Our Vision, Mision and Values

Since 1928, members of the Westhampton Garden Club have dedicated themselves to promoting horticulture, floral design, and environmental conservation in the Westhampton Beach area.

As affiliates of National Garden Clubs, Inc, Federated Garden Clubs of New York State and Garden Club of America, members share a love for gardening and floral design through study at workshops, seminars, plant exchanges and field trips.

Our community projects include the maintenance of a number of public gardens, conservation initiatives, educational lectures, topiary arrangements and outdoor potted plants for East End Hospice patients, and an annual scholarship for a local high school senior interested in furthering his/her education in a related field. These activities and others are funded by the WGC House & Garden Tour.

The Westhampton Garden Club provides hands-on maintenance and financial support to public gardens in the community. From spring through autumn, WGC teams maintain two gardens at the Quogue Library as well as the Native Lily Pond Garden in Quogue, and the Garden of Remembrance at the Quogue Firehouse. The WGC also oversees and funds maintenance through Dragonfly Landscaping of “An English Garden by the Sea” at the Westhampton Beach Village Green.

The Quogue Library Gardens

With the opening of the beautifully renovated Quogue Library come two magnificent new gardens, one reflecting the sensibilities of the original Library Garden created in 1976, and the second embodying our current focus on conservation and protecting the environment.

The Historical Garden at the Old Quogue Schoolhouse, is now situated in front of the Schoolhouse, having formerly been located between the back of the Library and the original Schoolhouse location. It combines a reproduction of the original herb gardens planted in 2011, with the brick and parterre formation of four sections, and has been planted with a combination of traditional plants and others that have been cultivated to thrive in changing conditions.

The Pollinator Garden, born out of concern over the ongoing loss of bees, birds, butterflies and insects worldwide, was spearheaded by a number of Provisionals with the help of several other members, thereafter collectively known as the Pollinator Team. When Covid 19 forced the cancellation of the House and Garden Tour for two years, the Club needed a different means of generating revenue. The Provisionals immediately rose to the occasion and came up with the idea of selling plants. Over six months the Team organized and managed the sale of Amaryllis plants during the December 2020 Holidays, and Orchids in February 2021. Both sales were successful and generated sufficient funds to allow the creation of the Pollinator Garden. The Team designed and laid out the space, chose the plants and herbs, and planted and maintained the Garden. Everyone was thrilled to see the plants thrive, and many were blooming in time for the Grand Opening of the renovated Library in June 2021.

Quogue Garden of Remembrance

This miniature garden is the result of a 3+ - year initiative to plant a garden at the base of the Fire House’s 6-foot I-beam memorial to those lost on 9/11. That memorial was donated to Quogue following the police and firefighters’ support at Ground Zero. The garden is a collaborative effort between The Battery Conservancy in lower Manhattan and the Westhampton Garden Club. A partnership between the Garden Club and the Conservancy (led by Warrie Price), came about when Mary Kelberg arranged for the Club to assist in planting 5,000 crocuses at the Conservancy. Inger Mejean, after becoming President of the WGC in 2018, approached Ms. Price about getting plants from the NYC Garden of Remembrance (designed by renown Dutch landscape artist Piet Oudolf), for the Fire House to plant near the existing I-beam to create the Quogue Garden of Remembrance. Inger subsequently applied for and received $1,000 Plant America grant from the National Garden Clubs, which financed the necessary work to prepare for the new garden. In Spring 2021, following a one-year delay due to CoVid 19, 68 plants were transported from Battery Park to Quogue, where Dragonfly Landscaping donated their services in planting them.

The Native Gardens, Quogue Lily Pond

Located on Jessup Avenue, the Lily Pond Garden was planted with native perennials selected for their beauty, bloom time, deer resistance, and support for pollinators. The garden provides an inviting and restful spot for visitors to sit with a cup of coffee or read the paper while enjoying the natural surroundings. In Fall of 2020, the Garden hosted a WGC Seed and Plant Exchange; members exchanged seeds and cuttings brought from their own gardens, and harvested milkweed seeds and pods, among other plants, from the Lily Pond Garden.

