By LYN DESMARAIS
Sarah Pattis showed perspicacity when she decided to have local gardeners adopt the new gardens created by Segment 6. She managed to find 20 willing and able gardeners. Among them are Nancy Leary, Nancy Ness Spaulding and Nan Meffe. The crowning touch? Getting local artist Robin Kent to paint the garden signs. The gardens are thriving, there is a waiting list to take over the care of the gardens, and downtown has never looked better.
Nancy Leary
“It was so nice to be asked to tend the garden in front of Red Clover Ale, Morningside Bakery and wood-fired pizza (formerlyy Gourmet Provence), and Neshobe Insurance. As my office is just above the garden, the request gave me the opportunity to occasionally take a break from the ‘drafting board,’ get my hands dirty, and get outside, two of my favorite things. Thank you, Sarah Pattis, for joining many hands together to make much lighter work and for considering me worthy of being included as a town gardener. Jim and I tend both the garden in front of the Conant Block as well as the two little ones in the Green Block Park. For some reason, we could not call it a park when it was constructed back in 2002. So, it was called the Green Block. Many people do not know where the Green Block is, so people refer to it as Green Park. It was a real community effort to establish it. The Town still has to finish repairing the stone sitting wall from Irene. All the gardens are planted according to the Segment 6 plan: hostas, lemon, daylilies, purple cornflowers, a yellow potentilla, and evergreens. What we are constantly in awe of is just how beautiful Brandon looks these days. Where once the sidewalks matched the blacktop on Route 7 with few trees, and in great need of reviving, the planning, community input and strong leadership during Segment 6 has led to a warm, welcoming downtown. The construction was not easy for any of us, but the outcome is fantastic!
Besides getting my hands dirty, I am compelled to rearrange things. Gardening combines both of my skills. Next spring, I plan to divide and rearrange the plants. I grew dahlias this summer and their tubers multiplied, so I hope to spread these throughout both sets of gardens to add more color. Like the creation of the Green Block Park, this Brandon gardening group is another great community effort typical of this little town. I am also very grateful for the phone apps that identify a plant from a photo and tell you how to keep it alive.”
Nancy Spalding-Ness
“By the time I answered Sarah Pattis’ email regarding the town gardens, most had volunteers. A couple of smaller gardens and the garden around the Central Park Fountain were still available. I love gardening. I have perennial gardens all around my house, so I figured why not add another? The Central Park fountain garden was a challenge I could not pass up.
The garden is a work in progress, but I decided annuals were the way to make showy plantings. Mary Shields from Virgil & Constance has been a great resource on eye catching plantings. The gold flowers are giant marigolds and Mary has already made recommendations for accent flowers for next summer. The tulips are a fun welcome to spring and hopefully this year’s bulb mixture will be a nice surprise. The two different tulip mixes are called My Three Suns and Margaritas. How can that not be fun?”
Nan Meffe
“Gary and I are proud to be a part of the Brandon community and always try to help out where and when we can. The mini-garden idea is brilliant, and it has been fun contributing to what makes Brandon look great all year. So many visitors and locals comment on the flowers and the program that helps them beautify our downtown. No-fuss yellow perennials like coreopsis and daylilies are favorites, but the tulips and daffodils steal the show for sure.”
In addition to these wonderful gardeners the following all take care of the 27 downtown gardens created by Segment 6 in Brandon:
Amanda Berry, Jean and Gene Childers, Bob Clark, Jessica Doos and Jay Merluzzi, Carol Fjeld, Warren and Sandy Foster, Tracy Holden, Stephanie Jerome, Lucas Montgomery, Sarah Pattis and Louis Pattis Mitch and Maureen Pearl, Joan Rowe, Cecil Reniche-Smith, Cindy and Ed Thomas, Ellen Walter.
The Garden Signs
Robin Kent was asked by Ed and Cindy Thomas if she would design and decorate signs for the town gardens. “I love to make outdoor signs and I love to help out with town projects as much as I can. I received white signs and tried to keep the decoration on the outside edges leaving the largest possible spaces for the names to be painted in. Then I went to work. I always think about my subject matter so in this case I thought about gardens, plants, flowers and creatures found in gardens: pollinators, flowers, frogs, toads and gardeners, of course. I did not know which sign would get which name. I use exterior house paint. It works beautifully. After I finished, I handed them back only to receive them back again with the list of names of the gardeners. It was a really fun project. I’m so happy I was asked. I’ll keep doing it for as long as I can, if and when the gardens change hands, and if they still want me to do it!”
More to come. Next installment: Part 5, Rain and Pocket gardens.
