Garden Club Community Grants 2020

Garden Club of Concord Community Grants 2020

Based on the recommendations of the Grants Committee, the club has proposed funding the following six community grants this year for a total of $3,621.25.

The grants represent a good mix projects that reflect the club’s mission: community beautification, therapeutic, educational experiences, and conservation and preservation of open space.

Thank you to the Committee for their thorough work under challenging circumstances: Maryrose Sykes, Chair, Joan Campbell, Jane Deering, Bean Nardi, Holly Salemy, Sally Savelle, Patricia Waters and Kathy Venne.

We customarily take a voice vote to approve grants at our Holiday Luncheon, but the pandemic dictates we vote this year by email.

Any questions about the grants should be sent to Maryrose Sykes mailto:b_sykes@comcast.net

Please review the summary below.

Submit a simple “aye or nay” vote by email to our Recording Secretary, Georgine Feldt at: mailto:gsfeldt@aol.com

The vote will recorded in our January minutes. Distribution of funds is completed in January.

Thank you.

Gaining Ground
Grant Category: Educational/Horticultural
Amount: $1,000

Organization Description: Gaining Ground is a non-profit farm in Concord where, with the help of hundreds of community volunteers, vegetables and fruits are grown and donated to area meal programs and food pantries.

Grant Request: Gaining Ground is requesting funds to go toward the installation of two additional hedgerows in their fields. Their goal is to add six hedgerows in 2021. The hedgerows provide a natural barrier between the fields and offer many benefits to support the growing of organic produce including increased pollination, bird habitat for eating pests, habitat for beneficial insects, wind protection for crops, and biodiversity in the Gaining Ground fields. When full grown, the hedgerows will also provide protection from the cold during the shoulder season and shade in the summer season. Native plants are used to create hedgerows including fruit trees, small fruits, nut trees, legumes and a large variety of medicinal and culinary herbs. The farm staff will work with volunteers to complete the hedgerows over the course of the 2021 growing season.

Friends of Minute Man National Park
Grant Category: Community Beautification
Amount: $700

Organization Description: The Friends of Minute Man National Park is a group of volunteers that work cooperatively with Minute Man National Park to maintain the gardens by providing routine care, preserving historic plant materials, reestablishing native pollinators and removing invasive plants.

Grant Request: The Friends is requesting funds to purchase 20 gas plants, soil amendment and labor costs. The park does not employ gardening staff, and due to the current pandemic, will hire a contract gardener to plant, water and mulch the gas plants under the supervision of National Park Service employees in 2021. This approach will keep the Friends safe. Going forward, the Friends will provide funding for the future care of the plants including routine maintenance.

The proposed project will reestablish gas plants (Dictamnus albus) in the historic Buttrick Gardens, dating back to 1911. These plants once appeared in abundance in the garden but have slowly diminished in number over the years (removed or dried out). The bare earth between groupings of plants allows weeds to take hold throughout the mulch beds. Reestablishing gas plants will not only help preserve the garden’s historic character, but it will also reduce the maintenance and weeding. Gas plants bloom late spring-early summer in the Buttrick garden and will fill in nicely at a time of year that the garden currently lacks interest.

Minute Man Arc for Human Services, Inc.
Grant Category: Therapeutic/Educational/Horticultural
Amount: $750

Organization Description: Minute Man Arc provides a wide range of services to improve the lives of more than 850 children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. Gardening is a therapeutic and beloved activity for hundreds of Minute Man Arc clients. Gardening activities are beneficial to the clients in many ways, including improvement in mobility and fine motor skills, and promoting learning, teamwork, social interaction and problem-solving skills.

Grant Request: Minute Man Arc is requesting funds to support their popular daily gardening program in the greenhouse. Specifically, they are seeking funding for adjacent storage units and covers so that gardening tools, rakes, pots, fertilizer, loam and other related items can be removed from the greenhouse, making more room for gardening. With many clients in wheelchairs, Minute Man Arc wants to keep the extraneous items in a separate location (behind the greenhouse) and maximize the number of individuals participating on any given day. The additional space will also allow for greater social distancing within the greenhouse.

