In 2019 Mary Gould, a member of the Club and a past president, donated $10,000 to the GCN. Then the pandemic hit and we had to devote all our energy to keeping the club active. Last year the board voted to buy three birdhouses with part of her monies – one here on Town Hill at Adele’s Garden, one at the H. Olive Day Butterfly Garden and one at Stony Brook’s Butterfly Garden. They also decided to use the money to install a bench in honor of past, present, and future gardeners.

Susan McCarthy will lead the dedication of the bench.

ROSE GARDEN

In 1989 funds were donated by Garden Club of Norfolk member and president, Mary Gould, for the purpose of creating a rose garden on Town Hill as a memorial for her family. Following the redesigning and lowering of the Town Hill in 2003, a rose garden design was finalized by the Garden Club of Norfolk. The Club participated in the sale of memorial bricks that are included in the design of the walkways throughout the area. A 9/11 Memorial statue was commissioned and positioned in the center of the garden which was planted in the spring of 2006. Over the next ten years the rose garden fell into disrepair, with weeds, borders overgrowing and roses dying. The Rose Committee assessed the rose garden in the fall of 2016 and initiated plans to renovate it to its original intent.

In 2017 Liz Davey submitted the Civic Development Grant to the GCFM. GCN was awarded $1,400 which enabled the Rose Garden Committee to renovate this garden. Its picture has been featured on the cover of the Norfolk Town Report.

HERB GARDEN

In 1985 the Tramp House was moved from beside the library to its present location, which was very near its original spot. The Tramp House was built in 1886. Many wondering tramps spent the night there; it was later used as a classroom for the Norfolk Center School where children learned home economics and carpentry.

In 1987 the GCN designed a historic herb garden surrounded by a brick walk and circular path. It included a center sun dial with 4 quadrants where herbs were planted based on Boston’s Paul Revere’s gardens. In 1998 National Garden Clubs awarded GCN $500.00 and the Exxon Civic Development Award and in 2020 the GCFM awarded the Herb Garden the Continuing Civic Project Award.

ADELE’S BIRDHOUSE GARDEN

This garden is dedicated to Adele Barrett who died in March 2006. She was a founding member of the GCN, an artist, gardener and cook. She lived in Norfolk for 30 years, worked as a secretary, taught tap and jazz dance classes, was a member of the Veterans of Foreign War and the 57^th Bombardier Group of the US Air Force. Her husband, Alfred, died in 2019 at the age of 93.

The garden was planted in the spring of 2008.

LIBRARY ENTRANCE GARDEN

Our new library was opened in 2005 after the building was renovated and greatly expanded. In the center of the entrance garden is one of the first planters bought in the late 1980s by the club. The garden was tended by the town until recently in 2019 the GCN added it to their civic gardens.

WELCOME TO NORFOLK SIGN

In 2005 Jan Conklin and Phyllis Partridge, GCN members with Lowell Robinson, landscape architect and DPW director Butch Vito worked on the project, “Welcome to Norfolk” sign and the town seal on the wall of Town Hill.

Please hold your questions after all our gardeners have spoken. Thank you.

• Rose Garden – Liz Davey
• Herb Garden – Susan Brindley
• Adele’s Birdhouse Garden – Shannon Murphy
• Library entrance garden – Carolyn Feczko
• Putting your garden to bed – Linda Daily