(Chelsea Update would like to thank Mary Jo Frank for the information in this story and Cathy Hunter for the poster design.)
Enjoy a relaxing Sunday stroll through three distinctive Chelsea-area gardens at the Arts in the Garden Benefit Walk 10 a.m.-4 p.m. July 25.
Proceeds from the Chelsea Area Garden Club-sponsored walk will benefit the Chelsea Senior Center Intergenerational Garden, one of the walk sites. The other gardens are in Gregory and Dansville.
Established in 2012, next to the Chelsea Senior Center, the Intergenerational Garden teaches children the joys and benefits of gardening, gives senior citizens an opportunity to garden, and bridges the gap between the two groups, said garden manager Laura Noble in a press release.
The Intergenerational Garden has a hoop house, several raised beds, and garden space for a variety of vegetables. Volunteers help plant, weed and harvest the produce, and assist with summer camp garden-related programs. The garden’s farm stand sells produce on a donation basis, with proceeds supporting the garden.
The walk itinerary includes a 2-acre botanical oasis on Joslin Lake in Gregory, where Chelsea Artists Guild members will be painting plein air. Nancy Cooper and her husband, the late Doug Cooper, retired special education teachers, started the garden from scratch 20 years ago. Today, it features 800 day lilies, 300 hostas, 90 ornamental grasses, and hundreds of other perennials and annuals. Scattered among the plants are purple martin and other birdhouses, scores of garden art pieces, and a towering bottle tree.
The third garden, Along the Fence Daylilies, a family-owned farm in Dansville, has more than 2,400 cultivars, including some 300 mid- to late- blooming lilies. It sells varieties popular with local gardeners as well as new and harder-to-find plants. A free daylily will be given to the first 50 visitors to the farm.
Along the Fence, begun in 2008 by owners Saundra Dunn and Mary Ann Cleary, is home to a complete, chronologically organized collection of Stout Medal winners, the American Daylily Society’s highest award for cultivars.
Arts in the Garden Benefit Walk tickets ($20) are available through July 24 at:
- the Chelsea Senior Center, 512 Washington St.
- the Garden Mill, 110 South Main, Chelsea.
- the Grass Lake Senior Center, 373 Lakeside Dr., Grass Lake.
To purchase tickets by credit card or PayPal, go to the Chelsea Senior Center website, chelseaseniors.org. Tickets also will be available July 25 ($25) at the three gardens.
For more information about the walk, which will be held rain or shine, visit www.chelseagardenclub.com or call 734-475-9748.
Additionally, on July 25, the Chelsea Senior Center is hosting the Festival of Trellises, a fundraiser, at the Intergenerational Garden. Creatively decorated trellises will be displayed; attendees can purchase voting tokens and vote for their favorite. A silent auction of trellises begins at 10:30 a.m. and closes at 3 p.m. No need to purchase a garden walk ticket to view, vote or bid at the Festival of Trellises.
Seniors who would like to arrange transportation for the walk or learn more about the Festival of Trellises can call the Chelsea Senior Center, 734-475-9242.
