Deck the Town

Here are a few photos from Friday's Greens Meeting. Thanks to Paula Jones, Barbara Monahan, Joyce Kippin Susie Glessner, and Laura Larson who planned the meeting as well as Dianne Fischbach, Aldyth Innis and Therese Armstrong who
provided a scrumptious luncheon. Below are few photos of the day, see more in
the next IGC Winter 2012 Newsletter.

Making the wreaths... Susan, Terri, Carol and Gail.

Joyce, Grace and Shirley craft two lovely wreaths.

Janet, Joann, Paula, Johanna and Diane

Mary, Shirley and Jean-- thanks Shirley for all the lovely bows!

Diane and Johanna show off their gorgeous wreaths

Paige fashions 3 fabulous wreaths for the Hall Haskell House.

A special wreath for a special member.

Aldyth and Dianne spent their time in the kitchen creating the most delicious winter luncheon.

Therese prepared a beautiful beverage table with different kinds of teas and a pomegranate spritzer.

President Leonard with Alicia sample the sprizter and delicious Butternut bisque.

A special wreath for Barbara!

 

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

Thanks to members who helped put together a most festive and whimsical

Market Square display this year... 

Joyce Kippin, Barbara Monahan, Susie Glessner, Paula Jones & Laura Larson.

Joyce fashioned all of the solders and snowmen using plant pots and imaginative

 decorations.

Real coal was used for snowmen's eyes and mouths, styrofoam noses were painted carrot orange.

The Soldiers and Snowmen were crafted over many days at Joyce's home.

Susie Winthrop, Paula Jones, Joyce Kippin and Barbara Monahan pack the truck to take the soldiers to Market Square.

Barbara measured the island and planned out the design of the trees and ornaments.

Thanks to Jack Kippen who did the heavy work and engineered all the trees and pottery stabilization. "These pots and trees are going nowhere" secured by buried rebarb and zip ties.

                             We hope the "children" of Ipswich enjoy this merry display.

Check out the Ipswich Chronicle news story on our Market Street decorations online
at:

 http://www.wickedlocal.com/ipswich/features/x1058221996/Market-Street-island-gets-into-the-holiday-spirit?utm_source=Ipswich&utm_campaign=3d8b7e916d-ipswich_RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email#axzz2GvEp7XO7

Annual Greens Meeting and Luncheon...

Thanks for a job well done!

 

Market Square and Getty/Skillman Station Tulip Planting

Dear Garden Club Members--

I am scheduling the weekend of Nov.30-Dec.1 to plant 450 tulip bulbs in the Market Square and Getty/Skillman islands. The Greens Meeting will be December 7th and a wonderful holiday design for the Market Sq. island is in place to be constructed then.

Pieter Messelaar has donated purple andyellow bulbs this year. Won't they be beautiful?

I am starting Friday, Nov.3oth to pull out the mums and will continue on Saturday to put in the bulbs. I will be onsite at 1pm on Friday and early in the morning on Saturday--7am. 

Thank You to anyone, who can assist.
Happy Thanksgiving to all,
Ann        

New Information for Growing Paperwhite Narcissus

Trees of Life and other textiles at the Hall Haskell House

Trees of Life and other textiles from India, Pakistan, Indonesia and South Africa collected by Therese Armstrong during her travels.
At the Hall Haskell House from 14 - 18 November, 10am - 4pm
Therese will be on hand to discuss her experiences of the people and places where she found the textiles.

Get Well Joan Cook

Mark Your Calendars - Judy Hallberg at the Ipswich Museum

Bright Happy Power Tulip Planting

A message from Deb Trevarrow:

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Happy Halloween

Old North Burying Ground est. 1634, Ipswich

We Need Your Help on Saturday Oct. 27th - new date

Thanks to all the IGC members who have helped cleanup and replant our islands for the fall. So many of us have already worked to make Ipswich beautiful lately... and now we have another opportunity to help make a difference for Ipswich and that will be on Saturday, October 27th. Janet, Ann, and I are all members of the Shade Tree and Town Beautification Committee which is sponsoring this town-wide event. We are hoping to have a good showing of IGC members. It's 2 hours and a very good cause. Can we count on you? 

