Groups commit to garden --- and to beauty

By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The project is blooming quietly.
Beginning this year a garden stewards program of sorts began, designed to sign on groups committed to beautifying a Putnam garden and keeping it beautiful.
Elaine Turner, president of the Quiet Corner Garden Club, said Economic Development Commission Director Mary Ann Chinatti, and Mayor Barney Seney approached her and the plan to bring beauty to Putnam — and have those areas cared for — began to jell.
Groups sign a memorandum of understanding with the town. The garden club serves as a consultant and the groups who sign on commit to planting and maintaining a garden space in town. Eight signed up this first year: Chace Building Supply, the Quiet Corner Garden Club, 85 Main, the Woman’s Club of Day Kimball Hospital, NOW, the Northeast Women and Girls Fund, the family of Robin Smith and the Jewett City Savings Bank.
Turner said those groups may consult with the garden club which would help them choose plants. Some groups the consultant doesn’t hear from and do fine and others might ask for help. The town gives each group a $200 stipend to use as they wish. Most buy plants and flowers with it and the town gives them a link to Prides Corner Farms where they can get plants wholesale.
Turner said members of each group that signed up are expected to commit to removing invasives , weeding, planting and maintenance. “We ask that they weed every couple weeks.”
It’ll take a few cycles for people to see what it takes, she said.
Asked what she liked best about the program, Turner said “the enthusiasm.”
One group, Chace Building Supply, took on creating and maintaining a garden at Miller Park. Turner advised them on the plant selection and it includes black-eyed Susans, coral bells, daylilies, coneflowers and sedums.
Kellie Suplicki, Chace kitchen and bath showroom manager and designer, said they wanted to be involved with a garden so they signed on wholeheartedly. Turner was impressed with Chace’s enthusiasm: “They just jumped in; they’re a great group.”
Suplicki is enthusiastic about caretaking and Chace went above and beyond, planting annual petunias for a long stretch of color. She added there’s ongoing caretaking including deadheading and now, preparing the garden for winter. “I feel passionate about the environment and having nice spaces for everyone,” she said.

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