Oldtown

Local news covering the Oldtown area

A section of the Lewis family’s backyard garden. (Photos: Caitlin Lewis)

The Garden Tour: A View from Inside

In March, my friend Maria Gonzales Jackson texted me: “Question for you. The Laurel Museum is working on planning our garden tour and a board member passed by your house and wondered who the owner is and if they would be interested in being one of the gardens on the tour.”

Flattered, I ran the idea past my husband, since he would be on kid duty while I was prepping for the tour. He was all for it, so I said yes to Maria, and suddenly realized how many unfinished projects I had around the yard.

I tend to do projects in a circular fashion: I start one, get a bit done, then one of my four kids has a crisis and I must stop. Then the next time I’m in the yard, I work on another project, another crisis ensues, another stop, and the cycle repeats. I bounce from project to project depending on two factors: where the kids are currently playing and how many of them are not currently crying. If you ever walk past our house and see garden tools lying on the ground, just know there was a crisis of toddler proportions and no time to tidy up.

Last fall, we decided to make a raised bed around a tree in the front yard. I was tired of losing plants because the soil retained so little moisture. We measured, bought materials, put up one side of the raised bed, then went inside because it was cold. It stayed cold, so we stayed inside.

When I agreed to the garden tour, I decided to finish the one-sided raised bed. After completing the wooden structure, I had the brilliant idea that I could dry-stack broken pieces of concrete around it. What could possibly be hard about stacking uneven concrete pieces on an uneven slope around a tree with roots protruding unevenly through the ground?

It turned out to be the world’s most annoying jigsaw puzzle. Every time I worked on it, I teetered on the brink of existential crisis. But I was in too deep to stop. And besides, the garden tour was coming.

I spent most of May furiously finishing projects and telling my kids to save the tears for therapy. I hired a teenager to move mulch and stones around while I planted herbs like a rabid witch.

The week of the tour was sweltering, with intermittent thunderstorms. On the evening before, all the garden owners in this year’s tour were supposed to meet at the Laurel Historical Society (LHS) museum and then travel together to see each other’s gardens. Unfortunately, the weather threatened another thunderstorm, so LHS Director Kristen Norton changed the preview to a postview gathering the following week.

Saturday morning arrived with beautiful weather. I did some last-minute tidying up while waiting for my LHS house captain to arrive. To my great delight, Kristen assigned Maggie Hubbard to our house. Upon arriving, Maggie advised that the program listed our house as the first stop (although attendees can go in any order), so she expected a lot of people at the start. She was right: a few minutes after 10 am, a couple of ladies showed up, followed by a steady stream of guests for the next two hours.

Over the course of the tour, over 40 people stopped by. It was charming to see so many neighbors enjoying my garden and asking questions about this or that plant.

Between visitors, Maggie and I rocked on chairs on the porch. While I know Maggie as the director of the children’ s choir at St. Mary of the Mills, we’d not had much time to chat before. I learned that she’s the daughter of former Laurel Mayor Leo E. Wilson, and that her mother, Jean Wilson, was very involved with LHS.

Just before the tour’s 2 pm end, City Councilman James Kole (one of the tour’s sponsors) stopped by. Kristen Norton also arrived to check on us. I found myself exhausted, but happy in the sense of community that sharing a garden can bring. And I don’t think I’ll start any new projects for at least another month. Maybe two.

The First Period Gym Class

Speaking of community, I recently interviewed a wonderful group of seniors—two from Oldtown—who meet three times a week to exercise at the Robert DiPietro Community Center. About six years ago, when the exercise room at the Armory underwent renovation, Joanne Wilson and Mike Dyer switched to working out at the DiPietro center. Along with Dan Dove and Merry Worthington, Joanne and Mike formed what Dan calls “First Period Gym Class.” They meet three mornings a week and spend about 45 minutes exercising, followed by 45 minutes of talking.

Joanne Wilson, Dan Dove, and Mike Dyer at a recent “gym class.”

Laughing, Joanne said, “Social exercise is as important as physical exercise.” They use a text thread to keep each other accountable, with the expectation that they will text each other if one is absent.

Joanne said she tends to focus on strength training while at the community center (she’s an avid walker in the Oldtown neighborhood), while Mike and Dan prefer cardiovascular exercise on stationary bikes or treadmills. (Merry was absent the day of the interview). Mike described the group as “a motley crew,” and joked that if my picture of them didn’t turn out well, I could find all their photos on the Post Office’s Most Wanted wall.

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Caitlin Lewis holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Covenant College. She worked as a high school English teacher both in the U.S. and Greece, but currently works at home raising her four children and writing her column.