SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – Visit five gardens in the Springfield area, meet your gardening neighbors, and enjoy a delicious lunch on Saturday, July 25. The tour, which ends with lunch, runs from 8 a.m. until about 1 p.m.
Our last garden tour was two years ago, so we’re excited to get back out enjoying garden visits. This tour includes vegetable and flower gardens and natural plantings.
We’ll start in downtown Springfield and learn about the efforts that keep our downtown festooned with beautiful plantings by Springfield on the Move and the Springfield Garden Club. Bonnie Andrews, who designed Springfield on the Move’s Movie Theater Garden in 2018, will meet us there to give us some background in planning and maintaining this central oasis. A shout out to Judy Martin who you’ll often see there weeding and watering.
Abundance describes Mary Eldredge’s extensive gardens – large fenced-in vegetable gardens, all maintained by hand, as well as flowers surrounding the house and yard. Eldredge advises the gardener to just think of the part of the garden one is working on and not everything at once. She starts her plants indoors, makes a map of her garden, and rotates crops. Eldredge creates slightly raised beds by allowing grass instead of boards to hold the sides up.
See how Jo Bregnard’s exploration of no-dig veggie gardening is going this year. Her cucurbits have gone vertical, and she’s hoping to have some fall starts in the greenhouse. Visit the berries and perennials, and say hello to LouLou and Posey the cows, who are testing out a new brand of biological fly control from the same place that Bregnard buys her beneficial insects.
Betsy Owen’s flower gardens contain sturdy, hardy varieties that do well with little care. Each spring she likes to see what plants have self-sown, or appeared unexpectedly from somewhere else. Some get to stay and become favorites. Owen is always happy to share ones she’ll divide in the fall. Her main project this year, especially in the vegetable garden, has been to find an effective, inexpensive mulch which keeps weeds down and improves the soil as well.
Getting hungry? Our last stop will be at Diane Kemble’s where we’ll keep the conversation going over lunch. There’s a small vegetable garden, peaches, elderberries, blueberries, and lots of flowers, including annuals, perennials, and wildflowers surrounded by fields.
The Works in Progress Garden Tour is sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Springfield, Vt. There is a suggested donation to attend, which includes lunch and possibly plants.
To reserve a spot and receive full details of the day, including carpooling, email Kemble at dkemble@vermontel.net, or text or call 802-324-9465.