Mary and Gordon Hayward will present the second in a three-part slide lecture series at the Westminster West Congregational Church.

FEBRUARY 25 AT 6:30 – Using a powerpoint presentation, the Haywards will talk about three sources of inspiration as they began to develop the early stages of their new garden around their restored house. The subject of this lecture is that a living garden grows out of the lives of the gardeners as well as the place where they garden.

First, elements that remain of the original 450'x150' farmyard created by the Ranneys in the late 1700's into the early 1800's: perimeter stone walls, remaining foundations of the barns, silo and milking parlor, and viewlines from the window and doors of the house.

Second, the farms Mary and Gordon grew up on starting in the early 1940's: Mary's past in a centuries-old stone farmhouse on a 144-acre mixed farm – sheep and arable crops – in the hamlet of Hidcote Boyce outside Chipping Campden in the North Cotswold Hills of England. Gordon's past in a 1776 settler's house in New Hartford, Connecticut on his family's 140 acre farm within which is a 20 acre orchard of apple, peach and pear trees which his father started planting in 1930.

Third, the Hidcote Manor Gardens (started around 1908), a world-famous garden designed by an American literally across a field from Mary's hamlet of Hidcote Boyce, a hamlet recorded in The Domesday Book.

The Haywards are offering this series as a fundraiser for the church. Donations welcome.

Event Info

Sep 21, 2024, 10 AM to 12 PM

Sep 26, 2024, 6 to 7 PM

Sep 27, 2024, 4:30 to 7 PM