“An English Garden by the Sea,” Westhampton Beach Village Green

A typical English cottage garden with gazebo and benches and colorful summer perennials, this gathering spot near the post office is the setting for exhibitions, art shows, and concerts. The plantings provide splashes of color year-round and include Burning Bush, Ligularia, Hydrangea, Peony, Spirea and Fairy Rose; providing interest throughout all seasons. The WGC was instrumental in designing the Garden with Dragonfly’s support. With the financial support of the WGC, Dragonfly continues to maintain this garden.

The Provisional Class of 2023 used a Human Centered Design methodolgy to research, design and and create 3 Historically accurate gardens at The Westhampton Museum site in Westhampton Beach. This was the first step in a successful and ongoing collaboration with the Museum and our club.

Dooryard Garden at the Foster Meeker House

The Foster Meeker House was built in 1735 and was occupied by a cobbler and his

family. It appears to be the oldest surviving building in Westhampton Beach. This

garden is typical of what was found close to the houses of people living in rural areas

and small towns in the 1700s. The colonial family’s dooryard garden, along with larger

vegetable gardens, was expected to provide many of the foods, flavorings, and

medicines necessary for a largely self-sufficient household with little cash.

Sited close to the front door and in a sunny location, this garden space was often

enclosed by a picket fence to keep out the cows, chickens and other domestic and wild

animals that surrounded the household. Raised beds were used to provide well drained

soil that would warm up early in the spring. (Most were not made of brick, as ours are –

we made this decision to provide long-lasting structures in a pubic garden.) Beds were

often designed to make it easy to access plants and weed from each side of the bed

without stepping on and compressing the soil. Paths between the beds were made with

stones, pine needles and other natural materials easily available to the settlers.

Since most households were isolated from medical care and there were few doctors,

herbs such as yarrow, angelica, feverfew and valerian were used to treat common

ailments or to provide aid in childbirth. In the Revolutionary War, soldiers sometimes

carried herbs with them to use for wound care, including yarrow, calendula and comfrey.

Culinary herbs such as thyme, sage, parsley and chives were used to season meats

and vegetable dishes. Herbs and flowering plants were also used to provide dyes for

cloth, including marigolds, bee balm, Baptisia and calendula. Aromatic herbs such as

artemisia, lavender and lemon verbena were used to repel pests and counter odors in

the house.

Many dooryard gardens mixed flowering plants, herbs and vegetables in the same bed,

in a bit of a “jumble.” This helped to repel rabbits and voles and also reflected the fact

that plants were sometimes added as they were acquired. People traded cuttings and

seeds and shared divisions of plants at a time when there weren’t many nurseries to

buy plants. Our dooryard garden mixes flowers, vegetables and herbs together in each

bed.

English colonists brought seeds of vegetables that were familiar. Cabbage, beans,

lettuce, beets, melons, squash, pumpkins, onions, rhubarb and artichokes were among

the many vegetables grown by settlers since the 1600s. Over time, corn and beans

grown by Native Americans were added to the mix, as were peppers and tomatoes

coming from Mexico. Most were open pollinated varieties that would come true from

seeds saved year to year and as such, weren’t as disease resistant as modern hybrids.

Our goal is to find and use heirloom seeds and plants in this garden.

Flowers were grown for pleasure as well as for uses such as dyeing and aromatics.

Many people brought roots, bulbs, cuttings and seeds of plants they had enjoyed at

home, and include a variety of flowering plants that came to be seen as reflecting

“Grandmother’s Garden”. Peonies, hollyhocks, daffodils, snapdragons, foxgloves, and

iris were among the many treasured plants used in dooryard gardens.

This garden, as well as others on the Museum campus, was designed, planted and is

maintained by the Westhampton Garden Club. The hardscape was installed by Todd

Scates of Landscape Solutions. The picket fence was donated by Kerri and Ralph

Beaver. The sundial pedestal was donated by Maureen and Larry Jones, and the

bronze sundial was donated by Ruth Ann and Lee Rosenthal. The Village of

Westhampton Beach provided the irrigation system for all of the gardens on the

1840s Perennial Border and Herb Garden

1840s Perennial Border at the Tuttle House

The Tuttle House was originally located on South Country Road in Remsenburg, then moved

to its current location in 1991. It was built in 1840, and subsequently served as

a local post office and community gathering place in the late 19 th century.

