BOARD
Meet the Team (click on picture for more detail).
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Bob Munger
Treasurer |
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Francine Kontos
Board Member |
Steve Lydenberg
Board Member |
Jill Nooney
Board Member |
Ann Tarlton
Board Member |
Sally Evans
Board Member |
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Leadership
John Forti
Executive Director |
John Forti
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John Forti is a nationally recognized lecturer, garden historian, ethnobotanist and garden writer. He comes to us from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, where he was the Director of Horticulture. Before that, he was the Curator/Director of Historic Landscapes at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, and before that he was the Director of Horticulture at Plimoth Plantation Museum.
John co-founded and served as the board chair for Slow Food Seacoast. He serves on the bio-diversity committee for Slow Food USA and is a governor for Slow Food in New England. He was chair of the board for the Herb Society of America’s New England Unit, and won the 2014 Award for Excellence in Horticulture. He was also recently granted the award for “Civic Improvement through Gardens” from the Garden Club of America. On Facebook, he blogs as The Heirloom Gardener. |
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Wendy TauberWith Southern roots and a passport full of stamps, Wendy Tauber has spent her life building bridges between people, places, and purpose. After living in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and across the United States, she found her heart’s home on the New Hampshire Seacoast.
Today, Wendy serves as the Chair of Bedrock Gardens, a transformative public garden where she champions volunteerism, education, and the power of green spaces to bring communities together. Her passion for connection also shows in her longtime role as a Scoutmaster in Scouting America, where she mentors Scouts and helps them grow into confident, capable leaders. Wendy's path includes a degree in psychology, a career in interior design, and work as a Community Liaison Officer at a U.S. Diplomatic Mission. These diverse experiences have shaped her into a calm, empathetic leader with a deep understanding of what people need to feel safe, supported, and at home. Now a licensed Real Estate agent and active member of multiple nonprofit boards, Wendy brings the same thoughtful care and global perspective to every endeavor, whether guiding a family, growing a garden, or inspiring the next generation. |
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Ann TarltonI was born in NYC where I lived until I was 4 and my family moved to Havana, Cuba, where I lived until I was 8. I returned almost every summer to visit my best friend and had no idea that in August of 1958 I would be waving goodbye, not only to my best friend but also to my beloved Cuba, the country where my passion for blooming plants began.
Life in the US was very different but my love of nature and anything botanical consumed whatever free time I had. Instead of admiring Hibiscus shrubs I learned to love the little lichens called British Soldiers due to the little red hats the blue green soldiers wore. I graduated from Barnard College with a bachelor's degree in Art History, immediately married Peter, and left my love of art, botany and music behind as we started a family before our second anniversary. I started my first wedding flower business, The Secret Garden, at age 30 and learned all about how to order flowers, condition them, arrange them and get them delivered on time, to the right place and in good condition. And I quickly learned how to increase my profit margin by finding/picking flowers from the side of the road. They added variety, low cost, creativity and originality to my business, which bloomed quickly. When we moved to Rumson, NJ, I joined two ladies who were running a plant store and wanted to add a fresh flower division. This also grew, ultimately bringing us our star customer, Bruce Springsteen. I ended up learning about serious gardening when I was asked to install a perennial garden in Bruce's front yard. You don't get ahead by saying "NO" to customers like Bruce so I scrambled for all of the help and advice I could get...... and several months later I and two helpers spent an April weekend in the rain planting 2,000 bare root plants. My next adventure was going to General Theological Seminary in NYC from which I graduated in 1995 with a degree in Ascetical Theology. It was from this adventure that I developed my love of the ground around me, seeing it all as sacred space. My job is to care for my surroundings with humility, love and gratitude. And that is how I came to be involved with Bedrock Gardens. A friend invited to me visit the gardens way before they became open to the public and the minute I experienced their creative beauty I knew that somehow/someday I would hopefully be involved with them....not just in maintenance but in leading groups, sharing my love and reverence for creation. |
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Jill NooneyJill Nooney, creator of Bedrock Gardens along with her husband Bob Munger, spent 40 years designing and building the 30-acre garden while working and raising a family. Bob and Jill are a synergistic pair with complimentary skills. She bubbles with ideas and he brings them to life.
She attended Bennington College and obtained a degree in Clinical Social Work from Smith. She worked professionally as a Clinical Social Worker for 42 years, first at the Phillips Exeter Academy and then at the Exeter Counseling Center, a practice she formed in 1986. She has had a lifelong love of plants creating her first garden when she was nine, and is still an avid plant collector to this day. She began making her own art for the garden, and, in 1996, started the business Fine Garden Art and Ornaments (along with a friend), selling her own work as well as architectural salvage. It closed after 20 years. She has had a lifelong interest in design and obtained a certificate from the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design, which enriched her ideas about shaping experiences in a large landscape. Because of her other commitments it took her 11 years to graduate—not quite the record, but almost. Bedrock Gardens is full of pieces of her art and is an expression of her experimental and irreverent nature. The garden has been referred to as one large integrated piece of art. After a ten-year process of becoming a 501(c)(3), establishing a board, passing by-laws, hiring an executive director, and building a parking lot, in 2023 Bob and Jill gifted 25 acres to the Friends of Bedrock Gardens to continue to be run as a public garden. In 2024, she wrote a book about the journey, Bedrock, The Making of a Public Garden. And what a journey it has been. She serves currently as the Director of Art and Horticulture and has been on the board since its formation in 2013. |
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Steve LydenbergSteve Lydenberg graduated from Columbia College and has an MFA in Theater Arts from Cornell.
