The first of what will surely be many Wellesley flower photos as we head into Spring 2024…
Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
The first of what will surely be many Wellesley flower photos as we head into Spring 2024…
Wellesley’s Climate Action Committee seeks a new member to be appointed by the Select Board for a term spanning July 1, 2024- June 30, 2027. Applicants should email a paragraph describing their interest and background to Sustainability Director Marybeth Martello at mmartello@wellesleyma.gov by Friday, March 15.
Candidates should be committed to the CAC’s mission of reducing town-wide greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Responsibilities include attending CAC meetings one to two times per month (currently scheduled from 9am-10am on Fridays), taking an active role in CAC projects, and eventually coordinating one or more initiatives related to Wellesley’s Climate Action Plan. Projects often involve engagement with Town departments and boards, grassroots and non-profit groups, nearby communities, regional associations, and state and federal agencies. Candidates should possess:
• A strong interest in climate action;
• Excellent organizational and leadership skills;
• Experience with initiating and leading projects; and
• The ability to collaborate with Town departments, boards, and other stakeholders.
Wellesley has two community gardens with over 100 plots for residents to rent for a nominal yearly fee.
Prospective gardeners may apply for a plot at Brookside or Weston Community Gardens. There is a waiting list for plots.
There are 40 garden plots at Brookside, and they cover a total of about 2.4 acres. They land is located on the south side of Oakland Street between Standish Rd. and Brookside Rd. in a residential area. Part of the property abuts the Wellesley Country Club, and Rosemary Town Forest is across the street. For additional information on Brookside Community Gardens, email brooksidegardenclub@gmail.com
There are about 90 plots in a 2.5 acre space at the Weston Road Gardens. The area is part of the North 40, a 46-acre parcel that the town purchased from Wellesley College for $35 million in 2014.
British plantsman Adrian Bloom of Bressingham, England, swung by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society—Garden at Elm Bank in Wellesley last month as part of a lecture tour and to promote his new book, Foggy Bottom, a Garden to Share. Through beautiful pictures, all taken by the author, the book is a private season-by-season tour of Foggy Bottom, a part of the Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk county, England. The 432-page glossy book is an invitation into Bloom’s six-acre personal garden, a place where since the 1960s he has experimented with creating a garden with year-round color and interest.
MassHort and Bloom have a long history. MassHort’s Bressingham Garden was named after the one in the UK, and added in 2007 to the Garden at Elm Bank. Smaller in scale than the UK version, it’s a one-acre space between Weezie’s children’s garden and the Cheney mansion, and was designed and its installation supervised by the world-renowned garden expert.
Bloom’s philosophy came out of early experiences working in large established gardens that left him deflated by the late-autumn sight of perennials cut to the ground. To his eye, labels in the bare garden marking the flowers of seasons past gave it a graveyard look. Clumps of perennials “put to bed” for the winter brought to mind shorn sheep. He thought there had to be a better way.
Foggy Bottom, a Garden to Share shows readers that all seasons—including winter when, arguably, color and interest are most needed—are an opportunity to showcase what shines. “Its all down to the plants that you use,” Bloom said in an interview with The Swellesley Report, “You need to try to plant focal points. You can put things around it with color tweaks, and bark.”
With Foggy Bottom—and in gardens around the world—Bloom has created his four-season garden using mass planting techniques to create visual impact. “Every garden aspect needs to be done with some sort of balance,” Bloom said.
Don’t have six acres to play with like Bloom? He doesn’t want to hear your excuses. He says “no garden is too small,” and encourages gardeners to plant as naturally as they can, even in a window box.
And now that you want to see the garden Bloom designed at Elm Bank, mark your calendar. MassHort is welcoming visitors back after a long winter starting April 1.
by Bob Brown
The Wellesley Natural Resources Commission is making rain barrels available to residents at the discounted price of $89 in an effort to help locals help the environment. We’ve mainly seen this barrels priced at more than $100 if not sold through a community program like the 1 Wellesley has arranged for.
