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The Marblehead 2025 Christmas Walk Parade had a new entry this year. The Cottage Gardeners of Marblehead and Swampscott were garden elves with a present for every paradegoer who likes to garden.
Thanks to a bountiful donation of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Sow Right Seeds and the most plentiful of them all, the Vermont company High Mowing Organic Seeds, paradegoers were able to go home with a packet of seeds to try out.
The greeting cards attached had information about the Cottage Gardeners’ website, CottageGardeners.net, and the plant sale change of venue, the VFW on May 9, 2026.
The garden elves looked like they were having a blast. Rosemary O’Neil Crosby brought her top elf game to the parade. The two Cottage Gardeners who were having the most fun were Charlene Tyler and Betty Spellios in the back of my red Mini convertible.
On Tuesday, at the JCC, the community-entrenched Cottage Gardeners of Marblehead and Swampscott celebrated 85 years of being an official garden club.
As part of the celebration, a few of us pulled out the club archives and found minutes and handbooks from the 1940s to 1990s. A presentation was made by yours truly, discussing that in a time before computers, the internet or even copiers or answering machines, these ladies got a lot accomplished by sheer fortitude.
The club was very active in the war effort in the 1940s and made 150 bouquets for soldiers at the Chelsea Naval Hospital. The club routinely made and donated wreaths and decorations for the Mary Alley Hospital. The club even planted shrubs at the New Abbot Library in the 1950s.
The club participated in fashion shows to benefit H.A.W.K., where each model wore traditional 18th-century dresses and carried historically appropriate bouquets. It seems that in the past, every meeting looked like high tea with desserts, as described by the Marblehead Messenger and Marblehead Reporter.
The club met in members’ homes in the past and experimented with forced bulbs, terrariums and African violets.
Club member Ann Huber, who joined the Cottage Gardeners in 1986, was honored as the longest active member and innovator. The club yearbooks were on display and, up until the 2000s, these guides referred to members as Mrs. John Smith.
At this anniversary celebration, we honored Ann Huber, who sought to change that and successfully grew the club with fellow member D.L. Kaulbach, who joined in 1987. Baby, we have come a long way.
Happy birthday to the Cottage Gardeners of Marblehead and Swampscott.
My favorite part of the Christmas season is decorating the outdoors, especially large containers too big to move and window boxes. Greens are easy to come by; the Marblehead Garden Center has loads of them.
By greens, I mean evergreens like pine tree branches, Fraser fir, which is the best for fragrance and needle retention, balsam fir, Douglas fir, juniper, yew, arborvitae, holly, boxwood, ivy and winterberry. If you look around your garden, you may find greens in your own backyard.
(I don’t recommend pruning your neighbor’s blue spruce without asking first.)
Adding greens to your mantel or outside in your pots and window boxes is all about layering. Try placing the bigger greens down first, like spruce or fraser fir.
When I get my Christmas tree, I ask the young man helping to trim a few branches off the bottom and I take them home just for this purpose. Once you put that first layer down, it is fast and easy from that point.
I recommend wearing gloves and working while the sun is on your back. If you are working outside, you can stick the other greens into your pot or window box soil. If the soil is frozen, just pour in hot water.
Next, add in some holly or rhododendrons. You will want some red; the berries on the holly are perfect. I like to use the red twig branches from my dogwoods.
A few narrow branches from a birch tree are a favorite, too. In the center, toward the front, I usually add a bright bow to add some pop of color. Every year I change it out and get more and more creative.
Last year I added a lantern with a few fake candles that had timers that came on around 4 p.m. and went off around 11 p.m. I try to stick to using real berries, for the birds’ sake.
For the Christmas Walk, I took all my greens and filled my trunk. I just reused them all in my window boxes.
Finally, one last pointer: I had my husband drill holes into logs and placed them in my window box ironwork. I stick all my greens in the holes. It is not perfect but allows me to reuse the actual plastic window boxes for spring bulbs.
Colleen is co-president of the Cottage Gardeners of Marblehead and Swampscott, a lifelong gardener raised on farmland in upstate New York and a year-round wellies wearer who obsesses over plants, insects and other people’s gardens.
