Category: Gardens

Adding Compost to Civic Gardens

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This year as part of the fall cleanup of the club’s Civic Gardens, several of the teams decided to apply a top dressing of compost to improve soil fertility and improve the health of the gardens next season. In addition to adding important nutrients, the addition of the compost will improve the ability of the soil to absorb and hold water, which is increasingly important given recent droughts and the lack of irrigation at most of the gardens.

Happily, the day that was selected for delivery of the compost was sunny and warm for November, and we had a great turnout of volunteers. It was definitely an illustration of the concept that “many hands make light work.” Thank you to all of the volunteers, particularly Patty Healy Osborne and her husband Ken for letting us use their truck to transport the compost (3 yards in total) saving the club delivery costs.

Can’t wait to see the results!

Have You Noticed Our Garden Helpers?

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The AGC Civic Gardens team decided to enlist help in our various gardens around town this fall. Take a walk and try to find all of our helpers, from Bertha at the northmost entry into the center of town (who was featured in a brief clip on WMUR) to suffragettes at the Police Station and Sunset Road, to mini-scarecrows and children at the Brick School and Library and just hard-working gardeners at Town Hall, the western entry to Amherst Village, and at the Wigwam Museum. Happy Fall! Why not make one of your own?

Mums the Word

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For vibrant fall color, chrysanthemums (“mums”) are hard to beat. Marge McAdams, Brenda Perry, and Laura Zuerndorfer couldn’t resist adding a few to the South Triangle this morning. This garden still needs a leader. If you are interested, contact Joan O’Brien or Maureen Minner.

South Triangle October 2019

2019 Jane Martin Memorial Civic Gardens Walk

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While our sun dance only resulted in a cloudy sky with a sun trying to peek through, we did not have the forecast rain!

All of the gardens looked great late in our very prolonged wet and cool spring. Teams have been out working hard and it showed. We were even able to watch the pro team @ the Wigwam Garden while they did their magic — and offered some eager takers Siberian irises that were being removed from overly full beds.

We returned to the garden behind the library for iced tea and homemade cookies contributed by Joan and MJ.

There were many good laughs and shared camaraderie along the way. It was very special that three new members, Class of 2018-19, turned out for the event and were able to experience firsthand one of the driving missions of the Club.

Seventeen people (!!!!!) turned out for the walk: MJ Bachman, Christy Belvin, Suzanne Birchard, Kathy Brundage, Vonnie Budds, Deb DellOrfano, Julie Hoag, Sally Hogan, Elise Lutz , Maureen Minner, Jeanne Nevard (+ Bluebell the dog), Joan O’Brien, Joan Ostrowski, Susan Stefanec, Becky Stoughton, Sandy Walker, & Barbara Williams.

This is a very special event and a wonderful way to honor Jane’s memory and importance to the Club.

Civic Gardens, Joan O’Brien
Membership, Barbara Williams

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(Photos taken by Becky Stoughton and Jeanne Nevard)

A Sunflower for Jane

Jane was a person who comes into your life only
because of chance and being at the right place at
the right time.

When I look at a sunflower and
see the details; the stem, the petals
and seeds, these remind me of
Jane and describe her perfectly.

The stem: tall, graceful and
steady. Jane is always cheerful
and warm, since the day we met
I will always see her beautiful smile.

The Petals: the multitude of petals reflect the
many people who lives she touched. The
uncountable number of friends that surrounded
her. Jane loved wearing the color yellow.

The seeds: the mass number of seeds in one
flower, propagate and feed birds and other
wildlife and humans too! Jane’s charisma was
huge, real and always caring. She embraced
friendship and taught how to be a friend.

The round flower head with the huge smile will
forever say “Hey Jane, this sunflower is for you!”

~ MJ Bachman

Town Hall Gets New Plants

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As visitors came and went from Town Hall this morning, they had to step around garden club members who were feverishly planting 20 winter-hardy boxwood shrubs, weeding, edging, and spreading three yards of bark mulch. Helping hands included John Bement, Elise Lutz, Maureen and Jim Minner, Joan O’Brien, Mary Salmon, and Sandy Walker.