The Great American Rain Barrels offered come in black, green, or gray and can hold up to 60 gallons of water that runs off from your roof or gutters.
We’ve had 1 for a few years, and find it useful. Though last summer, where it seemingly rained every day… or at least every weekend… we never had much of a need for the water in the barrel, which was full at the end of the fall.
The order deadline is March 17, and pickup is Saturday, March 30 from 9am-3pm at 30 Municipal Way.
Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
by admin
Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s 15th Annual Festival of Trees is back with over 65 decorated trees, lights galore throughout the gardens, the Snow Village, a festive model railroad display, and—for some reason we’re told will become clear later this year—several huge, lighted butterflies. Get timed tickets online now (they’re not being sold at the gate) for this festive and fun holiday event at the Garden at Elm Bank.
On display in the Hunnewell Building, Festival of Trees offers beautiful holiday trees that are donated and decorated by local businesses, garden clubs and other organizations, and individuals. Visitors vote with their raffle tickets for trees they hope to win and take home at the end of the event, which runs through Dec. 29. Trees range from one foot to nine feet tall, and many include impressive gifts in addition to beautiful decorations.
Enhancing the Festival is Snow Village, an indoor model train exhibit donated by Bill Meagher of Needham. For many years, Bill put in close to full-time hours setting up the Snow Village and taking care of it throughout the Festival, a labor of love for which MassHort is forever grateful. He’s still involved, but these days Bill has dialed his efforts back from a G scale to a more manageable Z (if you know, you know). Once the Bay State Model Railroad Club based out of Roslindale got a look at Bill’s set-up—villages and vignettes including Christmas in the City (Boston, of course!), Fenway Park, a Dickensian village, the North Pole, hundreds of decorated houses and lights, too many Santas to count, and skaters galore—the group happily volunteered to take over the technical aspects of keeping the display in tip-top condition throughout the Festival.
Holiday lights and decorations fill the Garden. Visitors stroll through a winter wonderland with hot chocolate in their hands and gather by the firepits to keep warm and cozy while melting s’mores. The yummy treats are included with paid admission for visitors ages 4+. If it sounds like an enchanting holiday-time experience, that’s because it is.
Tickets are now on sale! Advanced purchase of timed tickets is required for this event.
Become a member today to get discounts on Festival of Trees tickets.
by Bob Brown
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which calls the Elm Bank Reservation on the Wellesley/Dover line its home, is seeking to improve public and emergency access to that location.
Mass Hort Executive Director James Hearsum and Board Chair Gretel Anspach have reached out to members seeking their support for this issue by asking them to reach out to the local legislature in support of a bill that would direct the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation to conduct a study of Elm Bank’s accessibility.
The bill reads in part: “The report shall consider, without limitation, the purchasing of private land and the maintenance, construction and rehabilitation of current state-owned land. The report shall also identify long term expansion and rehabilitation of the current Elm Bank Reservation to maximize public use…”
Access to Elm Bank is mainly limited to the one-way Cheney Bridge (limited to a 12-ton capacity, not sufficient for buses or large emergency vehicles), where backed up drivers don’t always play nicely.
Mass Hort hopeful that vacant Elm Bank manor house has lots of life left
Back access through private road Turtle Lane is limited to emergency access.
Among talking points shared by Mass Hort is that “any study of access to Elm Bank should explore alternative avenues, if any, over the river onto Elm Bank Reservation.”
Elm Bank use peaked in recent years during the pandemic, when people poured into the park as a place to get outside, in theory away from other people…
Access to the gardens at Elm Bank has evolved over the years. They were once freely open to the public, but Mass Hort in attempts to save the flowers and plants from loose dogs and in an effort to become more financially stable, put up fencing and started charging people. The surrounding park has remained freely accessible for soccer, walking, kayaking/canoeing, running, biking, and other activities.