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Canton Public Library Hosts Gordon Hayward
As New Englanders we have grown up with stone. As New England gardeners we may have alternately treasured stones and cursed them. Stone has a special significance for many. In fact, there are those who think of stones as animate, as possessing life. Novelist Louise Erdrich, whose ancestry is Native American, tells us that the Anishinabe universe began with a conversation between stones.
On the first day of spring 2003, residents of the Farmington Valley will all be more than ready to talk about anything that brings the promise of life back to this frozen landscape. And a lively discussion is promised on Thursday, March 20 at 7 p.m., when Canton Public Library hosts nationally famous gardener and author Gordon Hayward, whose topic will be "Stone in the Garden."
Hayward, who grew up in New Hartford but who now lives in southern Vermont, did a stint as a high school writing teacher before a career change. Now he is up to his elbows in loam rather than compositions. His medium is mulch, stone, perennials and patios rather than sentences and paragraphs.
His new career suits him. He is the author of four books, including Designing Your Own Landscape (1989), Garden Paths: Inspiring Designs and Practical Projects (1997), and Stone in the Garden (2001). May 2003 will bring the release of his fifth book, Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Good Garden Design. As a garden designer he consults throughout the Northeast for residential clients, their architects and builders, and he has a staff to install the gardens. As a lecturer about gardens and gardening he has traveled extensively throughout the United States to speak at botanical gardens, museums, landscape association conventions, garden clubs, and as a featured speaker on Horticulture Magazine lecture tours. And with his wife, Mary, he has been leading garden tours to England and, recently, Ireland, for over a decade.
A year ago Hayward spoke to the combined membership of the Cherry Brook Garden Club and the Simsbury Garden Club on the topic of "intimate gardens." His talk was so well received that the Cherry Brook Garden Club, with the co-sponsorship of the Friends of the Canton Public Library, decided to bring Hayward back and open up the program to the community.
"He was knowledgeable, charming, funny, and very well-spoken," said Susan Shadford, Program Chair of the Cherry Brook Garden Club and a librarian at Canton Public Library. "He was wonderful!" said Susan Bahre, who heads up the Friends of the Canton Public Library and who happens also to be a member of the Cherry Brook Garden Club. Bahre said he was so good that "you could have cared less about gardens, and you still would have found him very entertaining."
The co-sponsorship by the two groups is a comfortable one, since they share many of the same members and have missions which are surprisingly similar. The Friends of the Canton Public Library serve the community through their support of the library. They make substantial contributions to the library’s programming for both children and adults, and have funded the very popular "Grandparents' Bags" and museum passes.
"Part of the mission of the Cherry Brook Garden Club, too, is to serve our community," said Shadford, "including decorating public buildings at Christmas, developing a wildflower trail at the Roaring Brook Nature Center, and renovation of the courtyard garden at the Intermediate School." Their current project is a "reading garden" at the library, which will be created this spring.
In addition to his beautiful gardening books, Hayward is a frequent contributor to gardening magazines. The most recent issue of Fine Gardening has a feature article called "How to Design a Welcoming Garden." The magazine will be sending a number of copies of the issue to the library to be handed out to audience members on March 20.
"Based on past response to his visit, we’re anticipating a large turn-out for his talk on March 20," said Kathy Cockcroft, Director of Canton Public Library. "I’m sure we’ll fill our community room." For more info and registration, call the library at 860-693-5800. Canton Public Library is located at 40 Dyer Ave. in Canton.
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