by Carlene Phillips ·
Friday, September 27, 2024
Over the years since Mary Abbot founded it in 1927, the Garden Club of Harvard has been shedding conventions. First the wearing of white gloves to meetings and garden visits, and then, off with the hats. The requirement that a new member have a sponsor and the category “provisional member” were removed and with them the sterling silver tea set. Gradually, references to a married woman by her husband’s name (Mrs. John Smith) were replaced with her own first name.
This year, the club takes another step forward with the election of its first male president. Bill Loehfelm likes to say of his new position that he’s “broken the grass ceiling.” His presidency will dispel any remaining stereotypes of the Garden Club of Harvard as a place where old ladies plant geraniums.
Bill Loehfelm in his gardens. (Courtesy photo)
I recently visited Bill to ask him about plans for his new role. His home, in which he has lived since 2015, is at the end of a long, wooded driveway off Stow Road. We sat on a deck under a wisteria-topped pergola, a structure Bill said had been a dream of his late wife, Karin. Pots of colorful flowers dotted the deck, trees and dense growth of ferns surrounded it, and the soothing sound of water came from a small, lily-covered pond alongside.
Bill has been a member of the club for the past four years. He saw a Press ad and “wandered into a meeting” because, he said, “I like gardening.” He immediately pitched in to help with the annual plant sale and has continued to be active in many other club projects.
He related the story of how his father had always said that he knew he wanted to be a doctor at the age of 13. So each of the four Loehfelm siblings, on reaching that age, took an aptitude test to determine their future occupation. Bill’s turned out to be “farmer.” This for a kid living in Brooklyn! While that never happened, he has been somewhat true to the prediction and has planted something in every place he’s lived. Currently a second crop of corn is growing in one raised bed, and cherry tomatoes are ripening in another. He has high expectations for the flowers.
“It was an honor to be asked to be president,” Bill said. But what about all the women? Will they be intimidating? Bill grinned. “My whole world is women,” he said, from the choir he sings in to weekly sessions of hot yoga to his work with Loaves & Fishes food pantry in Devens. “I find they can actually be easier than men,” he said. (This statement, of course, excludes the two other men who have recently joined the club.)
Bill said the Garden Club members are wonderful, and he enjoys their energy and passion. He has been very impressed at the body of knowledge within the club, and he so respects “all the people who know a whole lot more about gardening than I ever will.” What he sees as his contribution is to expand the sense of community in the club. He is committed to keeping the specific time at each meeting that is set aside for people to socialize, and he will encourage members not to go sit at a table when they arrive but to “mingle” and meet people they don’t know. Even in January, when actual gardening might seem remote, Bill sees the monthly meeting as a place to go to be part of a community of like-minded people.
And he wants the meetings to be fun and for members and guests to be actively engaged. He thinks the best programs are those where people work together and learn from each other. He recalled a past speaker who gave a talk on trees and then set out samples of bark and leaves for groups to work collaboratively to identify.
Bill hopes to raise the club’s public profile, to have residents more aware of the many contributions the club makes to the community, from special projects like landscaping at both the old and new libraries to ongoing service: seasonal plantings at the Town Hall, the horse trough on Ayer Road, and the General Store and maintenance of town center plantings around the war memorials. The club provides a weekly flower arrangement for the library front desk and creates floral displays for Bromfield graduations. It offers an educational grant to residents and town employees and supports environmental and cultural nonprofits in the area.
The sense of community and welcome is something Bill has been fostering in other areas of his professional and volunteer life. His degree is in psychological counseling, and he did programming in the prison system. In his retirement he works part-time as a client counselor at Loaves & Fishes. Since the pandemic, the pantry has remained a drive-through, and often there is a long line of cars. Bill is outside, greeting clients, many of whom are food insecure, making them feel welcome and ensuring they have a positive experience. He may help them with a food order, and he also informs them what other resources are available to them.
As it happens, there is another side of “farmer” Bill. I followed him to a deck on the other side of the house to meet a whole other community: two large pigs, Louie and Lola; two geese, several chickens, and five or six goats. At least three of these goats are “teenage boys,” as Bill described them, running around head-butting one another. The whole gang came charging across the large enclosed area as Bill approached with a bale of hay and veggie dishes for Louie and Lola. For dessert, Bill tossed handfuls of fine-ground corn. He said how much joy Karin had gotten from giving these animals a sanctuary and how he continues to find enjoyment in them.
I drove off having experienced the peaceful respite in the woods and the pleasure of talking with Bill. The Garden Club can be only the richer for Bill’s having burst through the grass ceiling.
The Garden Club’s first general meeting of the year will be Monday, Sept. 30, with social time beginning at 9:30 a.m. followed by the business meeting and a speaker. All general meetings will be held at the senior center, 16 Lancaster County Road, and members of the public are welcome to attend.