Who Needs A Lawn

This project has been a few years in the making and will have many a tongue wagging, as doing away with a lawn at a municipal building, along Main Street USA but for me it is the perfect location for a radical unveiling
of really what we need to see more of.

Saving green space is a wonderful thing when it is managed properly and here in this town we have a land trust gathering up as much land as they can at a time when many plots of family owned lands are being torn up for housing and more strip malls, so maybe when this is done without much thought might they not use better practices?

Such as not paving paradise to put up a parking lot? What about clean water? How do we maintain water for life if you are constantly adding more lawns alongside all of these lots while using so many chemicals to keep them pristine never mind the runoff into our beautiful rivers and streams.

Maybe it is time to hold those in charge and their governing boards as well. We must demand as taxpayers more well thought out spaces and not just ones designed for their bottom lines but for all who call this place home.

Wild things like bees and beneficial insects are more important than another gas station and in this town of 7,000 we have 6 if I counted correctly.

We also have a Lowes and a Super Walmart and a Tractor Supply as well. They have huge asphalt spaces that could be offset by spaces such as this one here at our library. Yes it takes effort and out of the box thinking but on the other hand there will be a remarkable change that happens not only for beneficial insects but for the people near these natural spaces.

Wood chips get such a bad rap with comments such as “anything will be better than woodchips” . We need to educate the masses on their benefits and the biggest one I see personally is maintaining the moisture level in the soil as well as keeping weeds at bay if your layer is thick enough or you have used a layer of cardboard to first smother an area.

Yes this is a new way of thinking as well as gardening but we need spaces like this to see a real change.

The talk these days is all about Pollinator Pathways but this spot will be a mecca for them. In just 3 years this landscape will be stunning, how many in town will have patience?

The landscape design was donated by a tax paying resident and then installed by her landscape company along with volunteers in her field who worked hard in 85F heat with the help of others from Library Trustees, Epping Garden Club, Friends of the Library members and so much help from Charlie and Sandy Goodspeed who worked hard to get this building built then spent 40+ hrs. volunteering their time as well as seeing the project to its end. We could never have done this without them.

The Epping Garden Club has received a Check for $1000.00 from the National Garden Club for use in our Children’s garden and another $300.00 from Exeter Area Garden Club to one of our members who is also a librarian here at Harvey-Mitchell Memorial Library.

Come by and watch the garden grow as well as a Community!

See Epping Garden Club Facebook page for many photos of this huge undertaking.