Philipstown Garden Club and GUFS PTA Stage Pop-Up Harvest Visit to Boscobel Herb Garden

On the afternoon of October 3, 2022, a team from Philipstown Garden Club turned Boscobel Herb Garden into an outdoor classroom to showcase an enrichment session on Gardening at the request of the Garrison Union Free School PTA.  Twelve students and 5 parents circled the garden carrying brown paper bags to partake in the harvest, now in high season, as eight PGC staffers helped them at various stations to dig beets, carrots, sweet potatoes, as well as to pick Scarlet Runner beans. “This is better than ‘Trick or Treat’”, commented one Mom, as kids gathered fresh vegetables and went on to sniff sweet-smelling herbs, such as lavender, lemon verbena, rose geranium; culinary mainstays, rosemary, chives, parsley, sage, and thyme; and the pungent insect-repelling plants like Santolina, Southernwood and Tansy.

 

At a table set up in Boscobel’s Orangery, a PGC member showed visitors some of the stages to turn flax into cloth and discussed dyeing it with plants grown in the garden. At a final station, children could wash their hands as they learned to make soapsuds by agitating the leaves of soapwort with water.

 

Boscobel and its herb garden are beloved treasures of the Philipstown community. Philipstown Garden Club has cared for it for 50 seasons now, and hopefully among the day’s visitors were some in whom the seed of enthusiasm for gardening might one day also flourish.

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