Thanks, Paula

Fall Cleanup at Getty Station

 From Ann:
"Here is a picture just taken at the Getty/Skillman station. Thank you, Mitzi, Susie and Jani for your hard work. Susie got the mulch from Brick Ends Farms, as well. Mitzi and her crew cut back everything on Saturday. We have beautified Ipswich in a big way this fall. Thank you to everyone who helped on all the projects around town and the Neck."

And from Mitzi:
 "Thanks Ann for the fun photo.  It looks so great!
 I also want to put in a very much appreciated "thank you" to the Sat. crew that Ann mentioned. The cutting back part on Sat. took nearly 3 hours.  A big thank you Nancy Howard, Judy Hallberg, and to Richard Howard for his very helpful part in the clean up and carry away process. We couldn't have done it without you. " Mitzi

IRWA Backyard Makeover... October 18th

Hi Janet,
I was wondering whether you might be able to spread the word to your Garden Club group about a great event we are hosting on October 18th here at our headquarters in Ipswich.
Cynthia Inglefinger

Thursday, October 18: 9:30am – 10:30am

Kate Hone will present her native landscaping journey. Kate’s one-third acre parcel with 91 feet of Ipswich River riverfront is  just downstream from the IRWA’s Riverbend headquarters. Over one season, with help from a Slow the Flow Grant from Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Kate replaced non native species and barren mulched areas with drought tolerant and native plants. She also removed all impervious buried plastic sheeting from all areas of property, shrunk the lawn footprint and added rain barrels for irrigation. Come see the transformation process and learn first hand how to apply it to your property. Optional site visit to follow.

cingelfinger@ipswichriver.org or call 978-412-8200

Transformation at Pavilion Beach

What a transformation at the Pavilion Beach signage accomplished on Saturday, October 6, 2012.  Thank you to the Ipswich Garden Club members Paula Jones, Laurie McAleer, Mary Smith and Maureen Leonard with the invaluable help from DPW workers, Mark Phaneuf and Scott Woodburn.Thanks to Steve Caleb for the supplies of mulch, Corliss Mix, and soil mix. It takes a team effort to create something extraordinary.  That's what happened on Saturday.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU,

Maureen

Welcome to Pavilion Beach and to Fall.

Fall Market Street Island

Dear Garden Club members--Take a trip down to the Market St. island and drive by the Hall Haskell House and see what a great job our gardeners did this weekend. I am extending a special thank you to Susie Glessner, Maureen Leonard, Joyce Kippen, Paula Jones, Nancy Howard, Deb Trevarrow, Johanna Zabriskie,Terri Stephens. Susie picked up the mulch in her truck at Brick Ends Farms and left it for us to use and the rest of the girls worked their fannies off preparing the beds, shoveling the mulch into the beds at both Market St and Hall Haskell, and then planting Mums at Market St. Thank you, ladies, for your dedication.

I would like to thank Ray Morley for the use of his truck to pick up mulch, as well. We just have the Getty Station to finish and we will be set for winter.

Ann

 

 

IGC October Meeting

           Please RSVP by October 2nd to Maureen at nicknicknana @yahoo.com
           See you there!

An Invitation from Peter Vanderwark

Impatiens Disease Can Winter Over

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a new disease--"Impatiens Downy Mildew" wreaked havoc with the common garden Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) this season. Symptoms include yellowing of leaves and a white, downy substance on the backs of the yellowed leaves. On green leaves, the spores may only be seen with a hand lens. Once infected, all leaves and flowers drop off leaving “skeletonized” stems. Currently, there is no cure. Dispose of the plant remains in the trash, not compost.

The bad news….the fungus Plasmopara obduscens (how’s that for a mouthful?) can winter over in soil. If you plan to plant impatiens in the same location next year, U Mass Extension recommends removing the soil in that location and removing it from your property! Since most of us are probably not up for this, next season plant annuals not affected by the disease, for example, New Guinea impatiens, begonias, and coleus.

