Garden History Explored

Garden History Explored at Penobscot Marine Museum

May 21, 2013 – An expanded vegetable garden featuring heirloom plants is being planted at Penobscot Marine Museum this spring Penobscot Marine Museum this spring.  “We will be saving our seeds, just as our thrifty great grand-parents did,” says Kathleen Curtin, Penobscot Marine Museum’s new Education Director and food historian,  “in the 1800’s almost every householder with a bit of land, from carpenter to ship builder, kept a small family garden.  Now many of the older varieties of vegetables are disappearing, and the Museum would like to help preserve this part of our history.”

To highlight the importance of the garden in history, the Museum is presenting a series of illustrated Garden History talks by horticulturalist Diana Chapin of The Heirloom Garden of Maine in Montville.   “Early American Garden Design: Popular Landscaping in Colonial and Victorian America”, on Monday, June 3, at 7:00 pm is the first talk in this series.  Diana will show how gardening has changed the American landscape from Colonial through the Victorian Eras. 

Diana George Chapin’s family has farmed in New England since 1628.   At The Heirloom Garden of Maine she collects, preserves and propagates over 300 varieties of flowers, bulbs, vegetables and herbs that were common in Early American gardens.   Diana holds a B.S. in Landscape Horticulture and Design, and a M.S. in Plant, Soil and Environmental Science from the University of Maine.

“Early American Garden Design: Popular Landscaping in Colonial and Victorian America”, will be at PMM’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, 11 Church Street, Searsport, on Monday, June 3, at 7:00 pm.  Tickets in advance are $8 members, $10 non-members, or at the door $12 members, $15 non-members.   Buy tickets online at http://garden01.eventbrite.com or call 207-548-2529. 

Series tickets are available for all four talks at $24 for members and $30 for non-members. The other talks in the series are Heirloom Gardening is for the Birds! (Bees and Butterflies, too!) on Monday, July 1, 7:00 pm, Colonial Herbs for meate and medicine, and Shaker Influence on Monday, August 5, 7:00 pm and Seed Saving Primer, and Genetic Engineering and Food Security on Monday, September 9, 7:00 pm.