Somerville Garden Club

Victory gardens provided 44 percent of produce in 1944, and they could be found anywhere from backyards to rooftops to public squares. Victory gardens provided food and promoted morale during World War II. In this slide illustrated talk we will trace the victory garden movement, including urban gardens, school gardens, food preservation, and ration book cookery; we will also look at the British Dig for Victory campaign, Hedgerow Harvest program, and Women’s Land Army.

Judith Sumner, PhD, is a botanist and author with particular interest in the historical uses of plants. She is a frequent lecturer and has taught for many years at colleges and botanical gardens.  She received The Herb Society of America’s Gertrude Foster writing award in 2007 and the American Horticultural Society Book Award in 2005.  Her newest book is Plants Go to War, A Botanical History of World War II.

A brief introduction to some of the spectacular tropical species related to our familiar native blueberries.  Still mostly unknown in horticultural circles, many make easygoing and highly decorative houseplants and have interesting potential for indoor fruit production.

Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Scheckler is a lawyer, mediator, former social worker, and lifelong avid horticulturist.  In his late 20s he began growing orchids, forest cactuses, ferns of all sorts, and tropical ericads.  He left a subtropical climate, abundant land, and a hand-built greenhouse when he left Georgia for Somerville.  Accommodating the needs of his large plant collection to a small Somerville apartment is his latest adventure.  When not watering indoor plants, Nat also enjoys food gardening, vegetarian cooking, making pottery, identifying plants online, and hiking the beautiful wilder spaces of New England with his wife and two young sons.

All Somerville Garden Club meetings are free and open to the public. 7-9pm. If you are interested in attending our virtual meeting, but have not received the meeting link via email, or are not a SGC member, you can email info@somervillegardenclub.org for the link.