More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Thanks to Swellesley readers who share slice of life photos with us (theswellesleyreport@gmail.com).
Priscilla Messing captured the Weston Road Community Gardens heading into fall mode.
Even at a drought induced “low tide” the fishing was good at the Guernsey dock. Photo courtesy of the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust.
Phil Gormley shared this photo of a surprising visitor. “We’ve had coyotes before but this one is huge! Very bold too to run around downtown,” he wrote.
It looks as if some of the ripest and juiciest fruits and vegetables have already been harvested at Wellesley’s Brookside Community Gardens, but plenty of flowers and other plants continue to put on their summer show.
Wellesley has community gardens on Weston Road as part of the North 40 property and on Brookside Road across town. You can sign up to get in line for a plot.
Land’s Sake Farm in Weston always has plenty to celebrate in summer. This year, the fields that produce over 130,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables annually are prolific. Organic practices that prohibit the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers have been successful, ensuring that the land is used sustainably. And the education programs that serve over 10,000 kids and adults per year are well attended.
So nothing new to report on the growth of food or the education mission of Land’s Sake. The really big news on the farm is the ambitious $6 million infrastructure project in progress as a result of the Land Sake’s Grow With Us capital campaign. Now in its third calendar year, a phased approach to fundraising allowed Land’s Sake to act quickly on long-desired improvements. Only a couple months after the Weston Select Board approved the campaign, a groundbreaking ceremony for a new timber-framed Animal Barn was held in summer 2021. A renegotiated lease on the land helped make the project possible. “The town owns the land, and we are the nonprofit that runs the land as its stewards and managers,” Land’s Sake business manager Heather Hilton explains. “We used to renew the lease every three years. The reason we’re able to do all this now is because Weston allowed us a 30-year lease.”
By last month, the Animal Barn officially opened, serving for now as a farm stand, and the public was invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Phase I with its goals of enhanced parking, construction of the Animal Barn and a greenhouse and hoop house is nearly complete. Completion of Phase II, the construction of a 3,000 square-foot, net-zero, energy-efficient Farm Stand, is expected to be finished in fall 2023. When that happens, the big swap will occur, and the Farm Stand operation will move from the Animal Barn to its permanent home.
Farmers working at the Animal Barn now have access to water year-round, thanks to the new frost-free water line system. “This is how we can have animals in the winter, because we have access to water after the frost now,” Heather said. The goats and bunnies will now have a forever home and no longer have to live a nomadic existence off-farm during the winter months.
Unsurprisingly, programs featuring goats, bunnies, and chickens are a very big draw at the farm, so the ability to extend the season for these farm stars is a big plus. So beloved are these well-tended and sleek creatures at Land’s Sake that when I asked a farm employee whether animal slaughtering takes place on the farm or at an off-site location, first she nearly fainted, then she assured me that the animals are never killed. Guess I’ve been reading too much into those bumper stickers that commonly adorn vehicles around farms, the ones that read, “No farms, no food.”
OK, got it. It’s a working farm, but not that kind of a working farm. On Saturdays, Farm Stand visitors can purchase USDA certified pork chops, roasts, steaks, ground beef, ground sausage, and bacon supplied by Bascom Hollow Farm, so meat products are available for sale at Land’s Sake.
Bob Glowacky, a Land’s Sake Farm board member, emphasized that the Grow With Us campaign is first and foremost about helping the farm run safely while ensuring that organic practices and a sustainability mindset thrive. “We thought, if we had a really efficient operation, the farm could really run without the wasted hours of setting up and breaking down things like the farm stand every day. Then imagine what more could happen here.”
“Magic” was a word I heard a lot on my tour of the farm. While walking through a cloud of dirt kicked up by the tractor (it’s a farm, these things happen), it seemed possible that soil alchemy was at work. Could it be that the billowy mass was nothing special, just ordinary organic matter, floating on the wind before settling elsewhere on the farm? Or did I walk through stardust?
For information on programs, workshops, events, CSA shares, pick-your-own availability, and more, visit the Land’s Sake website.
LOCATION: Land’s Sake Farm, 90 Wellesley Street, Weston, MA 02493
FARM HOURS: Year-Round, dawn to dusk
FARM STAND HOURS: Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 11am – 6pm
Sat. & Sun: 10am – 3pm
After a July that brought thirteen days during which temperatures reached over 90 degrees, combined with a measly 0.62″ of rainfall in the Boston area according to the National Weather Service, brown lawns in Wellesley are having a moment, and maybe even a proud one at that. After all, how better to virtue signal, “in this house we believe climate change is real,” than by taking the sprinkler system offline and letting nature take its course? Seems more authentic to us than plunking down a sign with a long list of strident phrases.
