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The Marblehead Garden Club is putting the garden at the Lee Mansion to bed, just in time to start prepping for a green and festive holiday season. This year’s Christmas Walk activities for the MGC include the popular wreath sale and a Christmas tree in a special (and surprising!) location. The weather made the summer challenging, and it was a busy season for the MGC.
In addition to protecting plants from drought conditions and ravenous rabbits, there were many new additions to the Garden. In the ongoing effort to only use native or historic plants, the Club chooses replacement plants that the Lee family could have had in the original garden. 2022 plantings include an American Hornbeam, Rhododendron maximThm, Ilex glabra (Inkberry), a Redbud Tree, Mountain Laurel, and Rosa virginiana. In non-gardening news, The MGC had a front-row seat to the archeological excavation by University of Massachusetts, Boston’s Fiske Center for Archeological Research. The Marblehead Museum launched the project to learn more about the Lee Mansion and its detached brick kitchen and the people who lived and worked here, both free and enslaved.
We’re excited about our upcoming holiday events and look forward to seeing you at the Christmas Walk. Please stop by the Lee Mansion Saturday, Dec. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the annual Marblehead Garden Club Wreath Sale at the Lee Mansion, for a unique, beautifully embellished wreath created by MGC members. The MGC will also be putting together holiday goodie bags for Council on Aging seniors, and joining other Marblehead garden clubs to decorate the Hooper Mansion. And when the sun sets on December evenings, be sure to look up to the roof of the Lee Mansion for the magical sight of the Christmas tree that the Marblehead Garden Club will place in the cupola.
The Marblehead Garden Club, organized in 1926 and founded in 1927, is the oldest garden club in Marblehead and maintains the gardens of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion.