Volunteers for the Hidden Gardens of Munjoy Hill This Morning.
The Refreshment Table Organized by Joan Sheedy.
Marjolaine Whittlesey, Sits in the Garden of Ben Monaghan, on Melbourne Street.
A Colorful Garden at 68 Emerson Street Where Refreshments Were Also Served.
Del & Diane Nickerson, Garden Sitters, on the Garden Tour. Del was a Horticulturist at Wellesley College for 37 Years.
Matthew Kennedy, President of the Friends of the Eastern Promenade, in His Backyard Garden on the Tour Today.
By Carol McCracken (Post # 2,644)
Cloudy skies and cold temperatures didn’t keep garden lovers from touring nine different gardens on Munjoy HIll today on the tenth anniversary of this popular event. Todays celebration of local gardens attracted people from the Hill as well as the Greater Portland area.
“It motivates us to explore our neighborhood. This is our second year and they appear to be new gardens with beautiful stone work. We have two pots on our deck,” said Jane Walsh who with her husband Frank were taking their own self-guided tour this morning. “We don’t have green thumbs, she said laughing. The couple lives on the Eastern Promenade.
The garden of Lori and Matthew Kennedy on Beckett Street, like others, is a fairly new one. Back in 2013, the couple decided they wanted a backyard low maintenance garden for entertaining. The transformation from a yard full of weeds to a featured space on the garden tour is amazing. The plantings were designed to attract butterflies and other pollinators. (See below right photo.)
Ben Monoghan, Melbourne Street, showed his garden today for the second time. There is a lot of work involved. “After the first year I was like I’m never doing this again. But I saw Diane Davison and she persuaded me to do it again this year. Unfortunately, there is not a lot in bloom in my garden in July,” Ben said. Marjolaine Whittlesey, a neighbor, said, “It’s lovely here year round. Ben has a green thumb year round. Every few weeks there’s a new wave of color cause he’s a good planner,” she said. She teaches at the “Telling Room.”
This is a fundraiser for the Friends of the Eastern Promenade.