Lately as we drove around the various neighborhoods of Wellesley, manicured green lawns certainly were in evidence, but seemed to be in the minority. One reason could be that the town hasn’t made it effortless for homeowners to keep the grass green on either side of the fence. Restrictions put in place last spring mandated an alternate-day outdoor watering schedule for homes and businesses, a ban on outdoor watering between 9am and 5 pm, and a request to reduce the amount of outdoor watering time by 20 percent.
Could the tide be turning against the perfect green lawn as the ultimate outdoor status symbol? It’s too early to call brown Wellesley lawns a trend, but the situation bears watching. It’s not too late to join in. Although the long-term forecast calls for more civilized temperatures in the 70s and 80s, and it looks like some rainclouds are on the horizon, summer is far from over. Your lawn can still transition to a beautiful brown expanse, a nonverbal embodiment of your feelings about water conservation.
But for those who simply must have their yard signs, can we suggest this one: “The lawn is dormant, but our commitment to the environment is wide awake.”
From the archives (2011): Who says Wellesley is a dry town?
It’s summertime and dinner-plate sized hibiscus blooms take center stage in the front garden of Little Red, a charming Washington Street cottage in which Wellesley College professor Dr. Marilyn Sides has lived since 2003. “It’s one of the oldest houses in town,” she says of the structure, parts of which date to 1755. In an area where antique homes are more likely to be razed than saved, Little Red is something of an anomaly. It probably helps that the home is owned by Wellesley College and kept as faculty housing. It certainly helps that Sides isn’t retiring from academia anytime soon. She likes her job teaching creative writing and literature. She likes her students. And she likes her garden. Life is good.
Teaching keeps her busy, of course, along with her writing. Sides is working on some short stories, and has plans to get back to her book-in-progress. Some of her publications include a novel, The Genius of Affection, and her work has appeared in the 1991 O. Henry Prize Stories collection. Plus she’s always got a pile of reading to plow through. Right now she’s immersed in medieval Zen poetry with the Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology, as well as Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, a story about a beekeeper in Ukraine, where a lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda has been dragging on for years and threatens to upend his mission of helping his bees collect their pollen in peace.
Still, Sides has always made time for the garden, especially that eye-catching front border. When she moved in, the previous residents had put in a few perennials. Sides took the passing of the trowel seriously and began her decades-long experiment in color and form. “I never plan anything, I just stick stuff in. I call it my Tilly and Salvy’s garden [referring to the nearby Natick grocery store/garden center]. Almost everything is from there. I go into the market, get some milk, and pick up a plant.”
The garden follows the very basics of landscape design. The tall stuff, like variegated red twig dogwood, butterfly bushes, and a rosa rugosa shrub, is in back of the border; followed by medium-sized plants (gladiolas, milkweed, dahlias, hosta); then low-growers and ground covers (thyme, variegated sage, mint). Mind you, this is just a partial list of the dozens of plants that grow here.
Other supposedly bedrock principles like scale and proportion have been tossed out the window. Ever heard the phrase, “go big or go home?” Sides goes big, and she is home, so garden rules don’t apply to her. If a plant thrives under her gardening system of benign neglect, it stays. Stragglers get taken over and pushed out by their more aggressive neighbors. Buh-bye. A huge patch of red bee balm around which an excited hummingbird flits is permitted to expand at will. The most massive Montauk Daisy I’ve ever seen, a reliable late-summer-through-first-frost bloomer, thrives in its full-sun location. Even the indignity of road salt showers kicked up by winter snowplows can’t keep this stalwart down.
As for Little Red, it’s back there somewhere among all this exuberance, reading less like a Wellesley trophy house and more like a humble garden ornament. Looking as carefully clipped and polished as a fresh mani/pedi isn’t Little Red’s vibe.
While Sides is blessed with sunlight, great soil, and space, her curse is the dreaded swallowwort. This invasive may sport shiny green leaves and tiny, sweet-looking purple flowers, but real gardeners aren’t fooled. Swallowwort has a murderous nature and wants to choke everything it can wrap its tendrils around. Worse yet, a long taproot makes swallowwort nearly impossible to eradicate once it gets a stranglehold among the pretties. Sides’ strategy is to engage in hand-to-root combat, stabbing that swallowwort with a weed puller, and hoping she breaks off most of its roots and all of its spirit.
Challenges like swallowwort and Wellesley’s drought-related watering restrictions aside, Sides is ever the gardening optimist, always planning the next project. Her small kitchen garden with its cherry tomatoes, eggplant, basil, tomatillos, and hot peppers is in its second year and doing well. A recent foxglove addition gives the sunny corner a cottage-y feel, and a small fence around the the veggies keeps her dog Bear from digging everything up (but not the bunnies from eating the eggplant). She used to travel far and wide during the summers, but for now prefers to stay closer to home, driving out to Crane Beach in Ipswich weekly to swim in the cold North Shore waters.
If you get the chance, walk by Little Red and check out the hibiscus. “People, when they see them, just lose their minds,” Sides says.
Special to The Swellesley Report from Luna Lu, a Wellesley Middle School 8th grader who took part in this summer’s First to the Frontpage journalism program.
