​HWGC Opens Public Programs with a Tour of Cape Ann Wildlife

After Zooming through the 2020 meeting year, the Hamilton-Wenham Garden Club is pleased to announce in-person meetings and public programs on topics ranging from awe-inspiring photos of local wildlife to ecofriendly designs and the future of food sustainability.

HWGC’s first public program features Bill Gette, founding director of the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center in Newburyport. His photographic presentation, “Local Wildlife: Cape Ann to the Merrimack River,” will lead the audience from the rocky headlands of Cape Ann, through historic Essex, to the salt marshes of the Plum Island Estuary and the barrier island beaches at the mouth of the Merrimack River, with examples of wildlife typical of each location.

Gette will share maps so attendees can plan winter adventures of their own. He began leading local, domestic U.S. and international travel programs for Mass Audubon in 1986. Since then he has traveled to all seven continents, studying and photographing wildlife. He joined Mass Audubon in 1996, where he developed the Birder’s Certificate Program at Joppa Flats and taught the Certificate Program in Bird Ecology. He operated the Joppa Flats Bird Branding Station on the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge for over 20 years.

“Local Wildlife: Cape Ann to the Merrimack River” will be held on Wednesday, October 20th at 7 p.m. at the Miles River Middle School, 787 Bay Road S. Hamilton. A $10 donation is suggested. Due to the ongoing concerns related to COVID19, the HWGC welcomes club members and the public who are fully vaccinated. Masks and social distancing will be required.

Save the date for additional upcoming HWGC public programs, including:

“Embracing the Fall and Winter Seasons with Eco-Friendly Designs” featuring Maureen Christmas. (Wednesday, November 17 at 7 p.m., Miles River Elementary School, Hamilton) Christmas is a creative designer and owner of Floral Notes in Acton, MA. She will entertain and educate while creating arrangement using texture and color to celebrate the fall and winter holidays. There will be something for designers at all levels, and suggestions for using plant material from home gardens. Christmas is an accredited floral evaluator and judge, is certified as a European Master, and has been inducted into the American Institute of Floral Designers.

“Les Quatre Vents: Francis H. Cabot’s Quebec Garden" featuring Sally Muspratt (Wednesday, January 19 at 7 p.m. This public program will be presented via Zoom only. Members and guests are asked to register in advance on Eventbrite.com) Landscape designer, lecturer and writer Sally Muspratt will guide the audience on a slide show tour of Les Quatre Vents, an estate garden located in Chalesvoix County, Quebec, which belonged to the parents of Francis H. Cabot. Cabot, a horticulturalist and the founder of the Nature Conservancy, enlarged it and wrote a book about it, entitled The Greater Perfection. Les Quatre Vents is now considered one of the world’s most breathtaking gardens. Muspratt will offer beautiful views of the garden to chase the winter blues away!

“The Future of Food Sustainability” featuring Chris Sellew (Wednesday, March 16, at 7 p.m., Miles River Middle School, Hamilton.) Sellew is Sales Manager of Little Leaf Farms in Devens, MA. Over 90 percent of the greens eaten in New England are shipped from more than 3,000 miles away, and Sellew will discuss what the people at Little Leaf Farms believe is a more sustainable way. Little Leaf Farms was founded in 2015 with a 10-acre greenhouse by Sellew’s father Paul and Tim Cunniff. The company is rapidly expanding its share of the New England market, and as of 2020 they have quadrupled in size to keep up with consumer demand.

To learn more about these and other HWGC programs, please visit https://www.hwgardenclub.org/