Lovely herb garden graces new hospital’s grounds
By Joyce White
Special to the Sun Journal

BRIDGTON – While bees worked the blossoms on a recent Saturday afternoon, members of Corinne Martin’s herbal apprenticeship class thinned two large clumps of comfrey in the herb garden on the grounds of Bridgton Hospital.

The prunings weren’t wasted – apprentices would take comfrey home to dry to make salves and lotions for their own use. The apprentices planted other medicinal plants, such as milk thistle, nasturtiums, chamomile and calendula among the sturdy elecampane, foxglove, vinca, angelica and thyme planted last year.

The garden, Martin said, came about through a series of connections with people interested in medicinal plants. An herbalist for 20 years, Martin said she’s continually learning and teaching about herbs. As a member of the nonprofit United Plant Savers, she was aware of the group’s goal to preserve wild, medicinal plants in this country through education and research, and also through means such as plant exchanges.

When hospital pharmacist Mike Toner moved to Bridgton two years ago, he sought out Martin because he was interested in learning about botanical medicine. At about the same time, the grounds of the new hospital needed beautification. A medicinal plant garden would be just the thing, they thought – both beautiful and educational.

When they learned that a garden club member and hospital volunteer, Harriet Johnson, had proposed a healing garden, the two created a garden design to incorporate both ideas. Martin and Toner applied for and received $500 grant from United Plant Savers for the development of a community-based garden that focused on education about medicinal plants.

Because Martin is the expert on plants, Toner said, she made recommendations on plant selection and garden layout.

“Then we had a big planting day last year,” Martin said. Hospital employees joined with Martin’s herb apprentices for the planting.

Plenty of donations

It was a big operation that involved a good part of the community, they said. That help included donations of loam, manure, mulch, a sprinkler and a garden bench in addition to donations of plants by many people.

“Every time we turned around, someone else was offering to help in some way,” Martin said.

Martin believes the garden fosters a healing sense of connectedness among many in the community. Toner said the community continues to support the garden, and he says if people are welcome to volunteer time in the garden.

Those interested should call Pam Smith, director of development and community relations, at 647-6055.

Smith said the garden is a spectacular addition to the grounds, providing beauty and also introducing viewers to the roots of modern medicine. Patient rooms look out on the garden, she noted. Smith has arranged to have a booklet that identifies each plant in a layout diagram and describes its medicinal uses in each patient’s room.

A quarter-mile paved path around the hospital takes people past the herb garden. “We call it our ‘wellness pathway,'” she said.

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