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Leaflet

JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2025

From the PRESIDENT'S DESK

As we enter 2025, my overwhelming feelings about the years past and to come at Massachusetts Horticultural Society are of gratitude and eager anticipation.

Of gratitude for the amazing progress made by the Society this past year, building on several difficult years of hidden investment and unshowy, foundational work. Gratitude for a wonderful team of staff, volunteers and members who have caught a vision for what a thriving society and garden can be and have supported so enthusiastically. And gratitude for our community, who have participated with us in record numbers this past year.

Anticipation because this work is starting to show, the garden is growing, the team is expanding, and the foundation is strong. 2024 saw the expansion of the Tulip Mania festival, the launch of the Sunflower Spectacular festival and the relaunch of The New England Flower Show. In 2025 we will build on this with each of these events having new elements, a new summer exhibit and increased horticultural staffing to support the growth.

You, our members and donors, make this possible. Thank you.

I am particularly grateful because many of the nearly 10,000 additional guests we welcomed this year to the garden and our programs were firsttime participants. We love our longstanding supporters, one of whom I recently wrote to after 74 years of membership! But, as this issue of Leaflet discusses, the horticultural life is one of regeneration, of new growth, added energy, stronger community.

As we introduce new families to the garden and our programs, we are looking for what we call internally ‘Meaningful Horticultural Interactions’. This, above all else, is our guiding metric, and we define it as “a moment that we facilitate through horticulture that has the potential to create change in an individual’s life and community.” We include the inspiration of garden visits, education through our classes, social programs in the garden and participation in volunteering and service. We welcome you to join us in any of these ways to experience the real benefit that comes from growing plants together. Happy New Year.

James Hearsum President & Executive Director

From the EDITOR

Welcome to 2025!Once

again, I am pleased to introduce

myself as the new editor of Leaflet and to acknowledge Wayne Mezitt for all he did as Editor-in-Chief, Board Chair and so much more over the years for Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Top of mind at this time of year is the idea of regeneration, as we attempt to start fresh and set goals for the new year. As I think about my goals for this newsletter, at the top of the list is to “carry on” what Wayne and the fabulous staff at MHS have been doing and simply maintain the high standards already in place. Of course this will require the continued generation of fresh ideas, and I look forward to working with the staff and other colleagues to make this happen. I am grateful for the continued involvement of regular contributors John Lee, Catherine Cooper and Maureen O’Brien and hope you enjoy their articles in this issue.

I have always looked forward to reading Wayne’s “In First Person” series of articles about accomplished horticultural colleagues, and I am so pleased that David Dusenbury agreed to be my first “subject.” David is Head Gardener at the Hunnewell Estate in Wellesley, just down the street from Elm Bank. The Hunnewell family has a long history – dating back to the 1850s – of being influential in the horticultural world and incredibly supportive of Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Arnold Arboretum, and so many other horticultural and environmental organizations. For five generations, the Hunnewell family has created and preserved and continued to live on this beautiful and historically significant estate on the shores of Lake Waban – talk about successful regeneration!

continued on page 5

Throughout this time the Hunnewells have owned burial lots at Mount Auburn Cemetery, and during my 28 years there I had many wonderful interactions with members of the family. I have also known and respected David Dusenbury all these years, and his longtime position working and living on the Hunnewell Estate has always fascinated me. As you read his story, I hope you appreciate how he renewed his career several times (from English major to working with people facing developmental challenges to gardening with wildflowers to gardening with greenhouse exotics to managing an entire historic acreage) by taking chances when unexpected opportunities arose and being open to changing/learning/growing on the job. The fact that David has lived and worked on the Hunnewell Estate for 46 years (29 as Head Gardener) and is only the fifth Head Gardener there since 1854 also says a lot about how the Hunnewell family treats their staff.

