When I moved to Grantham full-time in the summer of 2011, we started going to the neighborhood social events. There we met Peggy and Rolf Hammer, who recommended two immediate activities to join - the water aerobics group and the Grantham Garden Club. Several of the swimmers were dedicated Garden Club members, and they assured me it was the way to meet people in Grantham. So that was how I joined a garden club, something I had never imagined doing!
I am the fourth of five children, with two brothers and two sisters, and I grew up in Easton, PA, and Upper Saddle River, NJ. Instead of attending senior year in high school, I went on a year exchange to live with a family in Germany on the AFS program. When I returned, I went to Smith College because my brother was at Dartmouth. (Trivia: I never actually graduated from high school.) There I met my future husband, Jim, a friend of my brother's. I went back to Germany for my junior year, then got married six days after graduation. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, but I knew I never wanted to be a mother or a teacher! I ended up doing both, having three children and teaching foreign students how to speak English (ESL).
I grew up with casual gardening experience and continued that way in later life. I’m really more interested in trees and wildflowers than showy blooms. Also, we’ve always lived in the shade, which makes gardening more challenging. I love to mix in a few annuals with native perennials, and I plant small beds of annuals here and there around the edges of my yard, so I have color to see out every window all summer long.
I am the fourth of five children, with two brothers and two sisters, and I grew up in Easton, PA, and Upper Saddle River, NJ. Instead of attending senior year in high school, I went on a year exchange to live with a family in Germany on the AFS program. When I returned, I went to Smith College because my brother was at Dartmouth. (Trivia: I never actually graduated from high school.) There I met my future husband, Jim, a friend of my brother's. I went back to Germany for my junior year, then got married six days after graduation. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, but I knew I never wanted to be a mother or a teacher! I ended up doing both, having three children and teaching foreign students how to speak English (ESL).
I grew up with casual gardening experience and continued that way in later life. I’m really more interested in trees and wildflowers than showy blooms. Also, we’ve always lived in the shade, which makes gardening more challenging. I love to mix in a few annuals with native perennials, and I plant small beds of annuals here and there around the edges of my yard, so I have color to see out every window all summer long.