I’m sure that all gardeners love spring. But I think this is particularly true of New England gardeners who welcome the longer hours of daylight and the warmth of the sun after our long, cold, harsh winters. In fact, some of us are still out in our gardens, wearing our winter coats and gloves, the minute it looks like it might be warm enough to start spring clean-up.  While we are working to get our own gardens ready for spring, Ashland Garden Club members are also preparing the Town’s gardens and planters. Our goal has always been to get the Town looking “visitor ready” for the Boston Marathon, which this year is April 20.  

Many of you might not know that the AGC plants and maintains six in-ground gardens around Town: the Library gardens, the Clock Tower garden, the Memorial, the Post Office, the Winter St island, and the Community Center garden. We also plant and maintain the large Fountain planter across from the Library, the planters at the Town Hall, the planters at the Post Office, and the planters at the Community Center.  Each of these sites has its own history, but for now I’m focusing on the Library grounds.

Once the addition to the library was completed, the grounds were designed and planted by AGC founding member, Marlies Plaggenborg. Marlies is a true master gardener who chooses a variety of plant shapes, textures, and colors for her garden design, while also considering their characteristics, such as disease resistance, maturity dates, and size. We were fortunate to have Marlies and her husband, Joop, maintain the Library grounds until they moved permanently to Arizona in 2018. Now, a team of AGC members manages the site. The team, now working on the library grounds, includes Master Gardener Elena Lapitsky, Rosangela Wilner, John Cahill, Susan Wax, and me (neither of us is in the photo). The photo taken in the library garden of, what looks like a dead plant, is actually a beautiful and relatively unique perennial that hasn’t yet begun to leaf out. In a few months, I will share another photo of this same plant in full bloom.  

Every spring, AGC members divide their perennials to share with the public at our annual plant sale. Our sale always falls on the Saturday after Mother’s Day, which this year is May 16.  It is held at Montenegro Center (directly across from the Library on Front St.), 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. or until we run out of plants. Sun and shade plants are featured, and Master Gardeners are available to answer your questions, to help you design a new garden, or to add plants to your current garden. Come early for the best selection.