Kathy Jackson digs a hole to plant amsonia, a perennial commonly known as bluestar. (Photos by Worth Robbins)

Garden Club crew members pose during a break. From left are Kathy Jackson, Marty Green, Connie Grabowy, Jessie Panek, Barbara Heim, and Carlene Phillips.

Last week the Garden Club of Harvard completed its most recent project in a long history of civic beautification for the town: landscaping the entrance to the Hildreth Elementary School. The project got its impetus from former principal Mary Beth Banios, who had asked a couple of years ago if the Garden Club could "do something" about the front of the building. This year the club's membership voted the funds (much of the funding for civic projects comes from the club's annual plant sale), and last April Kathy Jackson and Shirley Boudreau, co-chairs of Landscape Design and Civic Beautification, set things in motion.

Over the years the junipers lining the front walkway to the school had gotten bigger and more unruly—to say nothing of giving off an unpleasant scent that was beginning to reach even the most insensitive of noses. Jackson coordinated with Department of Public Works Director Rich Nota to have his crew remove the offending shrubs during the school vacation. With the space cleared, the next step was to envision a new landscape. Jessie Panek, club member and professional landscape designer, sketched a plan. For hardscaping, she chose bricks and curves to echo the architectural design of the school and a symmetrical design to flank the walkway. The plan involved a brick cutout on either side of the walkway and brick edging extending down to make a welcoming curve at the beginning of the entrance. To her dismay, Panek discovered that the concrete at the start of the walk was not even on both sides, making it impossible to achieve the symmetry she envisioned. Again, Jackson enlisted Nota's help and he arranged for the extra concrete to be removed and replaced with a strip of asphalt to match the other side of the walk. Now the brick edging could sweep out equally on both sides. Bob Lynch of Shaker Hills Stone Masonry did the brickwork.

The mirror cutouts are designed for a pair of benches so that parents picking up their children have a comfortable place to sit. There is a bench already, one that was given to the school by Chris Hayes, a former resident and longtime volunteer at the school, and her husband, David. The Garden Club is hoping people will make donations to the school for a pair of matching wooden benches, or for one bench to pair with the existing one. If money is raised to purchase a matching pair for the cutouts, the Hayes bench will be moved to the side, under a tree.

The DPW removed the overgrown juniper bushes in front of the elementary school in April. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Once school was out, Panek focused on preparing the soil for planting. She and her husband, Jonathan, rototilled compost into the dirt, which the DPW had cleared of old roots and debris. With the summer so hot and dry, Panek left the planting until late in August. She purchased the plant material from several different nurseries and she, with the help of Connie Grabowy and Jackson, set in the new shrubs and perennials. The soil, even though enriched with compost, proved to be "cement-hard" at the depth the largest shrubs needed to be planted, and Grabowy had to call a pickax into service. Last week, several club members, under Panek's direction, spread bark mulch from Acorn Tree and Landscaping over the new garden. The remaining step is to put wooden stakes and roping around the new plantings while they get established.

Panek designed the garden to have "colorful flowers and foliage while school is in session." Like the hardscape, the plant material is the same on both sides of the walkway. Starting at the front door of the school, a pair of Chamaecyparis gracilis (false cyprus) will provide year-round foliage of a deep green. They will remain small and their curves will complement the building's façade. Behind them are two witch hazels, multi-stemmed shrubs that will grow quite large. In mid-February the shrubs will offer bright yellow flowers. An outer arc of deciduous azaleas, called "Buzzard," will redeem their name by offering pale yellow flowers in early spring. An inner planting of amsonia, or bluestar, has light blue flowers in the spring and yellow fall foliage. Three dwarf fothergilla—compact, deciduous shrubs—will sport white "bottlebrush" flowers in mid-spring. Closest to the curb end of the garden are Montauk daisies, large, showy plants that bloom in fall. An existing pair of Kousa Dogwood trees grace the sides of the garden. Still to be planted is the native bearberry (not to be confused with the invasive barberry), at the outer front edges. This low evergreen groundcover bears small blueberry-like flowers in spring, followed by red berries; it can withstand salt and sand.

During the project, several people remarked that the plain dirt looked better than the overgrown junipers had. The Garden Club hopes the town agrees that the school looks even better now that the new garden is planted.