Blunt were assigned to sit under the awning outside to greet people and hand out tally sheets.  It was a little chilly out, and Don had on a short sleeve shirt.  I looked around to find an appropriate size jacket and saw that Pete’s fit the bill.  I knew Pete would give the shirt (or in this case jacket) off his back for the cause, and I was right!

I realized a little late in the game that the new Tally  procedure required lots pens and our supply was sadly lacking. VP Betsy Fowler headed to Bar Harbor Bank, explained our dilemma, and was back in no time with a bag of the bank's blue pens.  Bar Harbor Bank and all its Grantham office employees are so supportive of the club, including being a Civic Garden Sponsor again this year. 
 
One of my favorite moments of the sale happened when I helped a young grandmother and her two adorable grandchildren carry their vegetable plants to their car.  I told the tots to keep an eye on those plants because they are magic. 
 
Another highlight was when Sharon Parker arrived. Sharon has been a club member for 17 years and epitomizes all that’s wonderful about the GGC. She wasn’t on Saturday’s volunteer list but showed up anyway, grabbed a broom, and started sweeping.  The club prides itself on leaving the room in tiptop shape.  Thank you to Melissa White and Mary Ann Crandall who are our liaisons at Town Hall and graciously lets us use the downstairs room for presentations, meetings, and sales.  We couldn’t run the club as professionally at any other venue.

The movers and shakers of this year's sale have decided that for the 2025 plant sale, members will not order their plants in advance.  A team of experts will pick out and order all the Jolly Farmer flowers, hanging baskets, and herbs.  After the plants arrive next May, the club will hold a Member Only Sale a day or two before the Public Plant Sale.  First dibs will go to the civic garden leads and the team who did the ordering.  I'll be looking for volunteers in September so stay tuned. Members who purchase plants at the Member Only Sale will get a 10% discount off the bottom line. 
 
There's one more piece of the Jolly Farmer flower story--the civic gardens--which I'll write about and post next week. 

​The Grantham Garden Club under the continued enthusiastic leadership of Diane Bilotta organized the 4th annual Grantham clean up day on May the 4th which resulted in at least 75 bags hauled to the Transfer Station.  The weather was cool which helped with the squatting exercise needed to pick up the debris.  Some volunteers were wise enough to bring those grabber sticks.  The club may purchase some for future years.  The black flies even held off for a while.
 
As I glanced around the area where I was cleaning, it reminded me of an Easter egg hunt for toddlers.  Instead of colorful eggs hiding in plain site, there were lots of beer cans and fast food bags.  Also like Easter eggs hunts, our bags filled up quickly. 
 
There were a few unusual finds this year such as a tv set and a room heater. Maryellen and Len DeJong hauled off an old Christmas tree.  Claire Cofer, who joined Martha Arnold and Betsy Fowler for the clean up, found a $100 bill which she immediately donated to the club’s scholarship fund.  Wow!
 
A picture is worth a thousand words so I’m going to let these photos tell more of the story of the fantastic volunteers.  I only wish I had pictures of all 50 of them. Thank you guys!