When we think of improving mental health, our minds often go to meditation, therapy, and even activities like painting and music. But how often do we think of gardening? Follow the stories of these two remarkable women and their thoughts on how gardening has improved their mental health.
Qing Zhang is a mother residing in the city of Albany, N.Y. During the day she is a warehouse worker; but whenever she is off work, a home gardener is born.
“I first got into gardening this spring. I never knew how big of a change it would be,” she said.
Xin Zhang, the younger sister of Qing, is yet another gardening enthusiast. As a full time MBA student, she barely has enough time for herself. Nevertheless, she makes sure to find time for her beloved plants every day.
Xin first started gardening in the fall of 2018, when she moved into a house with a backyard.
“Turning a seed into a lot more seeds with so many different stages in just several months is amazing,” Xin said.
Indeed, when one small seed blossoms into a seedling, then into beautiful harvests, it is truly an inspirational experience. In some ways, it is even like watching a small child grow up. In fact, when asked what her favorite thing to do in the garden is, Qing replied with a one-word answer: “nursing.”
Both sisters also garden for one simple reason: their mental health. Both women lead busy lives: Qing, a warehouse worker and single-mother raising a child with autism, and Xin, a 45-year-old graduate student. These lifestyles both come with their fair share of stress, but in both women’s cases, therapy and other less-accessible activities are just not options.
In 2018, Xin arrived in the United States from China on a student visa and had lots on her mind. With preparing for graduate school, settling in a new house, and finding a school for her daughter, Xin was severely stressed. Then, as she slowly settled down into her new environment, she began to explore the backyard where she would take refuge during her darkest times.
“If I have a lot of stress from my study or work, I will need a break. Most of the time, I will go to the garden to work for a while. It helps a lot. I stay away from [the] screen and the stress for some time, which works very well,” Xin said.
It was then that she started to experiment with the concept of gardening, specifically planting food. With this being her first time gardening, there was much to learn.
“You need to learn a lot about gardening, soil, sunshine, water, nutrition, companion plants, pests control, pruning, you name it. It is a lot of hard work but it is a lot of fun. [You also get to] harvest [what you’ve grown],” Xin said.
Through constant practice and sheer dedication, Xin gradually began to see progress: tender seedlings, growing taller by the day, soon turned into plump fruits hanging off the stems that melt on your tongue. There was not anything more gratifying than seeing her hard work pay off.
“It made me more peaceful. To work in the garden is so therapeutic to me. The sun, the exercise, the fresh air and of course the harvest made me a happier person,” Xin said.
Qing, although residing in a different state, led a similar life to Xin. Having just moved from Charlottesville, Va., to Albany by herself amidst the pandemic, she was exhausted.
Similar to Xin, Qing began gardening the following spring after she moved into her house, as it also contained a yard.
Inspired by her younger sister’s gardening, Qing set out to experience it herself. What started as a mission to tidy up her yard soon turned into a full-blown love for gardening.
“The process of turning a small seed into a small seedling is so magical. It is witnessing the miracle of life. In that way, gardening has made me more happy and relaxed,” Qing said.
So, the question is, why does gardening help with mental health? One interesting aspect brought into the picture by both sisters is how physical and mental health are strongly tied together.
“Usually mental health is related to physical health. Gardening will help to build up a more robust body due to the exercise, the sunshine, the fresh air. The cycle of life of the plant is itself a therapeutic cycle,” Xin said.
“[Gardening] helped me become more active,” added Qing, who, before finding her passion for gardening, usually spent her day in her dark bedroom binging K-dramas.
In fact, they are not half-wrong. According to Dan Brennan, MD, gardening can not only improve mood, but also boost self-esteem, improve attention span, and encourage social bonds.
“For me, I grow my own vegetables in my garden. I compost. It is good for the environment. It is good for my health. I have learned a lot about gardening. I made friends with people who have the same interests. I should have started gardening earlier,” Xin said.
Gardening, the underrated cure for mental health problems. Just look at the transformation of the Zhang sisters. Maybe you too should put on a set of gloves, grab a shovel, and get to work in your garden! Maybe something good will come of it.
“I strongly recommend gardening to anyone because it’s just so good for your mental and physical health, plus the environment. I especially recommend gardening to families with kids as it is a good activity to help them get hands-on and learn about the environment,” Xin said.
Got ideas to help us support more young journalists? Let us know at theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
It’s a great time to take a stroll through Wellesley’s community gardens for a colorful display of flowers, vegetables, and more.
Wellesley has community gardens on Weston Road as part of the North 40 property and on Brookside Road across town. You can sign up to get in line for a plot. Here’s the latest on the 2022 Weston Road gardening season for those with plots.
I took a stroll through the Weston Road gardens, and while it looks like some gardens have overwhelmed their gardeners, most plots are being nicely managed and producing an array of produce and flowers.
