Finksburg library to get a ‘growing’ tribute
Gardener’s Guild project will add four community gardens to library grounds
The Finksburg branch of the Carroll County Public Library will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next spring, and a volunteer group of residents, Master Gardeners, students and even a member of the Baltimore Ravens are joining forces to give the library community a birthday present.
The Gardener’s Guild group is building four community gardens on the library property in space that was formerly just grass and a few shrubs.
“What better way to acknowledge this milestone, than with a garden-scape created and cared for by the community that is served by the library?” Lorraine Fulton, the library system’s director of institutional advancement and development, said.
Fulton and Lynn Wheeler, executive director of the library system, came up with the idea for the garden project.
“Looking across the expanse of acreage surrounding the facility, it was apparent that a welcoming garden and tree canopy would hugely complement the beautiful architecture of the library,” Fulton said.
Gardens seem an appropriate match for the Finksburg branch, which was built to state specifications as a “green” building. Fulton, who is heading up the guild, said the gardens will complement building’s environmental features.
She also noted the branch, located off Route 140 between the Carroll/Baltimore county line and Westminster, is considered to be along the “gateway” to Carroll County.
“It is a very community-centered library Aimee Smith, from left, Lorraine Fulton and Marie Fish look over the gardens being built by the Gardeners’ Guild at the Finksburg library, which turns 10 years old next spring. branch offering programs and services that reflect a focus on education and services that provide a lifetime of learning and enrichment,” Fulton said in an email.
Ground was broken in May on the first two gardens: a storytime outdoor classroom and a reflection garden.
The outdoor classroom has been designed as an all-seasons garden, with native red-twig dogwoods that will remain vibrant in the winter and lilacs which will bloom around May. Already budding plants surround a freshly constructed pergola and stone bench seats, and volunteers are working on plans for rain barrels and slate pathways that will lead guests through the space.
Local businesses and the Roaring Run Lions Club donated plants, funds and resources. The idea is for children to attend story sessions outdoors surrounded by “a little bit of nature,” said Eileen Stoner, a member of both the Lions Club and the Gardener’s Guild.
For the stone benches, the guild reached out to high school masonry students at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center in Westminster with an idea of what they wanted the benches to look like. The students took it from there, said teacher Mike Campanile.
“They got to feel first-hand how masons have a sense of pride,” he said. “They get to see their completed efforts become an enjoyment for others for many years to come.”
Benches were delivered and set in place by Scott Smith of SW Smith Landscaping. Sam Koch, the punter for the Baltimore Ravens and a Carroll resident, donated the flagstone.
Library branch manager Heather Owings is already planning activities for the space including gardening workshops and outdoor stories and lessons. And the garden already has one permanent resident — a tree named Frank, which has its own email address, frank@carr.org, where youngsters can send notes and thoughts.
Terri Conner, a master gardener who is helping to design the reflection garden, said it will contain native plants in soothing colors. Grasses will catch the breeze and add ambient rustle to the space. Laura O’Callaghan, another master gardener, said she wants the area to be one where guests can “come and sit and feel peaceful and surrounded by nature.”
Two additional phases are planned. A welcome garden will include a butterfly garden, as well as sensory and fragrant features amid interactive sculptures.
An inside-outside garden will align with the architecture of the library and focus on a seasonal change of native plants in front of a bank of tall glass windows facing Old Westminster Pike.
The Gardener’s Guild, which will maintain the gardens as they are constructed, has about a dozen members, but more are welcome. The group also seeks volunteers who can come out just for a day or two. For details, contact Fulton at lfulton@carr.org or Owings at 410-386-4505, ext. 8823 or howings@carr.org.
“Having a garden is a little like raising children,” Fulton said. “The care and love begins at conception and never ends. The garden, like the children, flourishes because it is nourished and supported.”