For a very good information sheet, “Impatiens Downy Mildew in Home Gardens”, click on:
http://extension.umass.edu/landscape/sites/landscape/files/publications/impatiens_downy_mildew.pdf
 

--Gail Anderson, IGC Horticulturist

New Season of IGC Lectures-- Sept. Meeting

From the structured garden rooms on Beacon Hill to the urban Nightingale Gardens in Dorchester; from an ancient Vietnamese garden shrine to a meandering rock wall at Storm King in NY state, Peter Vanderwarker revealed with humor and a love for nature his personal and photographic view of private and public gardens in Boston and around the U.S. and the world. Thank you, Peter, for a wonderful tour.

This was the first lecture of the Ipswich Garden Club's 2012-2013 programs. President Maureen Leonard began the program with a short meeting with summer updates and kudos to members for their work in Ipswich. One of the most important announcements was that the date of the Annual Plant Sale has been changed from May 18th to May 11th, 2013. This change was made so that our sale would not be competing with other organizations' sales held on the same date (e.g. Long Hill ).

Tuesday, September 11th -- IGC Meeting See You There

Looking forward to our first event of the 2012-2013 IGC season on Tuesday, September 11th. A short Club meeting will precede the evening's presentation by noted photographer, Peter Vanderwarker. The short meeting will begin promptly at 6:45 pm; our speaker at 7:00. Hostesses for the evening are Annie Pulver and Landi VanAlen. Location is the Ipswich Public Library. "See you in September."

____________________________________________________

  "Art in the Garden, A Photographer's View"

"Seaside Sanctuary", Architectural Digest    Nantucket

Peter Vanderwarker is an internationally-regarded architectural and editorial photographer.  His work appeared regularly in Architectural Record and Architectural Digest magazines, among others. His photography work is found in the collections of the Boston Athenaeum, the MIT Museum, and the Boston University Art Gallery. He is also the author/co-author and photographer of several books, and a columnist for the Boston Sunday Globe's Cityscapes.

His books include:
The Big Dig: Reshaping and American City, Little, Brown and Co., Fall, 2001 Written and Photographed by Peter Vanderwarker

Means of Grace, Hope of Glory: A History of Trinity Church, Fall, 2001 Photographs by Peter Vanderwarker

The Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill, Centry Hill Press, April, 1999 Photographs by Peter Vanderwarker

Cityscapes of Boston, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1992 Co-authored with Robert Campbell, architecture critic, Boston Globe

Boston, Then and Now, Dover Publishers, New York, 1982 Written and photographed by Peter Vanderwarker

Mr. Vanderwarker holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1996-1997.

Ipswich Garden Club Summer Newsletter

Check out the new Summer 2012 IGC Newsletter

Next Week's Elm Ceremony

Pavilion Beach Clean Up- Saturday, June 30th

From left to right:
Maureen Leonard, Deb Blagg hiding behind me, Connie Price, Cody, Laurie McAleer, Ryan, and DPW workers Dan Gallant and Scott Woodburn.

It was the most beautiful morning at Pavilion Beach. There was quite a breeze and the air was very comfortable even though it was in the high eighties. We brought lots of water, ice cubes and hard workers. We called out water breaks from time to time and actually paced ourselves and we were home by 10:30. Thanks to all. Maureen

"Piscataqua Papers" from Alicia

Alicia Moore follows up the delightful IGC's fieldtrip to Brave Boat Harbor Farm by providing us with a charming article from the Piscataqua Papers entitled "Espaliered Fruit . Those of you who were on the trip will remember the apples and pears that are espaliered on the house and along the walls of the formal front garden. Below is Alicia's email to Cynthia Hosmer which gives some background to this reading. Thank you Alicia for adding this to the memories of a wonderful day trip and to Peter for scanning the  article for our blog.

Cynthia,       

     The Club's visit to your seaside garden and meeting you  was a delight, a gem among our best-ever trips. I treasure my copy of "Piscataqua Papers", co-edited by Marion Hosmer and published by the Piscataqua Garden Club, York Harbor, copyrighted in 1965. It  was a favorite of my father's who was an avid flower gardener. 
       I think fellow Club members would  especially enjoy reading Marion Hosmer's "Espaliered Fruit Trees"and  "Wind, Salt, and Gardens". I am glad to find "Earth on Her Hands" which has photos of your gardens in the Ipswich Library.
 