The club thanks John Cochran of Amherst Garden Center for procuring and delivering the shrubs to Town Hall, and Val LaPlante of Amherst Earth Products for the quick turnaround mulch delivery. What service!

Before…

After!

The historic horse trough and front step containers were planted earlier by the Town Hall garden team (Mary Salmon, Sandy Walker, and Barbara Williams) with a winning combination of green, purple, and white.

 

Girl Scouts Help Clean Up Brick School Garden

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For the second year in a row, the Brick School garden team had help from an enthusiastic troop of Girls Scouts for their annual spring cleanup. There were kid-size garden gloves this year, and the girls enjoyed seeing that the painted rocks they placed last year were still there. Thank you to organizer Tracey Carroll, the other parents who came to help, the Brick School garden team (plus “Brick” Roger Hooper), and, of course, the Girls Scouts!

Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Moulton’s Oval Garden Gets a Sundial

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If you’ve passed Moulton’s Oval lately, you may have noticed the new armillary sundial. The arrival of this sundial ends a long wait to find an ornament that would add balance and interest to this garden. The Moulton’s Oval garden team considered many ideas —including a boulder,  birdbath, or sculpture. Then garden club member Peter Sevier offered to make a sundial, and that sounded perfect.

Armillary Sundial in Moulton’s Oval Garden (July 2018)

 

Creating an accurate sundial takes skill and precision. What a surprise to learn that Peter knew how to bend steel and engrave brass. He even contacted the North American Sundial Society for guidance.

While Peter worked on the sundial, the search began to find a suitable base. The Department of Public Works invited the club to look through their piles of leftover boulders and blocks, and the team selected a couple good-sized pieces of granite. Perry Day and his DPW crew then kindly delivered them to the oval. After the garden team relocated a few perennials to make space, a thoughtful and capable passerby “muscled’ the rocks into place.

Peter was on site and already had a plan for how to mount the sundial to the granite. It had to be positioned precisely to be an accurate timepiece. The fixed brass rod in the center points north and is parallel to the earth’s axis. As the sun appears to move across the sky, the rod casts a shadow on the “equatorial ring” of Roman numerals, one for each hour from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

You are welcome to approach the sundial as a path has been cleared. For best results, check it out on a sunny day.

Jane Martin Civic Gardens Walk

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On a perfect June morning, club members took a casual stroll through the village to visit five of our civic gardens. M.J. Bachman and Barbara Williams organized the walk, with Joan O’Brien accompanying.

At the Brick School garden we ran into Sally Hooper pruning the rose bushes, with her dog “Rico,” rescued from Puerto Rico, looking on.

The tour ended with lemonade and cookies in the Library back garden. Special thanks to Marti Warren and Meg Clemens for being on hand to talk about the Library gardens.

Also thanks to Sue Batchelder for the sunflower seedlings, which we each took to plant in honor of Jane. If you’d like to plant a sunflower for Jane, contact Sue — she may have extras.

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A Sunflower for Jane

Jane was a person who comes into your life only
because of chance and being at the right place at
the right time.

When I look at a sunflower and
see the details; the stem, the petals
and seeds, these remind me of
Jane and describe her perfectly.

The stem: tall, graceful and
steady. Jane is always cheerful
and warm, since the day we met
I will always see her beautiful smile.

The Petals: the multitude of petals reflect the
many people who lives she touched. The
uncountable number of friends that surrounded
her. Jane loved wearing the color yellow.

The seeds: the mass number of seeds in one
flower, propagate and feed birds and other
wildlife and humans too! Jane’s charisma was
huge, real and always caring. She embraced
friendship and taught how to be a friend.

The round flower head with the huge smile will
forever say “Hey Jane, this sunflower is for you!”

~ MJ Bachman