Townscape blooms a beautiful welcome to Chester

When flowers suddenly appear all over Chester, it means that Chester Townscape volunteers have been hard at work. Summer feature flowers that will bloom in a host of public places until frost. This year’s cold, late spring meant that Townscape volunteers had to hustle the minute the weather began to warm up to try to bring on summer abundance.

Fortunately, the 33 empty bridge boxes had been refreshed over the winter by Stu Stocker and friends. In late May, John McAveeney provided the outdoor space, tables and hoses for several days when volunteers filled the planters and boxes with soil and fertilizer, designated annuals and mulch. They were delivered to assigned bridges and public locations by Chris Meyer, Evan Parks and Eric Reed on June 3, so that everything looked welcoming for attendees of the Alumni Parade on June 6.

Having completed all of the boxes, 16 whiskey barrels and 20 large pots, Townscape volunteers turned to the task of planting the Brookside Cemetery wall garden with 105 New Guinea impatiens on June 1. They took over the garden where the perennial alliums and daffodils had bloomed earlier in the season. Volunteers also tend and augment gardens at the Information Booth, Main Street gazebo and the Pocket Park on School Street.

Flowers can be seen all over town: in bridge boxes, big barrels at the Yosemite Firehouse and Pinnacle, window boxes at Town Hall, large pots on the Village Green and by the Hearse House, Public Tomb, Information Booth, Whiting Library and Chester Andover Elementary School and more.

Chester Townscape thanks everyone who contributes physical and financial support for this extensive beautification effort. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Lynn Russell at chestertownscape@gmail.com or 802-875-2707.