Finally, all gardeners (including David, Catherine and “Bert”) know that many of the horticultural practices we use every day (potting up rooted cuttings, growing plants from seed, performing rejuvenative pruning on leggy shrubs, etc.) involve regeneration. As my friend Mr. Dusenbury stated so nicely, “I think anyone who experiences working with plants in these regenerative ways quickly discovers feelings of regeneration within their own life and spirit.”

Dave Barnett Editor-in-Chief

UPCOMING CLASSES

Introduction to Silverpoint on Paper

January 14 & 15, 2025 10am-1pm © Kathie Miranda

Introduction to Composition

February 4, 2025

9:30am-1:30pm

Capturing Orchids by Color with Deborah Lambkin

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

9:30am-1:30pm

Greenhouse Botanicals: Painting Indoor Plants

January 16, 21 & 23, 2025 9:30am-12:30pm

Hands On Workshop!

Indoor Herb Gardens for Winter

February 22, 2025 10-11:30am

Nature in Ceramics: Designing with Sgraffito Saturday, March 22, 2025 10am-1pm

Propagating Native Perennials from Seed

Thursday, January 16, 2025 6-9pm

Terrarium Workshop Saturday, March 15, 2025 10-11:30am

Create Your Own Flower Pot Figurines Wednesday, May 14, 2025 10am-1pm

© Deborah Lambkin

© Betsy Rogers-Knox

In this six-week class, Sarah Roche introduces you to the traditional art and science of botanical drawing and painting. Focus includes observational skills, drawing, composition, design and watercolor techniques. Sarah provides plenty of demonstrations and detailed feedback.

Drawing plants and trees requires mastering one component - leaves. In this class learn about their botany, mix and match their colors and capture their different characteristics through observational drawing and accurate painting. This class is our introduction series for botanical art beginners.

HYBRID & VIRTUAL OPTIONS!

Hybrid Starts Monday, February 10, 2025 at 10am-1pm

Virtual Starts Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 10am-12pm

Shop at Green Partner businesses to receive 10% off with your MHS Membership card!

Lexington, MA

Gloucester, MA & Ipswich, MA

Swansea, MA

Marianne Orlando is a landscape architect turned freelance illustrator who loves plants, and does commissioned drawings of homes, pets and people. You can see samples of her work at www.marianneorlando.com

- February 2025

In First Person

David Dusenbury

For ‘In First Person,’ Leaflet Editor-in-Chief Dave Barnett interviews people in horticulture and adjacent fields by asking a standard set of questions about their work. This column offers an opportunity for people in these fields to share their passions with readers; what motivates them, and how they define and measure success. David Dusenbury is the Head Gardener of the Hunnewell Estate. He has renewed his career several times by taking chances when unexpected opportunities arose. Here's David's story in his own words.

If you had told me, a skinny, bookish kid with University professor parents growing up in Gainesville, Florida during the 1950s and 60s, that I would end up as a career horticulturist in Massachusetts 50 years later, I would of course have called you crazy! Yet here I am, halfway through my 46th year of living and working on the historic Horatio Hollis Hunnewell Estate in Wellesley. How did this happen?

A trip David has made literally hundreds of times over the decades, transporting dump truck loads of flowering container plants, including Camellia, Amaryllis, and orchids, from the greenhouses for display inside the Hunnewell mansion house and its attached Conservatory.

The short answer would be “serendipity” and a slightly longer summary might be “through a fortunate combination of good friends and good luck”. I’m sure that each of you reading this column has your own unique story of how you came to be “hooked on horticulture”……here’s mine.

