2018
It has been a Quiet Year...
Boards
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We spent a lot of time (22 months) with this Board, with a very satisfactory mutually agreeable resolution:
The Lee Planning Board
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Our board president, Marc Bono, celebrated.
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Scott LaPointe
...and we grew our Board, again with a successful resolution. We added Scott LaPointe to our Board of Directors! See his profile here .
But we did hold Events...
We opened this year with: our second Annual Celebration of International Sculpture Day
International Sculpture Day, or IS Day, is an annual international celebration event held on the last Saturday in April to further the ISC’s mission of advancing the creation and understanding of sculpture and its unique, vital contribution to society. This was Bedrock Gardens' second participation, and held in conjunction with the Flag Hill Distillery and Vineyard in Lee.
by Liz Fletcher.
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Head by Meghan Samson
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And our favorite local band, The Chicken Shack from Lee, played bluegrass. Give them a listen!
...and Our Open House Days were Special...
The Caterpillar Lab came, for the fourth year in a row.
Here are some pix:
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...and we had a great Third Annual Fairy Hobbit House Festival.
Wonderful people helped:
Betsy Williams, author of Are There Faeries at the Bottom of Your Garden? made pixie dust for our visitors. She was very popular.
Michael Lang was here again with his captivating story telling.
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Arts in Reach supplied us with wonderful face painting. What a vibrant program that is!
Valerie Sununu, The Gov's wife, and strong advocate for children, is a perennial favorite of ours...and of the kids!
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And, of course, there were fairies and fairy houses...
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Great art, provided by painter Peggy Hepburn of Somersworth, NH:
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See more details and photos of the FHH here.
But we couldn't have done it without our special volunteers...
...like Nancy Helton, who took a week off from work to organize it, and James Reynolds, who cleared land, ran the parking, and solved problems.
Visitors
We hosted Vistors:
Portsmouth Christian Academy used the Garden for a photoshoot to advertise The Sevret Garden, a play they were producing.
Some of our visitors were classes at UNH:
UNH has a couple of pruning classes here every year. The instructor, Abby Zuidema, is on the right.
Some were part of stand alone classes. Several groups of En Plain Aire painters visited, including NHAA and NEWS
Here is Frank Costrantino all set up...
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...and here is one of his paintings from that session.
...and here are the guineas, tying to live up to their portrait..
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Groups and Clubs.
Garden lovers are a hardy group!
Christie Dustman visited with her landscape design group from Brookline, MA.
The Sunapee Arts Group
Kids just love the Wiggle Waggle
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A local group had a tour and then ate lunch here.
Portsmouth Garden Club
OLLI [Osher Lifelong Learning Institute] has several courses here.
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Arts In Reach (AIRS)
And we love, Love, LOVE it when people are having fun!
Notable
We are Garden number 12 in this great new garden book: |
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Also...
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We have partnered with Joe Stagnone of Morning Star Aerials to get photos like this. Maybe we will have a promo to go with it.
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The Property
Looking Good!
Azaleas reflected in Petit Pond. Photo by Gerald Sedor.
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The Parterre Garden
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Speaking of the Parterre Garden, here is a trip down memory lane;
Remember when it looked like this? I bet you don't!
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...or even like this.
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We had a wall repaired. It was falling down, and was done by Bob Doane, a talented stone mason who specializes in dry laid wall. It is beautiful and you can walk on it.
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This was the Year of the Bees
Maryellen McKeen has donated four colonies of bees, all their accoutrements, and countless hours. We now have four viable colonies. Thank you Maryellen!
Here she is pointing out her bee "tattoo" on her check.
Starting the hives.
One remarkable woman!
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Teaching about bees at the Fairy Hobbit House Festival
Final result. Well loved by all Maryellen's girls.
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Food for Thought:
An estimated 121 Million people visited public gardens. A little less than all (NFL, NBA, NHL, & MLB) [134 million] professional sports combined. And their attendance is flat/declining, while garden visitors is going up!
Loving:
Plants
The variety is amazing!
Red Noodle String Beans
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Paw-Paw fruit
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The fruit of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, an Arisaema.
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Crocosmia
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Skunk Cabbage around the spring, an early bloomer
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Helonias bullata
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Animals
Three visitors to our bird feeder in one day:
First came a wild turkey...
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...then the neighbor's dog...
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...Then this! Bye, bye bird feeder
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Guineas and turkeys turning their backs on each other.
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A tiny tree frog
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and insects.
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We found these holes in the stone dust in our Parterre Garden...
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...due to the Great Golden Digger Wasp
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...and hornets provided a head for one of Jill's creepier sculptures in the Dark Woods.
Volunteers
But mostly we love our volunteers!
The Friends of Bedrock Gardens, the nonprofit being groomed to inherit Bedrock Gardens, was active this year. In 2017, over 80 volunteers contributed more than 2000 hours!
Part of the Hands in Dirt crew . They are much touted, and much loved.
Deb Nugent, the secretary of the Board, at the Boston Flower Show.
We have a table there every year, manned by our board and volunteers. 
Liz Worth at the Fairy Hobbit House Festival.
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We now have "The Dirty Docents", Hands in Dirt volunteers who work on Open Days to answer questions on site. Here is Kerry Ridolfi, awaiting questions.
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A planning meeting in the shop (Betsy Booth, Kate and Gary Bashline, and John Forti).
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Here the Volunteers are planting up plants for our plant sales. (John Forti, Joan vanLandingham, and Rose-Anne and Charlie Kwaks)
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Lots of good times, at the information tent on an Open Day, with Tricia Carr, Kate Bashline, an Gloria Quigley.
We love our volunteers!
Outreach
We attended the Governor's Conference on Tourism in Concord...very successful. Thanks to Governor Sununu for a shout out!
Martha Fuller Clarke, our state representative, hosted us for a fundraiser. That's her in the center.
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Jill gave a well-attended talk at RiverWoods, the continuing care community in Exeter.
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All good things must come to an end...
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Sunrise, a new day.
And what does the future hold?* |
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* maybe this...