For the last five decades, he has worked in socially responsible investment for Domini Impacts Investments, The Investment Integration Project (TIIP), KLD Research & Analytics, and the Council on Economic Priorities. He is a Chartered Finance Analyst holder and has authored numerous books and articles on socially responsible Investment. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, a retired English teacher and a sculptor. |
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Francine KontosFrancine Kontos has been part of Bedrock Gardens board since the very beginning and holds a deep personal connection to its vision and spirit. She served as Chair of the Board from 2013 to 2018, helping to support the development of the garden as a community resource.
With a degree in Art Education from Daemen University, Francine spent 37 years as an art teacher, where she nurtured creativity, curiosity, and a love of learning in generations of students. Education has always been at the heart of her work, and at Bedrock Gardens she worked to build meaningful relationships with public schools, seeing the garden as a living classroom where art, nature, and imagination intersect. Now retired, Francine remains committed to sharing the joy, beauty, and educational value of Bedrock Gardens with the wider community, believing deeply in the garden’s power to inspire people of all ages. |
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Sally EvansSally Evans is a CPA with a master’s degree in accounting. She has worked in public accounting and various private industries; focused on property management, real estate development and construction, but also owed a gift shop for several years.
She has been on boards of the Derry Boys & Girls Club, SPCA in Stratham & Child Advocacy Center in Portsmouth. Her personal and professional lives identify with the artistry and symmetry of Bedrock Gardens – analytical skills required for accounting with the creative passions she uses for quilting and fabric art projects. When not enjoying and relaxing at Bedrock Gardens she likes to bike, ski, snowshoe and kayak in the Bellamy River behind her house and other seacoast locations. |
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Richard D'AbateRichard D’Abate is a graduate of Columbia College and Cornell University. As executive director of the Maine Historical Society (Portland, 1996-2012), he oversaw organizational growth, digital innovation, and capital improvements, including new construction, historic restoration, and landscape rehabilitation.
As associate director of the Maine Humanities Council (1984-1995) he oversaw statewide educational initiatives, including conferences, exhibitions, publications, films, and school programming. Richard is a publishing poet and the author of a number of scholarly essays on New England history. He lives in Wells, Maine, with his wife Bonnie, a visual artist. |
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Deb Nugent
Deb Nugent is a member of the board and the volunteer coordinator for Bedrock Gardens.
She graduated from high school in the Philippines, is a UNH graduate and earned her Master’s degree in adult education from the University of Phoenix. Deb recently resigned as an Instructional Design consultant for Fidelity Investments, and now works at Wentworth Greenhouses in Rollinsford, NH. Deb has years of experience working with volunteers. She is the former president of the New Hampshire chapter of the Associate for Talent Development (ATD), a volunteer organization that provides programs for training professionals. In her spare time, Deb is an avid gardener, knitter and loves to travel around the world. |
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Marc W. BonoA graduate of Columbia University, Marc Bono has been on the Board of Bedrock Gardens for eight years and served as Chairman for seven.
An early member of the Friends of Bedrock, he became involved with the Board upon his retirement after a forty-five-year career in business. During those professional years, Marc worked in a variety of disciplines: Marketing, Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, Performance Improvement, and Quality Assurance. He was involved in several technology-related start-ups and helped to form a number joint-ventures and business partnerships, gaining skills and experience he brought to Bedrock. Prior to moving to NH with his wife, Janet, Marc was active in his community in Connecticut for over 35 years, including working on fund-raising and capital campaigns. |
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Bob MungerAlthough born and raised in Lexington, VA, Bob received his education in the north at Putney School, Haverford College (B.A.), MIT (M.S.), and Case Western Reserve Medical School (M.D.). He practiced Internal Medicine, Primary Care, and Geriatrics in Exeter, NH until retiring in 2006.
Bob's path to gardening was indirect. As a teenager, he worked in his father's extensive sculpture garden, Boxerwood, and hated it. He successfully avoided gardening for decades until marrying Jill, whose passion for gardens gradually won him over. He gravitated toward hands-on work—wiring, plumbing, chain sawing, construction, and stonework—and creating (and fixing) messes. These days he spend a lot of his time on the computer, focused on website design, layouts, finances, and all things Mac, but also travels and works outside. Bob has served on the board since its founding in 2013 and has been treasurer throughout. He has lived with his wife, Jill Nooney, at the garden. for over 40 years. |
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testpending years at sea as a merchant mariner, Andrew came ashore for law school earning his J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Maine School of Law. He has worked as a Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship in t
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Andrew StrosahlAfter spending years at sea as a merchant mariner, Andrew came ashore for law school earning his J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Maine School of Law. He has worked as a Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship in the U.S. Senate.
He practices law in both Maine and New Hampshire in the maritime, transportation, criminal defense, real estate, government affairs sectors, Andrew is the Vice President of the Maine Maritime Academy Alumni Association. Aside from making nautical puns, Andrew enjoys adventures with his wife Jessica and dog Betty. They can often be seen walking downtown and near their home in Dover, New Hampshire. |
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Andy Balon
Andy Balon is an ISA Certified Arborist and practicing horticulturist based in Boston, MA. With over twenty years of experience working with plants and people, Andy brings a practical, hands-on approach to ornamental horticulture. A true lover of all things green, he thrives on learning, experimenting, and finding new ways to connect people with the plants around them.
When he’s not caring for trees or exploring new horticultural ideas, Andy can usually be found in his backyard garden — often with his family of five — tending, growing, and joyfully making a mess. For Andy, the heart of his work is the relationship: between people, plants, and the shared experiences that grow from both. Andy become a member of the board in 2025. |