By the time I graduated from the University of Florida in 1970 and had started on my Master’s degree in English Literature, I realized that I didn’t want to pursue a career as an English professor but had no clear idea of what I did want to do. After a year of rather aimless postgraduation wandering, I wound up in Boston visiting a University of Florida friend who had recently moved there. I soon joined him as a Teaching Nurse/Attendant at the Fernald School in Waltham working

with a group of developmentally disadvantaged young men. This job, though challenging, frustrating and joyfully inspiring by turns, obviously had nothing to do with horticulture, but there is a connection.

friend, author & professor

Harry Phillips

While working there I met several lifelong friends including my future wife-to-be Nan and future horticultural author, Harry Phillips. Harry had more natural interest in plants than I did at that time as demonstrated by the fact that he left Fernald to take a job at Garden in the Woods in Framingham. Though originally created as a labor of love by pioneering native plant landscaper Will Curtis, at the end of his life he had turned the property over to the New England Wildflower Society (since re-branded as the Native Plant Trust). Visiting Harry at that creatively landscaped 40acre native plant sanctuary was the moment when I was first bitten by the horticulture bug. I was so struck by the appeal of physically working with growing plants in such a beautiful setting that I literally said to him, “Harry, if/when you ever decide to leave this job, please help me to get hired here as your replacement”.

Interesting sidebar, my friend Harry Phillips went on to become Curator of Native Plants at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill where the University of North Carolina Press eventually published his signature work, Growing and Propagating Wild Flowers, which was named one of the ‘75 Great Gardening Books’ by the American Horticultural Society. Though Harry has remained a lifelong avid gardener with an environmentalist mindset, he eventually decided to go back to grad school and become an English Professor, which he did until his retirement some years ago. Thus he doubled back and fulfilled the academic career which I had abandoned while I proceeded ever deeper into the horticultural pursuits which he no longer had a professional interest in.

And that’s exactly what happened a year later when Harry decided to leave Garden in the Woods to pursue a graduate program in horticulture. To be clear, this was an entry-level garden maintenance position so my lack of credentials and experience were less important than Harry’s recommendation that I would be a hard-working and responsible replacement. The next three years were an immersive horticultural crash course. Even

Circa 1975, Garden in the Woods. Sitting on the bench behind me left to right are Harry Phillips (the friend who first led me "down the garden path"), Harry's mother and Jorie Hunken (Naturalist/Teacher at GitW who introduced me to the wider world of plant ecology).

while spending many hours routinely raking gravel paths, snowplowing the parking lot, shredding leaves for mulch, weeding, deadheading, etc. I was constantly learning new plant names (both common and botanical Latin) along with everything I could about their natural habitats and cultural requirements.

In another stroke of luck The New England Wildflower Society at that time had a talented, dedicated naturalist named Jorie Hunken teaching multiple onsite classes for children and adults. She readily shared her near-encyclopedic knowledge of all things flora (and fauna, too!) which I was absorbing as I worked. Jorie quickly became a dear lifelong friend and inspirational mentor in natural ecology and gardening. As if that weren’t enough, she went out of her way to introduce me to Will Waldron, a student in one of her classes who just happened to be living in a converted Carriage House on the Hunnewell Estate while working in the greenhouses growing orchids and other non-hardy container plants.

Maybe you can see where this is going? Will invited Nan and I to come for dinner including an extended walk around the Hunnewell Estate. For me, it was love at first sight. The lakeside setting, spectacular specimen trees and unique combination of landscaped elements instantly resonated with me as a place I wanted to be a part of. So I said to him, “Will, if/when you ever decide to leave this job, please help me to get hired here as your replacement”. Sound familiar?

And that’s exactly what happened. A year later Will took a new position at The Vale/Lyman House in Waltham, a property owned and run by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (since rebranded as Historic New England). Once again I would be stepping into a position in which I had no experience or educational background and once again I counted on a strong personal recommendation from a friend. Will must have made a good case to Walter Hunnewell that I would be a hard worker and a dedicated learner of all the new growing skills I would require, because I was promptly hired after one short and pleasant in-person interview.

