RG&C volunteers worked Saturday, September 16, 2017 to revamp the plantings at Taft Hill Park at the corner of South Street and Taft Hill Terrace across from Wallpaper City.
Joyce Chalfin spearheaded this extensive work. Joyce worked with RG&C board member Diane Carter Duggan to develop a new planting plan for the park and drove out to nurseries in Greater Boston (Mahoney’s Garden Centers in Concord and Russell’s Garden Center in Wayland) to select and transport chosen plants and grasses. Joyce included plans to reuse as many existing plants at the park as possible.
This preliminary effort, including site preparation work done by Joyce and her husband Richard, led up to the work done on Saturday, September 16, 2017 to move existing plants, get the many new plants and grasses into the ground so they’re established before winters bears down on them, and spread a layer of fresh compost over the entire site. Joyce and Richard did yeoman’s work on Saturday, starting earlier than anyone else and finishing later in order to get as much work completed as possible.
Working with Joyce and Richard to make the park refresh possible were several RG&C volunteers including board members Diane Carter Duggan, Joan Linden, Erica Max and Cynthia Walat and volunteers Leah Bellman, Kathleen Kenney and Nancy Leask.
We’re also extremely grateful to Tobin & Tobin, the park’s next door neighbors, for their offer to provide access to water from their property (the City of Boston has no water service to Taft Hill Park nor will it include the park plantings as a location visited by its water truck).
On the subject of watering, we should note that a new planting done at the small plot of land at South Street and Washington Street next to Sergio’s Auto Body owes its survival to the efforts of Jon Goodhue, a local architect, who has been transporting water to the site and watering there regularly, making up for another spot the City will not water. We thank Jon for his willingness to take on this important task.