The Trustees of Reservations (Old Manse)
Grant Category: Conservation
Amount: $319

Organization Description: The Old Manse, owned by The Trustees, is a National Historic Landmark overlooking the North Bridge where the battle of April 19, 1775 took place. Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne called the Manse home for a period of time. Emerson wrote a draft of his famous essay “Nature” here and Hawthorne wrote a tribute to the homestead called Mosses from an Old Manse. In 2005, the Garden Club provided funding toward the restoration of the heirloom vegetable garden, which was originally planted by Henry David Thoreau in honor of the Hawthorne’s wedding. The Club also provided funds in 2018 to restore native Bluestem grass in a portion of the North Field.

Grant Request: The Trustees request funds to install native herbaceous wet meadow plants along the fieldstone that parallels the Concord River. This area is adjacent to the Boat House and forms the edge of the back lawn/orchard area of the Old Manse property. The request includes 290 plugs (75 – New England Aster, 75 – Bee Balm, 50 – Joe Pye Weed, 50 – Cardinal Flower, and 40 – New York Ironweed). The selected plants will improve the diversity of native plants and expand pollinators at the Old Manse. Initially, this work was to be completed during a larger landscape restoration project, approved by the Natural Resource Committee. However, the work was delayed to control invasive Japanese Knotweed. The Trustees are currently working on getting the area ready for planting.

Walden Pond State Reservation
Grant Category: Conservation
Amount: $495.25

Organization Description: Walden Pond State Reservation is a 335-acre park encompassing Walden Pond (62 acres) run by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Walden Pond is forever linked with the writing and ideas of writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau who sojourned here from July 1845 to September 1847, inspiring his 1854 classic Walden: or Life in the Woods and his published journals. Today, the reservation gets upwards of 600,000 visitors annually with the “Pond Path” as the most popular trail.

Grant Request: Walden Pond State Reservation requests funds to purchase several dozen native, shore-stabilizing shrubs (Smooth Sumac, Sand Cherry, Common Elderberry, Nannyberry, Wild Raisin, Northern Bush Honeysuckle, Long-beaked Willow, Pussy Willow, Spotted Joe Pye Weed, Wild Blue Lupine) that staff will plant alongside the heavily traveled “Pond Path.” Plantings will be concentrated in areas hardest hit by trampling and erosion during recent high-water levels and the 2020 drought. The erosion results in storm runoff adding to lake eutrophication, a major concern at Walden. Eutrophication is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with mineral and nutrients, inducing excessive growth of algae.

Shrub selections were chosen based on their prevalence in Henry David Thoreau’s writing in the 1800’s and their ability to grow in sandy, acidic, disturbed areas. The Walden Pond staff are currently working on removing invasive plants, getting the area ready for planting. The long-term goal is that these native shrubs will develop healthy root systems to increase the diversity and integrity of the “Pond Path” which was last restored in the late 90’s. Soil will be supplemented for new plantings to assure they take root. Walden Pond staff will regularly water these plantings. Fencing will be fixed near any new plantings to prevent trampling.

Town of Concord Visitor Center
Grant Category: Community Beautification
Amount: $357

Organization Description: The Town of Concord Visitor Center is located in the center of town, offering information about walking tours, house tours and interactive experiences to about 12,000 visitors annually (both domestic and international). The building also houses public restrooms for all, including locals. In recent years, the Town of Concord has worked on attracting more visitors to the Visitor Center through promotional activities, social media, a more expanded website, etc.

Grant Request: The Town of Concord Visitor Center requests funds to enhance the back side of the building when entering from the parking lot. The plan includes adding perennial plants (hostas and sweet woodruff), organic soil and mulch around a tree that is bare and unappealing. The chosen plants are drought and shade tolerant. Generally, this area needs improvement, as it is currently bare dirt, located near trashcans and recycle receptacles. Not very welcoming! The Tourism and Visitor Services Manager, an avid gardener, will regularly maintain the plants using the water spigot nearby. Over time, the Visitor Center intends to have more benches and add art installations to further create a more attractive space.