My first day of work in early May,1978 was also the start of yet another “crash course” in horticulture as I negotiated the neck-snapping turn from maintaining outdoor acres of naturally landscaped native plants to tending greenhouses full of exotic orchids and other nonhardy container plants). I was phoning Will regularly to ask probing questions like, “What am I supposed to be doing now”. Though very busy with his new responsibilities at the Vale, Will patiently offered tips and verbal hand-holding while I also proceeded on my own to read and learn everything I could find on orchids and how to grow them. This was a much more challenging prospect in those pre-internet days when worldwide sources of information were not readily available at the touch of a keypad. I checked out books from the library, bought books (“Home Orchid Growing” by Rebecca Tyson Northen is one I relied on), read monthly issues of the American Orchid Society’s magazine, attended meetings of the Massachusetts Orchid Society and peppered other Hunnewell staff with questions. I gained much valuable growing information from then-Superintendent John C. “Jack” Cowles and venerable Italian gardener Alfredo “Fred” Bregoli, but as I gradually gained knowledge and experience I also rejected some of their advice. Spray for aphids with Black Leaf 40/nicotine sulfate? Nope, too carcinogenic. Kill weeds growing in orchid pots with a propane torch? Nope, too damaging to the vellum coating on aerial roots.

Over the next 17 years the container plant collection remained my primary responsibility, but I quickly learned that running a large property with a small staff meant that everyone must be prepared to help out with anything at any time. An old water line or heating pipe sprang a leak? Time to get out the pipe repair supplies and become a plumber. Last night’s storm blew down a huge tree which is now

▷ November, 2018: Annual chrysanthemum display in the Conservatory. The mums have been a family tradition for over a hundred years and are always the last display of the year before the Conservatory is shut down for the winter (typically at the very end of November).

◁ December, 2024: The front hall of the Hunnewell Mansion house. The floorstanding orchids flanking the oriental plant stands are specimens of the 'Laelia Wellesley' hybrid grown and registered by David. Its flower spikes often exceed 6 feet tall.

blocking the driveway? Time to get out the chainsaw and clear the way. Someone’s on vacation while the summer grass is continuously growing? Time to hop on the wide swath riding mower and trim the acres of turf during his absence. Though my favorite jobs were plantrelated (e.g.,repotting orchids, growing new plants from seeds or cuttings, pruning woody Conservatory specimens) I never minded these other required activities as they added variety to my workdays and provided opportunities to learn new skills.

Highlights for me during this period included the creation of a semi-famous registered orchid hybrid known in the trade as Laelia Wellesley, facilitating conversion of multiple greenhouses to more energy efficient operation by using plastic glazings and/or solar design principles and artistically producing year-round container plant “flower shows” inside the Hunnewell mansion and/or attached Conservatory.

By the time Jack Cowles retired in 1995 Walter Hunnewell fully trusted my track record of continuous on-the-job learning and immediately appointed me as Jack’s successor. Now, 29 years later I’m still serving as only the 5th Head Gardener on the Estate since 1854.

Although I continued growing the orchid collection and hundreds of other container plants, I immediately assumed primary responsibility for the entire acreage including America’s first topiary garden (the Italian Garden), a ten-acre conifer collection (the Pinetum), an Azalea Garden, a Lilac Orchard, an English Garden, a Rockery/Fernery and a multiacre front lawn punctuated by dozens of wonderful specimen trees ranging up to 375 years old. All of these areas would be impossible to maintain without a great deal of help. My staff of two are the hardest workers I know and the Hunnewells continue their family tradition of participating in the labor-intensive topiary trimming. We do also hire outside contractors as needed for large scale jobs (e.g., reglazing the Conservatory or crane removal of large dead trees).

Over my decades on the Estate, while acquiring necessary knowledge and honing new horticultural skills, I also learned more about the history of the Hunnewell family’s multi-generational commitment to botanical and horticultural causes. It’s a great feeling to be a part of living horticultural history starting with H.H. Hunnewell’s original passion for plants and extending into the modern era with the family’s

Circa 2014: David working in the Italian Garden. These venerable topiaries (reputedly the first in America) are trimmed every two years, some by machine and some by hand, by the combined efforts of Hunnewell family members and estate staff.

ongoing financial support of horticultural institutions and voluntarily placing of conservation restrictions on much of the acreage.

