Outdoor Gardener Erin Doolittle
By Rediet Tadele
THBG Staff
A garden can be a haven, a time when the world shrinks to just you and the garden bed you are working on. Gardens can be sources of inspiration, peace, and education. With this in mind, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill decided to reimagine what was once known as the Systematic Garden.
Built with the mission of being dedicated to taxonomy, the Systematic Garden was had 22 garden beds made up of plants with similar characteristics. The Systematic Garden was ideal for strolling, learning about the plants while enjoying the French design of the garden structure. Over the years, however, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s horticulturists realized that the beds were not having long-lasting blooms, and visitors were not as interested in the scientific nature of the plants.
A change was needed, and the person at the helm of the change is Erin Doolittle, a gardener at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. Erin took over in 2018 and the name of the garden became the Nadeau Garden of Inspiration. (Pronounced Nay-Doe.) So, what do these changes mean? What are some things to look forward to?
The mission of the Garden
The first major rethink of the garden was transitioning from a primarily scientific garden to a garden of inspiration. As such, each garden bed has been designed to be vibrant, bold, and ultimately help visitors picture what they would like to see in their gardens. Each garden bed has a theme whether it be fragrances or a pollinator garden.
Fen Garden
When entering the Nadeau Garden, visitors will be greeted by the Fen Garden. The Fen Garden used to be the Primordial pool, but will still keep the fountain at the top that will spray water. A fen garden is similar to a bog garden, but it differs in that a fen garden is a wetland that is fed by groundwater. As the water is continuously refreshed it flushes out the acidity needed in the soil for a bog garden. The plants in the new fen garden thrive in base PH saturated soil.
Fragrant Bed
One of the beds that visitors will come across first is the Fragrant bed. It is filled with flowers and foliage that is heavily scented. Visitors can take their time sniffing the scented plants, and getting ideas for fragrant plants they would want to plant at home.
Kinship Arbor Beds
The Nadeau garden is vibrant and bold, and the Kinship Arbor Beds are a huge testament to this. The four beds surrounding the Kinship Arbor are designed to pop. The Kinship Arbor beds will be three adjacent colors (for instance, green, green-blue, blue). The colors will jump from one bed to the other going clockwise, working around the color wheel. Each color will be represented by a different flower.
Structure changes
Erin realized that the space was more structurally heavy on the left side of the garden and as such has gone about making it more evenly weighted visually on either side of the central path. There are newly planted Carpinus betulus that on the southern half of the rainbow border will be a showcase for hedge-pruning techniques while also hiding the sunken greenhouse. The Carpinus betulus ‘Frans Fontaine’ planted on the northern half of the rainbow border will give the Nadeau Garden more of a secluded atmosphere. At the same time, it will still be able to retain the view of the Daffodil field when it blooms as the trees were planted 10 feet apart.
The Nadeau Garden is indeed a garden of inspiration. The variety of the flowers and the different themes are sure to inspire and draw visitors in. Come take a stroll through the Nadeau Garden, and either get lost amongst the flowers and colors for a while or come with a notepad, and camera ready to start planning what your garden will look like.
