LAGC Field Trip to Hartwood Acres

    July 22, 2014

What a wonderful late afternoon field trip to Hartwood Acres where Curator Sally Foster  met us. The original owner  of Hartwood Mary Lawrence was a gardener herself and commissioned Rose Greely in the 1930s to design her extensive gardens including herbs, vegetables, etc.  The overall shapes have been kept through the years with the original boxwood, lilacs, and the Franklinia alatamaha tree (named for Ben Franklin) remaining.  The garden and it’s plan was accepted into the Archives of American Gardens at the Smithsonian Institution in 2012 and a plaque  near the garden beds notes this. Sally pointed out not only the grounds but the fine design and stone work of the mansion such as stone carved flowers at the corners of doors and windows, the chimneys, the sandstone terrace,   the hemlock courtyard, and the terrace walls.  She has brought in perennials from her own garden and these bloom from February until late frost.  Her aim is to have more native plants,  plants for pollinators, and those used by Monarch Butterflies.  The county plants the annual beds “meant to wow”  and these and the perennial beds Sally maintains under the lilacs are surrounded by an electric fence.

Sally Foster

Take home points:

·        Appreciate and use native plants

·        Plant butterfly weed and milkweed needed by Monarch Butterflies

·        Don’t forget plants for hummingbirds

·        Peonies in shade last longer and are better colored

·        Volunteer opportunities abound in all the county parks and they need volunteers (and arborists)

Next meeting: August 26, 7 p.m. “Container Gardening” by Susan Marquesen  

Submitted by: Rose Mary Highman

Thanks to Diane Machesney for taking some of the photos.