The fact that the family continues to allow garden clubs, classes and groups from organizations like Massachusetts Horticultural Society to take guided tours of the property only adds to the satisfaction I get from keeping up the horticultural standards originally established on the Hunnewell Estate 175 years ago.

I remain extremely grateful for the good friends and good luck which led me to live most of my life on one of the most beautiful properties in the world, all the while working daily with plants; the kind of work which I suspect most of you reading this article have experienced as one of life’s most rewarding joys.

My purpose in donating a life’s collection of books, publications, and other documents was an 'homage' to Walter [Hunnewell]-who brought me onto MassHort’s Education Committee as a young landscape architect. I was rooted in the annual Flower Show for several years— as a judge and lecturer—and credit Walter for leading me down that rich path.

Patrick Chasse, Landscape Architect

Donation: Library of Landscape Architect Patrick Chassé

In late 2024, the Society was honored to receive the library of Patrick Chassé, a well-known and respected landscape architect from Portland and Mount Desert Island in Maine. Chassé, thoughtful on the disposition of his expansive library, recollected the many times he availed himself of the resources of the Society’s renowned Library on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. That Library now resides at Elm Bank and at a secure off-site storage facility.

Chassé’s library was a comprehensive and rich resource of horticultural, landscape design and landscape history. It reflected Chasse’s interest and approach to his practice. He believed that one should research a site’s history and culture to inform his work. While his donation was primarily books, it also included trade catalogs, pamphlets, periodicals, ephemera, seed catalogs, garden and park brochures and maps.

The collection contained standard horticultural books, and many current and other important works from the last two centuries. The subjects were wide ranging and included horticulture, art, travel, history, landscape design and preservation. There is a special emphasis on Asian culture and gardens and on his home state of Maine. Many of these works were not on our shelves and are a welcome addition to the Collections.

Chassé’s gift to the Library is a gift to all of us. It is a valuable and enjoyable resource that enhances the Library’s holdings and status as a specialized horticultural library. It refreshed its Collections by allowing us to replace worn and damaged volumes on our shelves and those items that were borrowed and never returned!

The Library at Horticultural Hall (1901-2001) on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. The books, oak filing cabinets, table and Windsor chairs were moved to the Library at Elm Bank in 2000. The building is now owned by Northeastern University.

Processing the Donation

The donation included over 2,800 books plus hundreds of other items. A dedicated team of volunteers processed the books in just under a year. They used a host of skills—sorting, researching, data entry, cataloging and conserving. They were focused on getting the task done. The project is not complete but moving into a new stage. Some volunteers are returning to other Library duties. Others are organizing ephemera. Finding aids are being compiled for the vertical files, pamphlets and trade catalogs. We owe a great debt of gratitude to these volunteers, without whom we could not have efficiently managed the project.

◁ This fragile book was rehoused into an acid free archival box. Affixed to the top is Chassé’s book plate.

▽ Title page. You can read about the Fair and see the images here.

Chassé’s passion for art, history and landscape is reflected in The Magic City (Buel, 1894), which contains over 300 vintage photographs and accompanying text illustrating the World’s Columbian Exposition, aka the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The Fair commemorated Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World 400 years earlier. Perusing the volume is at times cringeworthy. Mark Twain's quote “The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice,” reminds us that historical accounts are often subjective and skewed by bias. To put blinders on history is to sugarcoat it and conceal the “truth,” e.g., the biased presentation and interpretation by past historians.

