WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING…?: Community Gardens & Projects

“ What the Heck…? ” is a Newsletter-Info-Series to share what our club does and how we do it. Each month, we will focus on one of our “Standing Committees” or Project Teams to give an overview of their job within GCW, the projects they are currently working on, achievements, and requests for any help they may need.

The Garden Club of Wiscasset is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a dedicated mission in our Bylaws, Article II that states, “The objectives of this Club shall be: to cultivate the art of gardening in all forms; to encourage community beautification; to support education in fields related to our environment; and to cooperate with the Garden Club Federation of Maine in promoting worthwhile projects.”

The seven Standing Committees below are organized to support the written Objectives above.

Ok now that’s behind us, let’s get going with –

WHAT THE HECK DOES THE COMMUNITY GARDENS & PROJECTS COMMITTEE DO?

Responsibilities for each ‘Standing Committee’ are included in the Policy section in the back of our Yearbooks. The policy states, “COMMUNITY GARDENS AND PROJECTS: Shall work on projects to beautify the community and surrounding areas, including but not limited to various community gardens and holiday baskets, and share knowledge and skills to aid the community at large.

Ok, so how do they do that?

The Community Gardens & Projects Committee is a big reason how our community knows about us and the work we do. Since 2021, we began using a team approach for maintaining our gardens. Garden Teams work together on one garden throughout the summer season. Each of the seven gardens we care for has a designated Garden Team and Team Leader(s) who are responsible for planning, planting, tending and clean-up of their garden. The public sees our volunteer teams caring for multiple public gardens in Wiscasset, Bath and Dresden and often stop to tell us how much our work is appreciated. The volunteer work we do together maintaining these beautiful spaces creates a special bond with teammates and with the communities we serve.

Community Gardens Teamwork: The Garden Teams are made up of GCW member volunteers who commit to caring for a specific garden for the season. Each Garden Team meets early each spring to review their garden and plan what is needed including equipment, plantings and improvements. Each Garden Team is responsible for the upkeep, maintenance, and care for the following gardens:

• Nickels-Sortwell House Gardens

• Pownalborough Courthouse Garden

• Town of Wiscasset Sunken Garden

• Coastal Cancer Center - Serenity

  Garden in Bath

• Wiscasset Public Library Gardens

• Wiscasset Public Library Flower Arrangements

• Wiscasset Triangles

The Nickels-Sortwell House Gardens is one of the historic gardens our member volunteers maintain. The GCW won a National Garden Clubs award for the "1930’s appropriate" gardens at the NickelsSortwell House in Wiscasset which were restored in collaboration with Historic New England. White iris, saved in a garden of a Sortwell descendent, were re-planted when the gardens were restored and spring brings a riotous display of tulips along the Main Street.

The Pownalborough Courthouse Garden is situated on the east bank of the Kennebec River on the historic courthouse grounds. The Pownalborough Courthouse is the only surviving courthouse built during the colonial period in the state of Maine and now serves as a museum, owned and operated by the Lincoln County Historical Association.

The garden takes its inspiration from an 18th century garden. Team members decide each year on plantings that refresh the tranquil setting and add new ideas in the same way early gardeners would make modifications to meet the needs of both soul and kitchen. A new plant legend is created and posted at the edge of the garden each year to identify each planting. GCW has gifted the historic garden with a sundial and a bench to rest in the shade of the grape arbor while enjoying the plantings as the Kennebec flows peacefully by.

The Town of Wiscasset Sunken Garden is maintained by our volunteers in collaboration with the Appearance of the Town Committee. Efforts are underway to begin reworking this garden to what it might have looked like in 1924 when Frances Sortwell and her mother Gertrude created a moonlight garden planted in whites and light blues and pinks. The newly restored landscape architecture (Fall 2020) was recreated from a picture of the original garden in 1910. The three major pieces were two white arches at each entrance to the garden, and a white pergola which add a special magnificence to this small jewel of a garden hidden in the middle of Wiscasset Village. A generous gift of $10,000 from our Club restored the red brick paths that line the garden beds. Another GCW member’s donation restored the landscape architecture that distinguished this unique sunken garden over 100 years ago.

The Coastal Cancer Treatment Center Serenity Garden is a small well-established garden located in Bath at a healthcare facility. This garden was established by one of our members several years ago in appreciation for the care received in this wonderful place of healing. The garden honors many of our club members and women in the wider community who have experienced breast cancer. The garden theme color is Pink, the color of remembrance. In addition to maintaining the Serenity Garden, the GCW recently donated two Adirondack chairs and refurbished a lovely teak bench, that offer patients and their families undergoing cancer treatment a peaceful space to reflect and connect with nature.

The Wiscasset Public Library grounds have multiple landscaped areas designed and maintained by the Club. The Library Garden Team maintains the "Children’s Garden" outside the bay windows (at the end of the downstairs childrens’ library area), the "Native Garden" outside the back door of the lower level of the library, and the "Monarch Waystation" in the backyard of the library. In addition, annuals are planted by the door to the "Second Hand Prose" used book room.

In 2014, GCW members planted a Stewartia pseudocamillia tree on the front lawn of the library in honor of Benjamin Kirkland, a charter member and benefactor of the Garden Club of Wiscasset. The showy white flowers and glorious fall foliage of the "Kirkland tree" are a remembrance of the generosity of spirit and great care of our founders and the continuing mission of the Club.

Flower Arrangements are delivered year-round to the Wiscasset Public Library on a weekly basis, by GCW volunteers. Our members share arrangements of fresh flowers during the growing months from their own gardens, then transition to interesting, dried arrangements for fall, with an offering of small plants during the winter months and vases full of bulbs start the cycle again in spring.

The Wiscasset Triangles are street medians our volunteers fill with colorful annuals to brighten Wiscasset’s downtown Main Street.

This Committee also takes on other community projects - but we’ll get to that at a later date.

Please let your Community Gardens & Projects Committee know you appreciate everything they do for us including the Committee Chair, Tina Sedney and Garden Team Leaders Lisa Freeman, Linda Biden/Julia Rea, Beth, Sheila, and Sherry Lyons, plus a slew of GCW volunteers that are listed in your yearbook under each garden!

As a volunteer not-for-profit organization, EVERYTHING we do for our community, and our Club is done by us – as volunteers.

Many-hands-make-light-work!

How are you using your skills to help?