Boston Flora

Tag: Dig for Victory

  • Saturday, September 17, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Gardens at Clock Barn

    On Saturday, September 17 from 10 – 4, The Garden Conservancy will host a Middlesex County Open Day event at The Gardens at Clock Barn, the home of Maureen and Mike Ruettgers, 453 Bedford Road in Carlisle.

    Passionate gardeners Maureen and Mike Ruettgers invite visitors of all ages to share a day of adventure and inspiration in their extraordinary Gardens at Clock Barn. From a stylish design full of the choicest plants to an inventive children’s garden, this is a veritable wonderland designed to ignite curiosity and delight in all gardeners, from toddlers on up. Explore the walled garden, greenhouse, woodland garden, and secret garden, as well as the pizza garden, pumpkin patch, fairy garden, and tee pee. Investigate fragrant plants used in potpourri.

    Entering the gardens through an arched gate, explore the old barn with trays full of herbs and flowers from the adjacent cutting garden. These trays were built as a 1930s WPA Project for drying digitalis leaves used medicinally. East of the barn are beds of flowers, vegetables, and herbs that are rotated throughout the season. An adjacent Belgian fence espalier encloses a garden room displaying calendulas, Verbena bonariensis, other herbs, and ornamental vegetables. Beyond the cordon of pears is the new fall border featuring Salvia madrensis, tithonia, Abyssinian banana, and many dahlias. Near the center of the property, a grape arbor leads to a walled garden with four quadrants anchored by antique roses. Mixed borders there feature sweeps of nasturtiums, ‘Amistad’ & ‘Indigo Spires’ salvia, ‘Prairie Sun’ rudbeckia, heleniums, and edible herbs. A second tier is flanked by two reflecting pools ringed by Allium lusitanicum and herbal tapestries. The greenhouse and potting area is filled with scented geraniums, succulents, gingers, bay, and rosemary varietals. Beyond, a canopy of 100-year-old oaks shades woodland gardens. Favorite woodland plantings include Paeonia japonica and P. obovata, anemones, epimediums, Kirengeshoma palmata, and hosta from the garden of Francis Williams. Look for the new tree fort, a koi pond, sculptures, and choice specimens of dogwood, magnolia, and maple. Pass through a hornbeam arch to the Clock Barn. Up on the patio at the house, investigate a collection of Italian pots and troughs filled with favorite specimens, then go around the corner to discover the secret garden.

    Garden Extras: Dig for Victory: Victory Gardens Now and Then. Gardens have provided not only a balm for the soul but also a joyful point of light during times of uncertainty. This reflective exhibit explores the connections between the Victory Gardens of WW2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, two events that brought about a resurgence of interest not only in gardening but also in other important gardening traditions such as food preservation and canning. Enjoy a display of historic artifacts that connects gardeners of the present to the gardens and gardeners of the past. This Garden Extra made possible with the assistance of the Carlisle Garden Club and Historical Society. Garden is partially accessible.

    Admission to this garden is $10 per person and children 12 and under are free. Registration required. For directions and complete information visit www.gardenconservancy.org

  • Sunday, October 24, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – Victory Gardens: How a Nation of Gardeners Helped to Win the War

    During World War II, homefront Victory Gardens flourished nationwide—in former lawns, flower gardens, school yards, parks, abandoned lots, and ball fields. As part of the war effort, posters encouraged patriotic Americans to “Grow vitamins at your kitchen door” and “Eat what you can, and can what you cannot eat.” In fact, Americans needed to supplement their diets during a time of food rationing and shortages. Nearly 20 million gardeners answered the call, including many who had never wielded a hoe. Victory gardeners learned to prepare soil beds, grow seedlings, cultivate, control weeds, irrigate, and eliminate pests—raising successful crops for the duration of the war years. Join Berkshire Botanical Gardens on October 24 at 11 as we explore the role of 1940s vegetable gardens, ration-book cookery, and food preservation in wartime victory. Victory gardens provided food and promoted morale during World War II, and by 1944 American gardeners grew forty-four percent of the produce that fed civilian families. In this slide illustrated talk Judith Sumner will trace the Victory Garden movement, including the Roosevelt White House garden, urban gardens, school gardens, food preservation, wartime nutrition, and ration book cookery. We will also look at the British Dig for Victory campaign, Hedgerow Harvest program, and the Women’s Land Army. This program is led by Judith Summer, author of Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II (McFarland Books, 2019).

    Judith Sumner is the author of Plants Go to War: A Botanical History of World War II (McFarland Books, 2019), the first book to examine the historical roles of plants and botanical science in warfare. Judith is a classically trained botanist and author who specializes in ethnobotany, flowering plants, plant adaptations and garden history. She is a graduate of Vassar College and completed her graduate studies in botany at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; at the British Museum; the Jardin des Plantes; and did extensive field work in the Pacific region on the genus Pittosporum. Judith is currently at work on a botanical history of the American Civil War.

  • Landscape Preservation Project: The Percy Cane Garden at Falkland Palace

    One a favored place of retreat and leisure for the Kings and Queens of Scotland, particularly the royal Stewarts, Falkland Palace is a formidable part of Scottish history.  Built in 1501 by King James IV, it is one of only two Renaissance palaces in Scotland and strongly reflect the influence of French architecture.  Mary, Queen of Scots, loved Falkland Palace and often went there to hunt and play tennis on what is today considered the oldest Real Tennis Court in Britain, and possibly the world.

    In 1947, the garden surrounding the Palace underwent a 20th century redesign in the spirit of the past.  Percy Cane, one of Britain’s leading garden designers, was commissioned to undertake this ambitious project.  Faced with a blank canvas resulting from the World War II Dig for Victory campaign, which encouraged people to transform gardens, parks, and sports fields into allotments to grow vegetables, Cane had limited surviving historic evidence to work from.  Nonetheless, he understood the significance of the Palace and its surroundings and laid out a garden that matched the splendor of the historical setting.

    Today, the garden is one of the few remaining examples of Cane’s work in Britain.  The garden is recognized for both its historical value and as a work of art in its own right.  Yet, sadly, the garden has deteriorated and no longer represents Cane’s authentic planting design.  Many plant species have disappeared from the original flower beds, while others have become overgrown.  Weeds and disease have invaded the once fine lawns and there are gaps in borders where trees have blown down.  The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA urgently needs your help to restore this important landscape.

    An incredibly generous donor has pledged to fund half the project, provided the Trust can raise the balance of $25,000 by January 1, 2016.  Donors 0f $200 or more will receive a special thank you gift of a royal Stewart tartan coin purse made of genuine Scottish-made Lochcarron wool, while supplies last.

    Donations may be made online at www.ntsusa.org/give/donations/, or mailed to The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA, 45 School Street, 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02108.