The Fair itself was a wonder that attracted exhibitors and visitors from around the world. Designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles B. Atwood in the Beaux-Arts style, it was sited on 690 acres in Chicago's Jackson Park. While most of the structures were temporary, two survive today: the Palace of Fine Arts and the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, now part of the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago

Bio of Patrick Chassé

Chassé is a landscape architect, educator, ecologist, writer and landscape historian. He was born in Caribou, Maine. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Maine at Orono, a Master of Education in environmental education and botany from the University of Maine, and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Chassé has a special interest in historic preservation and Asian gardens. He taught Japanese and Chinese landscape history at Harvard University and the Radcliffe Seminars. Chassé was also the first Ruettgers Curator of Landscape at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a position dedicated to the art of landscape and gardens.

Chassé was the principal at Landscape Design Associates of Bar Harbor, Maine and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He worked with many prominent clients in the United States, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom and Turkey. Chassé specialized in the restoration and preservation of historic landscapes, including gardens designed by Beatrix Farrand, an American landscape gardener and landscape architect.

In 2024, MHS honored Chassé with the Society’s Silver Honorary Medal “[f]or his life's work in historic landscape preservation and public education.”

COME VISIT!

The Library is open in the winter by appointment. Please email Library & Archives Manager Maureen O’Brien for an appointment if you want to schedule a visit.

MHS Book Club

The Book Club meetings take place on the third Tuesday of the month at 1:30 pm in the Dearborn Room in the Education Building. The Garden is closed so if you need admittance, please call the Library at 617-933-4912.

All are welcome to attend.

Schedule for the Club’s upcoming book discussions:

January 21

The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

February 18

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

March 18 Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy

A Wildflower Meadow in Progress

By Catherine Cooper

In recent years the idea of growing native has grabbed the imagination of many gardeners concerned with the environmental impact humankind is having on the natural world. It is a way for us to do a small part to mitigate some of the changes that we are causing to our surroundings. Over recent years I have been trying to establish a wildflower meadow with the aim of having native plants for pollinators and in particular milkweed to help monarch butterflies.

Thus several years ago, having admittedly not read a huge amount about wildflower

gardening I chose to leave the grassy, southern edge of my yard to its own devices to see what wildflowers would grow. A little more reading since then and I now know that a wildflower meadow grass sprinkled with colorful flowers is something that only naturally happens under specific circumstances and therefore what I had did bring certain wildflowers but also brought other plants. In fact, letting nature take its course with just a late fall mowing opened the door for a host of plants to stake a claim to this space. Some like goldenrod are not only native, but native to this ecoregion and they were welcome additions. Annual daisy fleabane and common milkweed were two natives that also emerged along with the goldenrod and encouraged my hopes that I could have a swath of flowering natives. I also got some clumps of hedgehog sedge (Carex flava), which was interesting in that it’s native and was seemingly happy to grow in the less than ideal conditions of dry, open grassland, but with a monochrome

Left: Hedgehog sedge (Carex flava) Cover: Common St. John's wort, Common milkweed and goldenrod

clumping habit it didn’t have the wow factor I was hoping for. I also opened the door for northern dewberry to take a hold. While this is a native plant, providing food for insects and small animals it also infiltrates a wide expanse of

Top: Non-native Canada thistle

Bottom: Coreopsis, common St. John's wort and daisy fleabane

ground with its adventitious stems. Again, this was not the effect I was hoping for, especially as it is a scratchy trip hazard while working in the meadow.

And then there were the non-natives. I don’t have to remind anyone that the nonnative plants that establish themselves in our wild spaces are usually aggressive at best and invasive at worst. So my list of villains includes mugwort, Canada thistle and the beguilingly attractive to the eye and bumblebees, common St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum). It is a mass of bright yellow flowers in summer and abuzz with bees, but it spreads prolifically by seed and through rhizomatous growth and outcompetes the native spotted St. John’s wort (Hypericum punctatum), which is nowhere near as vigorous. In addition, the edges of this area were prone to harbor garlic mustard and oriental bittersweet, which I would remove as soon as I found them. I also made the mistake of leaving the clumps of multiflora rose alone. They were sprouting in the far corner of this area when we moved into our home and at the time as they looked pretty I

let them be. Over the course of several years they covered more and more ground, growing into denser and more impenetrable thickets with each passing year.

