Interns meet every week at Shaker Village to prune, thin, replant and harvest the overgrown herbs.
NEW GLOUCESTER – Dragging sleds filled with wooden trays and buckets of tools, 10 working interns are spending every Monday at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village – nurturing, tending and renewing the community’s giant, historic herb garden.
Master gardener Carolyn Stephens of Portland says this isn’t the first time she’s given her time to the Shakers. The once-large community now has four members there, who rely on volunteers and a few employees.
The 1,900-acre religious community, on both sides of Route 26, is assisted by people in a group called Friends of the Shakers, who contribute in many ways to the Shaker Village, which is a federally registered historic landmark.
And this summer, these interns are joining the ranks of those who help.
Betsey-Ann Golon of Naples manages the Shakers’ herb gardens. She’s been teaching herb-garden design and related classes at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community for more than a dozen years. This year, she’s also orchestrating these efforts to revitalize the gardens, which have been an integral part of the historic legacy of the Shaker community.
So much lavender
Last year, Golon single-handedly picked all the lavender herself, then issued a plea for help.
On Monday, she was leading the charge with the help of 10 human “earthworms,” who were kneeling, stooping, bending and crawling through a maze of plants. Armed with pruners, they plucked long, blooming strands from the plants and gently lowered them into neat rows in wooden boxes so they could be carried to a nearby workshop – the laundry room – to make into herbal wreaths that afternoon.
In recent years, the gardens fell on hard times, Golon said. Last winter’s protracted cold also caused havoc for many of the plants, which barely endured the subarctic conditions. This year, the plants are two weeks behind their usual growth.
Rows of replacement plants already have been put in place by the interns. The 10 ladies come from near and far. At the Shaker library, they donned their garden gloves and then tugged their sleds through the grassy fields to the oregano and lavender, which were ready for harvesting. By morning’s end, these fragrant herbs had been taken indoors for to make into, one of the kinds of items sold at the Shaker store. By the end of the day, each person had fabricated a wreath to bring home.
Plans are in the works to build raised-bed gardens next summer and to continue the interns’ planting and harvesting work.
The water brigade
This summer the interns faced some hardships, when they had to tote buckets of water back and forth across busy Route 26 because the garden hoses linked to the community’s water tower near the gardens had been dismantled.
Reconstruction of this portion of Route 26 had shut down the water supply for the gardens to make way for the construction of a bypass road at the edge of the Shakers’ apple orchard. But Leonard Brooks, director of the Shaker Museum, said that by next summer a well system will be installed so the bucket brigade won’t be necessary.
“We will re-establish a productive garden of both annuals and perennials,” said Golon. She’s an expert herb cultivator, ornamental specialist and gardener, as well as a maker of herbal wreaths and teas. Golon, who works for Reinhard Farms in Naples, also operates her family-owned Common Folk Herb Farm in Naples.
“We want to set up a teaching garden that’s educational. An 1800s Shaker catalogue explains why specific plants are grown and how to grow them,” she says.
‘Raising herbs is an art’
But this year they have many basic chores to attend to.
“We’ve been weeding for weeks,” says Joan Knolla of Denmark. In their early weeks, cultivating, weeding, planting and mulching were key chores.
Peggy Morse of Poland was mowing overgrown grass Monday. She’s loves the idea of being part of the rebirth of the garden.
“It would be sad if it was all gone. This is an opportunity to like getting dirty. I am helping my community,” she says.
Charlotte Nolan of Harpswell, another master gardener, helps people establish gardens and she assists farms and gardeners in promoting agriculture as a business operation. But she chose the Shaker garden mission to perform volunteer work.
“Raising herbs is an art, not an exact science,” says master gardener Diane Anderson of Gray. “You have to know when to cut, and you spend a lot of times on your knees.”
“It’s an inner personal thing, it’s an escape,” says Golon.
The women have gathered this summer in rain or cold to do their work, no matter what the weather was.
Golon appreciates the historic Shaker journals that have documenting the herbs and flowers at the village so well. Based on this knowledge, Golon’s expertise now is sought by noted museums who call upon her.
By late Monday, the wreath-making was finished and the floor swept. The interns were ready to head home armed with their fresh oregano and lavender wreaths adorned with lamb’s ear, an ultra-soft herb.
Morse was taking this wreath, her first one, home to dry over time. Not only will she be back next week, she also hopes to continue, year after year.
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