Reprinted from the Summer 2020 edition of the Watervliet Shaker Journal.
Becky Langer, the illustrious volunteer manager of our Herb Garden sends regular reports on work in the herb garden to staff and her fellow Garden Buds. These updates reminded Volunteer Coordinator Miriam of the wonderful journal entries of Shaker life that we’re lucky enough to have access to. She also was curious to learn a bit more about Becky and her connection to both the Shaker Herb Garden and gardening in general.
Becky discovered the Shaker Heritage Society and its Herb Garden upon moving to the area in the Fall of 1996, while looking for new work and new friends in the area. Becky says, “I was fortunate enough to inherit the Obsessive Compulsive Gardening gene through my maternal line, and apparently it is still going strong in my daughter. The garden was already well maintained by Ralph Weller, who I liked instantly. However, I was headed for a rough patch of ski accidents and unrelated surgeries that kept me from so much as pulling a weed until three years after Ralph retired from the garden. But I eventually made it! And this is my 18th year! It took almost all of those years to pull together the elite force of weed warriors we now call the Garden Buds.” Here is a selection of Becky’s spring garden journals.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 What a wonderful day to be in such a safe and wonderful place! Thank you Janet [Nardolillo] and Elaine [Sacco] for making it such a productive day too! We all got busy cultivating bed edges and picking out overwintered weeds and grass, removing dead brush as we went along. I’m seriously considering having another go at it tomorrow morning before the rain starts, just to get all the beds on the same page. I also pruned the ELDERBERRY and BAYBERRY trees. A tiny little COLTSFOOT floor—no leaves, no stems….yet. How many DAFFODIL Buds can you count? Could be upwards of 3 dozen—yet another record! Say goodbye to last year’s magnificent GARDEN SUNFLOWERS—in my opinion, still gorgeous, but I must take them down to plant the new seeds.
Tuesday, April 7 I made it to the garden and finished the last two beds on the left and weeded the back side of the gravel apron. Also put topsoil on ASPARAGUS patch and transplanted a large clump of LOW CHAMOMILE out of the WILD BERGAMOT bed and into the LOW CHAMOMILE bed. I guess it can’t read.
Sunday, May 3 Today was to be the garden’s first mowing; but alas the mower would not start. It purred a little but not in contentment—more like bellyache. Instead, Carolyn [Boldiston] and I weeded together and I also answered her questions about thyme, ground ivy, moss and other deeply rooted subjects. I also introduced her to the dreaded BIH. Yes, Ladies, it’s that time again…The BLACK INDIAN HEMP is once again sending out its countless dozens of little pinky-greenish “asparagus” shoots. And YES, they are still everywhere—in the grass, plants, beds, edges, gravel, under big leaves of the RHUBARB (it’s favorite hideout); and even though they are quite visible, they are still hard to spot!…You may see somewhat similar shoots if you walk around the left side of the garden, greener and not as numerous. You can yank those too. They are from the COMMON MILKWEED and the shoots INSIDE airs cage can be left to grow. BIH–surprise, surprise–is a member of the milkweed family. The garden right now is mostly all weeded out, and it is lovely! In a day or two– or even right now, for that matter–anybody itchin for a little Weed Patrol would certainly find sneaky little ones hiding here and there and the gravel too. It’s just that season again! The growing season is underway‼️
Wednesday, May 6 I have been able to acquire a few more plants so I will take them to the garden today and plug them in at some point, hoping to visit one more garden center on the way. While I am there, I will patrol for BIH shoots and water last week’s new transplants. As you can see, we are still stuck in a post-glacial climate pattern, but I will let you know what the weed situation looks like.
Later that same day I planted DILL, CAYENNE, PARSLEY, MARIGOLD, GARDEN LETTUCE and they all look happy. I was able to dig and rip the sneakaway SPEEDWELL plant out from under the bottom edge of the fence and transplant it back into its bed, hopefully without killing it. It and two little bitty ones I found in the grass are all lightly covered with pine needles because they like shade and the big plants around them aren’t leafed out yet. I noticed shoots from GARGET and ASPARAGUS at last. Also planted some saved seeds from THORNAPPLE and covered them with pine boughs because they like to germinated under things in shade and then bake themselves into giants in the summer sun and heat. They don’t like this kind of spring. Apparently the BLOODROOT plants didn’t like last winter. None came up this spring. But they did leave seeds behind that began to germinate several days ago and today I can finally tell they are tiny infant BLOODROOTS! One of the earliest and prettiest of early spring flowers.
If you feel inspired by these entries and would like to help out in the Herb Garden, please contact us at volunteer@shakerheritage.org.