The most visible impact I had on this meadow was to attempt to introduce native flowering plants. Hence there are a few clumps of introduced ironweed, purple coneflower, bee balm (Monarda fistulosa and M. punctata), thread

leaf mountain mint and one or two coreopsis that grew from various packets of mixed native seeds, but my impact was less than Mother Nature’s and if I were to be an ecoregion purist these plants were not all perfect choices.

Summer of 2024 then saw the decision that the meadow was in need of regeneration. It was host to more non-native thugs than anything else and some work to

Common milkweed and daisy felabane, two native flowers

remove the undesirable plants was the only way to achieve the desired balance. Some of the work had already been done in that the multiflora roses had grown so large and entangled over the past years they had mostly choked themselves to death. However, clearing out the thicket of thorny stems along with the thick vines of bittersweet lurking within was a huge undertaking and one for which I am grateful to my husband who has cleared what was an impenetrable wilderness of undesirable plants. We also took the decision to try and remove the hypericum and thistles as they were spreading faster than the things we wanted there. In an ideal world having cleared the non-native hypericum I would introduce the native spotted St. John’s wort, which has started to establish itself in the shadier edges of my yard, and give it space to spread. However I suspect our first round of purging the hypericum will not have gotten rid of it all, so I need to hold off there, plus that hypericum has also attracted hypericum beetles, an introduced bio-control measure, which I think if they were to find the native hypericum would inflict far more damage than they have

managed to do to the non-native species. So this regenerative process will be an ongoing project and will require monitoring over the coming years.

I have also been gathering packets of native flower seeds with the aim of getting them to grow somewhere in my garden, but as I have a tendency to go with what appeals to me I have a collection of seeds that are more at home in the Plains than here. So showy milkweed, Gloriosa daisy, firecracker penstemon, Mexican hat and dwarf evening primrose, native to more western states will possibly find the acidic soil here tough, but I’m willing to give them a go in the hope of creating my version of a wildflower meadow.

So the meadow is in the process of regeneration. By removing some things and adding others I hope to create my version of a wildflower meadow. The plants I will continue to add will be native to somewhere in the U.S.; what naturally returns or pops up maybe yes, maybe no. And if it’s really unsuitable then I will be back to regenerating it again!

Born in England, Catherine learned to garden from her parents and from that developed a passion for plants. Catherine works assisting customers at the newest Weston Nurseries location in Lincoln. When not at Weston Nurseries, she can often be found in her flower beds or tending to an ever-increasing collection of houseplants.

DOWN TO EARTH

BY JOHN LEE

John shares stories of Bert and Brenda and their gardening wisdom. These chronicles feature recipes, tried-and-true gardening practices, and seasonal struggles and successes. Bert and Brenda were first introduced in the March 2022 issue of Leaflet.

Thanksgiving was just around the corner this year and Bert was still pinching his last lettuce planting. Everything else had finally been put to bed. Tools and hoses were put away; the garlic was in the ground. Everything that needed mulching has been attended to. Normally, end of November, he and Brenda would have turned their minds to other tasks most of which might be considered of the indoor variety. But not this year. His gardens have kept on giving

through September (likely first frost), October (almost always a killing frost or two) and now November (usually a first snow!). Neither of them, despite so many years in the gardens, could remember being able to nurse along anything worth harvesting so late in the year. They did need to throw an old bed sheet over a couple of things by way of first aid several nights for what good it might do. Some things succumbed anyways as well they might have.

But the stronger Romaine lettuces seemed invincible this year and although they did not increase significantly after mid-October, they are still going strong. Imagine fresh salad from the garden for Thanksgiving in New England?!

