Dewey Hall's late-fall calendar has three garden talks on Saturday afternoons at 4 p.m., with Dean Riddle on November 7, Peter Bevacqua on November 21 and Jill Nooney on December 5. The series is called the Garden-Makers Talks. Every $25 suggested donation goes to the Dewey Hall Garden Fund, which is meant to build an enclosed Arts-and-Crafts garden behind the Hall at 91 Main Street.
So these talks are the first stage of a building project. People who come to hear how other gardeners made their gardens are paying for one in the middle of Sheffield's village. The talks on the schedule also happen to deal with the same questions the Hall's own garden will have to answer.
What a $25 seat goes toward
The Hall's description of the project is specific. It calls for an enclosed garden behind the building where the Hall's events can move outside, plus a stone terrace and a planted approach that gives the Hall an accessible entrance.
"Your $25 suggested donation does more than get you a seat. It helps plant a new Arts-and-Crafts garden behind Dewey Hall, with a stone terrace and an accessible entrance so everyone can enjoy the Hall for the next 140 years."
That wording comes from Dewey Hall's own listing for the Riddle talk. The same page names the events the garden is meant to hold, from the Dahlia Festival and the Ice Cream Social to concerts and private celebrations.
The Dewey Hall Garden Makers Campaign has set a goal of $45,000. It lists what the money supports: planting and caring for perennial beds, better paths and seating for neighbors of all ages, and keeping the historic character of the Hall's grounds. To put the scale in perspective, $45,000 is 1,800 seats at $25 each. A lecture series can't fill that many seats by itself, so the talks are one piece of a larger fundraising effort, along with direct gifts and the benefit held during the Dahlia Festival.
The timing matters because of the building's age. The Boston architect William Ralph Emerson designed Dewey Hall, and it was dedicated in 1887 to the Sheffield Friendly Union Library Association in memory of Orville Dewey. The board describes the garden as one of several capital improvements it is making as the Hall approaches its 140th anniversary. Dewey Hall has not announced a designer for the garden or a date when it will be finished.
How the series grew out of the Dahlia Festival
The fundraising began in September, when the garden was still blooming. Dewey Hall held its fourth annual Dahlia Festival from September 18 through 20. On the evening of Saturday, September 19, an After-Hours Cocktail Benefit raised money for the Dewey Garden Makers Project, The Berkshire Edge reported. The next afternoon the building became "Dahlia Hall," open to the public to see the competition blooms.
Two weeks later the talks started. Madeline and Ian Hooper gave the first one on Saturday, October 3, about building Rockland Farm in Canaan, New York. Dewey Hall's listing for that talk describes their beginning: a White Flower Farm catalog, a few classes at Berkshire Botanical Garden, and an SUV full of 18-inch conifers. Some of those pines and firs now stand over an eight-acre garden that the listing calls "at once formal and naturalistic." The listing calls their talk "First in this series." The Berkshire Edge's calendar entry gave the same $25 suggested donation and the same beneficiary, the Garden Fund.
Lee Buttala moderates every talk. He is a writer and organizational consultant. He used to be executive director of Seed Savers Exchange and preservation program manager at the Garden Conservancy, according to his Berkshire Edge author page. Before that he was marketing communications director at Berkshire Botanical Garden, as the American Public Gardens Association noted when Seed Savers Exchange hired him. Garden preservation runs through his career, which suits a series meant to fund a new garden at a historic building.
Three Saturdays, three questions the Hall's garden will face
| Date | Speaker | Talk | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, November 7 | Dean Riddle, with Lee Buttala | Creating Gardens that Reflect Place and Personality | 4 p.m. |
| Saturday, November 21 | Peter Bevacqua, with Lee Buttala | Gardens for All Seasons | 4 p.m. |
| Saturday, December 5 | Jill Nooney | The Making of Bedrock Gardens, talk and book signing | 4 p.m. |
November 7: a garden that fits its site. Dean Riddle grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and now works in the Catskills as a designer and garden writer. He trained as a horticulturist in North Carolina and curated woody plants at Hillier Gardens in the UK. Dewey Hall's listing says the region's rocky terrain and topography inspire him. His aim is gardens that reflect both the people who live with them and the place itself, including "the sylvan settings, architecture, and materials that the site offers." He will show photographs of gardens he has made over the years. The Hall's own plot raises the same questions. It sits behind an 1887 Emerson building, and its garden has to show where it is and what the building has been used for.
November 21: a garden for every season. Peter Bevacqua studied gardening with Christopher Lloyd and Fergus Garrett at Great Dixter and with Helen Dillon in Dublin. He moved into garden design after 25 years in advertising. His talk is about designing a garden that holds up all year. For the Hall this is a practical question. The new garden is supposed to host the September Dahlia Festival, the summer Ice Cream Social and concerts and private events in between, so it has to look good across the whole calendar. One note on tickets: the Zeffy reservation page for this talk shows November 7 in its details, while Dewey Hall's event page gives Saturday, November 21. Go by the Hall's page.
December 5: making a garden that lasts. Jill Nooney and Bob Munger created Bedrock Gardens, and Nooney is now its Director of Art and Horticulture. It is a nonprofit public garden on a 30-acre site. The founders gave 25 acres to the nonprofit in 2023. Her talk covers how that garden was made, and she will sign books afterward. Bedrock started as a private garden and was handed to a nonprofit so it would outlast its founders. The Hall wants something similar for its own garden, which is meant to serve the town "for the next 140 years."
Each talk is booked through Zeffy as General Admission at $25, and the price includes light refreshments. The Hall's listings say seating is limited.
More garden events on the village calendar
The talks aren't the only garden events on Main Street this month. The Sheffield Gardeners meet at Bushnell-Sage Library, 48 Main St., on Thursday, November 12, from 4 to 5 p.m. The next evening, Friday, November 13, Ben Cosgrove plays a concert at Dewey Hall at 7 p.m. Concerts are one of the event types the new garden is designed to host.
For anyone planning around the series:
- Reserve through the links on Dewey Hall's events page, and check that the date matches the Hall's listing.
- Arrive by 4 p.m. on each Saturday, since the Hall's listings say seating is limited.
- Expect the December 5 program to include a book signing after Nooney's talk.
- If you can't make a talk, you can give directly through the Garden Makers Campaign page, which goes toward the same $45,000 goal.
The Hall's events page lists no garden talks after December 5. That leaves three Saturdays this year for neighbors to contribute in person to the garden going in behind the building.
If one of these talks has you thinking about the grounds around your own Sheffield home, whether that means what to plant, how it looks in each season, or how it will show to a future buyer, George Cain would be glad to walk the property with you. Let's Connect.
