News

Trees to Grow On

Trees to Grow On

Members of the BGC TWiG and Education committees convened at East Belfast Elementary School this morning to continue the Arbor Day celebration with a group of kindergarten and first-grade students. Three new trees–a tulip tree, a white oak, and a black gum–were purchased by the club to site on the bare and windy hill overlooking the road. The committees prepared the holes and added the trees, then the students shoveled the dirt back in, carefully tamped it down with their right-sized feet, and gave each tree a good soaking. Many of the students remarked that they’d never seen a tree…

Belfast City Park Gains a Black Gum Tree

Belfast City Park Gains a Black Gum Tree

Members of the Belfast Garden Club joined forces with Belfast Parks and Recreation staff to plant a black gum tree near the entrance to City Park on Arbor Day, April 25, 2025. Parks and Recreation Director Pam Salokangas read a proclamation declaring Belfast’s embrace of Arbor Day and its principles, followed by a reading of a poem by Belfast poet laureate Maya Stein that spoke to the importance of trees in our lives. Then the digging began! Assisted by several strong BPR employees, garden club members dug the right-sized hole to accommodate the sapling, and gave instruction on how to…

City Park gardeners

Arbor Day Is On the Way!

On Friday, April 25th at 10 a.m., Belfast Garden Club members will join City Park staff to celebrate Arbor Day in the best possible way: by planting a tree! City Park will gain a black gum (Nyssa silvatica) tree to replace the ancient horse chestnut tree that didn’t survive the winter. A proclamation announcing Belfast’s dedication to the health and welfare of its arboreal residents will be read, followed at noon by a guided walking tour of City Park’s trees led by Aleta McKeogh. You can continue the tree walk at 2pm at the corner of Union and Commercial Streets,…

Down to Zero

Down to Zero

Before it looks better, it looks. . .strangely bare. Public Garden volunteers worked with Belfast Department of Public Works employees to clear the Post Office Square garden of vegetation this week, moving trees to replant in the patch forest at Wales Park and potting perennials to use in the twelve other public gardens planted and maintained by the BGC. When complete, the new Post Office Square garden will make the area safer for pedestrians and drivers and more attractive to pollinators. Safer footing will be a boon to those passing through the garden from Church Street, and unobstructed views for…

Big Changes Coming to Post Office Square

Big Changes Coming to Post Office Square

If you’ve walked past the garden in front of the Belfast Post Office recently, you might notice that something looks different, though you can’t quite put your finger on it. The blue spruce that grew at–and then outgrew–the center of the garden has been removed by the Department of Public Works in preparation for a complete revamping of this very visible space. City Council approved the BGC redesign of the garden on April 1, and Public Gardens co-chair Marsha Siviski and her team of volunteer gardeners will be hard at work this spring and summer reshaping the space to be…

Public Gardens Committee Springs Back Into Action!

Public Gardens Committee Springs Back Into Action!

For many visitors, the thirteen public gardens maintained by the Belfast Garden Club are their first inkling that Belfast is a very special place. Go to the post office, the library, the public landing at the harbor, the police station, the city park, the cemetery, the city hall, the Coast Guard station, or to the loo* and you’ll find the handiwork of some very adept and dedicated club members who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. Although summer will be the time to showcase each garden individually, now’s the time to give a shout-out to some of the hardest-working members…