Both Bert and Brenda are now of an age where certain inevitabilities no longer warrant serious consideration. At this point in their lives, they have reverted to ‘you get what you get and don’t get upset’. There are currently events over which they have come to realize that their ability to make things different is, sadly, impossible. In the spring of this year, the song that stuck in Bert’s head was CCR’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain?”. Now, the verse that resonates is “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”. For all he knew, it might have been the same song flipped on its ear. Same artist after all. To this day, he wasn’t sure he’d missed much at Woodstock but his year, at least, those two weathered anthems were on ‘repeat’ when his body was busy and his thoughts on idle. This fall, what Bert has come to realize is that ‘the commons’, once a haven for reasoned debate, have become a hot-

bed for ill-reasoned discourse or disinhibition. If their gardens and kitchen were ever be aggravated with one another the matter was always easily put to rest. Depending on the nature of the bottle-neck, one or the other of them could always sort out the problem and peace would reign again. In fact, in the garden, as in Brenda’s kitchen, there were few ruffled feathers. Brenda took her cues from the security of prior knowledge and routine; Bert from realizing over the years that getting hot under the collar usually leads to unfortunate outcomes. Some neighbors thought him a bit laconic but more often than not, he was the sage that could be relied upon to dispense sound advice. “Work with it”, he’d say. What’s happened to our once welltethered world, he wondered.

Speaking of which, about this time of year, Bert needed to get

off Brenda’s case about the food magazines and clippings that tended to pile up over the summer. He did enjoy a little variety at the dinner table but sometimes all the saved ideas just seemed a little gratuitous. Most never saw the light of day. Brenda had always been a little more adventurous at the stove. Bert never said a cross word or flew off the handle when the crock-pot got silly or she tried something she thought to be outof-this-world but fell flat. He knew she was only trying to please him (and have a little extra pleasure in the process). But early winter was seed catalogue season and where once they might have put up their feet, was rapidly becoming a toppling tower of garden fantasy. Evenings after doing the dishes, they would peruse one catalogue after another together as if they were choosing a European

vacation cruise. Some evenings it was a world tour of tomatoes, a Versailles of vegetables, a horticultural haunt of fantastic flowering annuals. These loosely curated tours of all plants possible metamorphosed into lists that grew longer with every new arrival at the mailbox. Come January as their dreams were slowly sated and each selection carefully vetted for DR (disease resistance), PMR (powdery mildew resistance), VF or what-have-you, Brenda added the deciding gold star: does it taste any better than what we already know and will it over-produce considering there’s really only two of us? Often as not, Brenda brought Bert’s garden fantasies down to earth and there’d be no need to open a vegetable stand next summer to auction off their over-sight. No matter what, there would be enough to share with the food pantry down the street. They always planned on that.

Speaking of which, a couple of years back, Bert had grown too many bottle or goose-neck gourds (Lagenaria siceraria). Mostly they’d sat around on a shelf in the barn without a plan as to what he would do with so many. He’d not grown many for a year or two for that reason. But in a rare idle

moment, the idea of holiday bird houses might appeal to some in the younger generation or their children who were moving into town. In the interests of his own decluttering, he had taken a 2” hole saw, cut a window into the side of a few and just under the new ‘window’ drilled a hole for ¼” dowel. The local wrens were quite pleased with his attempts at improving the local housing stock. He left the gourds au natural and had given a dozen to the holiday fair in the village last year. This year they’ve asked him for thirty, varnished with mixed ‘door’ diameter to accommodate different nesters. He’d best be getting to work so’s not to disappoint anyone. Brenda says he should give a workshop, let them make them and share

what he’d learned about the local birds. He’s not so sureexpectation sometimes leads to disappointment and he did not want that responsibility around the holidays. He said he’d make as many as he had good gourds and plan ahead for next year.

John Lee is the retired manager of MHS Gold Medal winner Allandale Farm, Cognoscenti contributor and president of MA Society for Promoting Agriculture. He sits on the UMASS Board of Public Overseers and is a long-time op-ed contributor to Edible Boston and other publications.