As tenders of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, the Marblehead Garden Club has lovingly maintained its greenery and vegetation since 1936, and its members showcase dedication and care in their gardening pursuits.
The Lee Mansion, built in 1768, was home to Jeremiah Lee, a wealthy shipowner and merchant.
Lee, who was active in government, served as colonel of the town’s militia and helped prepare for conflicts with the British military during the Revolutionary period, alongside the likes of John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
The mansion is now owned by the Marblehead Museum.
The garden contains multiple smaller gardens, including its birdbath, sundial, and perennial gardens.
Vicki Boyle, the club’s president, has been involved with the club for more than 10 years and noted that its membership is storied. Some members have been with the club for more than 40 years, which Boyle said “keep(s) our longtime history alive and well.”
Boyle said that since the club’s main mission is tending to the Jeremiah Lee Historic Garden, it is unique from other garden clubs.
Boyle finds the role of president of the club to be both challenging and rewarding.
“It poses many unique situations and responsibilities,” she said.
Boyle said that her background in business management led her to think she might be a good fit as the club’s president, but she enjoys being a volunteer and sees the role as a way to give back to the town she loves.
Boyle’s interest in gardening started during her childhood in the Midwest, where she tended to the food and flowers that grew in her maternal grandmother’s garden. She eventually taught her daughters about gardening after they moved to the Southwest.
Upon relocating to the East Coast, Boyle spent a decade in florist shops, honing her floral-design skills.
Boyle said that work in the garden is varied, and includes weeding, pruning, and planting.
A hydrangea.
The Marblehead Garden Club sticks to a strict list of historically accurate plants in the Jeremiah Lee Mansion gardens, like this fall phlox.
“All our members are not afraid to get a little soil under their fingernails,” she said.
Garden Advisor and Garden Head Mary Krull said that her interest in gardening began shortly after relocating to Marblehead, when she would read gardening catalogs on the train to work in Boston in the mornings.
“As I got more familiar with the photos and descriptions, I felt like I had to have them all,” Krull said of the catalogs.
While her interest in gardening blossomed from the catalogs, her time to get in the weeds with the plants dwindled as her children grew up, but Krull returned to gardening after retiring.
Krull spends her time in the garden keeping up with issues that might affect it, such as beech leaf disease and Asian jumping worms, and researching plants to ensure they are not anachronistic with the time period of 1768.
Krull’s favorite part of the garden is the newly installed Sundial Garden, which she said looks and feels very fresh.
Kim Maxwell, a longtime member of the Garden Club and head of its Perennial Garden, said that she didn’t get into gardening until later in life, but remembers being captivated by a greenhouse as a child after a snowstorm, with its red infrared lights glowing.
Maxwell’s mother and grandmother were members of the Garden Club before her, and when she finally joined, she was excited and ready to learn.
The garden is home to members of different ages, all of whom are knowledgeable in their own ways about gardening and all of whom possess a passion for it.
“We work together and always have some fun while knee-deep in dirt,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said that no experience is necessary to join the club, but prospective members should expect to serve the community even in the months when no gardening takes place.
She said that in the months when members are not gardening, they serve the community in other ways, helping to decorate the King Hooper Mansion at Christmas, holding wreath workshops, and holding the club’s annual fundraising event, the Plant Sale.