With appreciation for the beautiful day with you,
Alicia

Photo by Maureen Leonard

Sally's Pond and Meadow at the Ipswich Museum

 From Judy Hallberg:

Winthrop Students enjoy the meadow.

 

Sally’s Pond, a part of the Ipswich Museum property on South Main Street adjacent to the Whipple House, was created in 1975 as a memorial to Sally Lunt Weatherall, chairwoman of the conservation commission of the town of Ipswich, who was instrumental in the acquisition and planning for the Ipswich Riverwalk.  Everyday, walkers, strollers, pond-viewers or photographers visit this quiet pond in the meadow. 

Walkers visit in December.

A meadow in a small urban setting is a rare thing. It benefits all by cleansing the air and providing a refuge for small wildlife and a great variety of native wildflowers. It is essential that the meadow be mowed once every year, in late October or November, to prevent trees like Norway maple and sumac from taking over. This annual mowing also prevents some invasive plants from overwhelming everything else. For many years, the meadow was also mowed in July, cutting down all the wildflowers that host and feed butterflies, dragonflies, and bees. Following a summer when the July mowing was impossible due to heavy rains and flooding, as the resident of the Whipple House and the Museum’s gardener, I noted an obvious maturing of the wildflowers and an obvious increase in both dragonflies and butterflies. I decided the following year to do only a late fall one-time-per-year flat mowing of the entire meadow and see what that did for the flora and desirable insect population. Again the result was an even greater apparent increase in butterflies, notably monarchs because the milkweed, where they cocoon, was left to mature. There are now clouds of beautiful multi-colored dragonflies and, finally--bees, the good kind.

It is accessible to walkers via paths maintained by the Ipswich Museum, which owns the meadow, the pond, the woods on the south side and the trail along the river to South Cemetery. There is a narrow but well-trodden trail into the northwest corner of the meadow from the sidewalk at S. Main St. and a wide mowed path around the pond is maintained by the Museum. Many people enter at that corner and either continue along the riverside trail to the South Cemetery or, once they reach the pond, take the meadow path east to the Whipple House back lawn and then through the Whipple House gardens to South Village Green. In a winter with sufficient natural ice, the pond is a favorite place for ice skating.

The walking traffic has increased every year since I began having the wide meadow path mowed in 2003. Groups of school children visit the meadow in the spring and in September to see the butterflies and dragonflies and the wild plants. The wide and comfortable mowed paths, safe from ticks and poison ivy, make this possible. When the Knight House is finished, a mowed path into the meadow at the Three-Sisters garden by the Whipple House driveway will be relocated to begin at the sidewalk between that driveway and the Knight House.

All the Ipswich Museum Gardens, most of which surround the Whipple House, are open to the public at all times. The fenced 17^th Century Housewife’s Garden created by author Anne Leighton is viewed most often and a large area of the Old Rose Garden, named for Margaret Austin, was restored and re-planted 4 years ago. A new shade garden borders an access path into the rose garden from South Village Green at the south east corner of the property. The Three-Sisters garden is planted according to Wampanoag tradition with companion plantings of corn, beans and squash and is in the meadow next to the Whipple House driveway. An early 19^th Century style Formal Garden is on the west side of the Heard House, it’s entry sometimes obscured by a vigorous chestnut tree with low hanging branches of large dense leaves.

I don't know the names of most of the plants that grow in the meadow garden, but, as an almost full-time gardener during the summer, it's a pleasure to wander along those meadow paths and simply enjoy the flowers instead of trying to manage them. I regularly trim around the bench to insure it is a comfortable spot to sit and watch the wild life and I’ve added signs and frequently point visitors to the paths. Soon, I hope, more people will be aware of the access paths to Sally's Pond and will use them to discover this wilderness in miniature, here in downtown Ipswich, just a 3-minute walk across a bridge from Zumi's. Is there a better way to enjoy a latte than sitting on a purple bench beside a pond blooming with water lilies, waiting for a visiting egret to float in on his great white wings and settle silently in the reeds?

Judy Hallberg
Chairperson, Ipswich Museum Gardens Committee