There were fairy houses and sweeping seaside vistas, petite flowering patches, and grand elegant specimens. There was truly something for everyone when the Marion Garden Group and the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club hosted their fundraising garden tours. The two clubs coordinated their events so each could have their own day. MGG’s event took place on June 25, and MWCGG on June 26. The back-to-back tours were nothing short of spectacular!
On June 25, under threatening skies, MGG’s tour began in Bicentennial Park where maps that constituted tickets were for sale. And you certainly needed a map to locate the “Secret Gardens,” which was also the theme of the event. Most of the gardens in the tour were on sea view properties making the natural coastlines a major feature of the overall planting designs. These were gardens on a grand scale with textures and sculptural features that provided a magnificent finish to carpet-like lawns.
Spearheading the beautification of Marion’s public spaces is Liz Hatch, who has striven for several years to fundraise, using those monies to buy planter boxes and flowering shrubs to be placed at key locations throughout the community. Such locations as the traffic island on Route 105, the welcome sign at the corner of Route 6 and Front Street, and the turn-around on Route 6 at the boundary of Marion and Mattapoisett are just a few of the areas that Hatch felt could use some flowering attention.
Now with robust ticket sales showing that the event would be an “outstanding success – beyond our wildest dreams,” Hatch could continue planning for the ongoing needs of the beautification project.
“The funds will go to the continued beautification of Marion,” she said. “We are doing everything we can to continue our mission.” Hatch said that without the willing help from town officials and departments, the goal would not be achievable.
And therein lies a big hurdle, Hatch said. She applauded the early efforts of the MGG volunteers in bringing gallons of water to the public locations where floral displays had been planted. “Jodi Dickerson was critical; if it weren’t for him … the plants would have suffered,” Hatch stated of his efforts last summer.
Dickerson, a former police officer and selectman, more recently accepted a reassignment from his role as director of Marion’s Recreation Department to become the DPW’s acting director of operations. His new position bridges the areas of responsibility between the Parks and Recreation Department and the DPW. “Jodi got water to the plants,” lifesaving water, Hatch said, adding a deep appreciation for the assistance of Town Administrator Jay McGrail.
With the MGG coffers refreshed from the Secret Garden tour, Hatch sees plans for providing public water, including spigots in some public locations, a closer reality. Hatch fully understands the challenges that lie ahead, but she remains hopeful that one day a steady water supply will be more abundantly available for keeping Marion in full bloom.
“Everyone wins when the town looks its best,” Hatch said, quoting from a speaker the MGG hosted in recent months. That is, of course, an understatement, but a beautiful one, indeed.
Hatch thanked the committee members for their tireless efforts – Emilie Kendall, Phyllis Partridge, Allison Corfone, Cassy West, and Nancy Khiel. Kendall also wished to thank the residents of the eight gardens in the tour, who through their willingness to open their properties to the public, made the event possible.
The following day, it was Mattapoisett’s turn to throw open the garden gates and let the public see the efforts of primarily the property owners in their 10th Mattapoisett Woman’s Club Tour titled, “Glorious Gardens.” Here, one could find the tender treatment of a fallen tree into a fairy’s paradise, raised vegetable beds every bit as bountiful as a staged magazine cover, and thick, lush lawns framing flowers, trees, and shrubs of every conceivable description and color only available from nature’s coloring book.
Hosted by the garden group within the MWC, this fundraiser provides financial support in the form of student scholarships to graduating high school seniors, as well as support to charities in the area, according to longtime member Kathy McAuliffe. She said that approximately 200 people viewed the gardens, and she thanked the seven property owners who granted access to their gardens, making the event one of the best garden tours the group has held to date.
McAuliffe said the club was founded in October 1941 by some 70 women who soon found themselves helping with the war effort needed after December of that same year. A celebration is in planning for the club’s 80 anniversary, she shared.
McAuliffe said that early on the development of a garden sub-group within the MWC organization was a bit of a surprise to a few new members. “We were told we would handle the gardens,” she said with a warm chuckle. But she said they were equal to the task, quickly organizing themselves into categories of to-do lists and then getting it done. “One person did tickets; others did garden tasks.… It was divide and conquer.” McAuliffe said since 2014 it has been the same core group of members making the garden tour rather like a water wheel smoothly turning.
McAuliffe thanked her fellow members, Marie Rottler, Maryanne Hickey, Carole Clifford, Kathleen Saunders, Caroline Price, Mary O’Keefe, Erin Burlinson, and Cindy Turse.
So, maybe the next time it rains you’ll remember this inspirational quote from Xan Oku: “May the flower remind us why the rain was so necessary.”
To learn more about the Marion Garden Group, visit mariongardengroup.org, and to learn more about the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club, visit mattapoisettwomansclub.org.
By Marilou Newell