Delighted Young Senses 

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Philipstown Garden Club’s Sensory Experience Table
at Desmond Fish Public-Library’s July 23rd, 2022 Community Day

“There are many ways into a Garden: Sight, Smell, Touch”

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Inspiring the next generation of potential gardeners was top of the agenda at Philipstown Garden Club’s table at Desmond Fish Public-Library’s Community Day on July 23rd, 2022.  Themed “There are many ways into a Garden: Sight, Smell, Touch”, the club took advantage of the abundance of high summer to showcase bouquets of flowers from a dozen members’ gardens, blazing in a rainbow of colors. Vases of an equal number of different herbs, fresh from their midsummer cut-back in Boscobel Herb Garden, delighted noses with a range of smells from sweet lavender through citrusy lemon verbena and peppery mountain mint to pungent santolina. Signs identified flowers and herbs with suggestions of “Smell Me” or, as in the case of lamb’s ears, “Touch Me” while thistley Teasel attracted a steady stream of bumble bees, fascinating children.

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A dozen PGC members took turns in the 90+ degree heat to set up, staff and break down the table, which stayed cool under the dense shade of a mature maple in the Reading Garden.  Despite the heat, more than three dozen visitors sampled the sensory delights of and left with a take-away sachet of lavender, so the memories might linger. A club survey recently identified a desire to interact with the community more, and from the happy faces around the PGC table, this was a good start.

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