The perennial border is typical of a pleasure garden that would have been planted

mainly in flowering plants, in contrast to the dooryard gardens of an earlier period that

were mainly for growing food. By the 1840s, American home gardens were evolving,

moving away from being solely functional kitchen gardens towards more decorative

spaces. While kitchen gardens remained essential for providing food, they were

increasingly integrated with flowerbeds and ornamental plantings, reflecting a growing

interest in both utility and beauty. 

This time period saw the rise of many more kinds of businesses, so a smaller

percentage of the population was engaged in agriculture. Home gardening became a

leisure activity as villages grew and produce markets opened. It wasn’t unusual to

establish a flower garden around the house.

By the 1800’s, a wide variety of plants became available to home gardeners. Local

nurseries were established, and given that it was an age of plant exploration in Europe

and the US, a wide variety of plants and seeds became available for home gardeners.

In addition, many of the plants used in these gardens were heirloom varieties, passed

down through generations, reflecting a connection to the past and a desire to cultivate

familiar and cherished species. Avid gardeners shared seeds, bulbs, and plant

divisions.

The perennial border in back of Tuttle House has a wide variety of plants that were

popular in the 1800s, including the following:

 Peonies

 Yarrow

 Lamb’s Ears

 Violas

 Rudbeckia / Black Eyed Susans

 Foxgloves

 Obedient Plant

In addition, annuals grown from seed were also popular and widely available, such as

Alyssum and Marigolds. Spring plantings included bulbs such as daffodils and alliums.

We added two small trees: an American dogwood and a Southern magnolia. Magnolias

were mainly common in the southern part of the US, and there are records of named

varieties being grown at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. There is an espaliered Apple

tree planted against the house, and small boxwoods are also planted in the garden.

We selected plants available in the 1840s that are known to be pollinator friendly. The

garden is buzzing with bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinating insects.

Hummingbirds also visit this garden. Milkweed plants act as host plants for endangered

Monarch butterflies, and many plants serve as host plants for other types of moths and

butterflies.

Herb Garden

Between the two houses is an Herb Garden, planted in raised beds around a brick patio

designed to be a gathering space. Herb gardens were essential to daily life in early

America, serving as sources of seasonings for food, medicine, and household supplies. 

Herbs were not only used for cooking but also for treating ailments, creating natural

cleaning agents, and dyeing fabrics. Colonial herb gardens were an integral part of daily

life, providing essential resources and contributing to the self-sufficiency of early

American households.

The tradition of creating a formal herb garden dates back to medieval times in Europe.

In medieval Europe, virtually all plants were assumed to have some medicinal value. In

the Renaissance, medicine, botany, and horticulture began to diverge, but they were

slow to part ways and did not really separate for several centuries. Our garden is meant

to be a “teaching garden”, exposing our visitors to the herbs and their uses, but the

design was not typical of the 1700s, as a “standalone” herb garden was not a feature of

a colonial garden. Most early settlers grew herbs in Dooryard Gardens that were a mix

of herbs, vegetables, fruits and flowering plants, as is our garden to the east of the

Foster Meeker House. Each of the four semi-circular beds is backed by Boxwood shrubs.

Most are Korean boxwood, found to be more disease tolerant to boxwood flight and

boxwood moths.

Boxwood was introduced to North America from Europe in the mid-1600s and soon

became a popular plant in formal gardens and hedges. Boxwood hedges were used to

protect garden plants from harsh winter winds as well as to discourage chickens and

other livestock from entering the garden.

We have four beds – two planted with culinary herbs, one with medicinal herbs and a

fourth with herbs for dyeing and other household uses.

Here are some of the plants you can find in each bed; plants may change given their

attractiveness to deer and rabbits, and other factors that influence their ability to thrive in this location.

Lovejoy Duryeas Plans for School House Garden

The Westhampton Museum Gardens at The Foster Meeker House and The Tuttle House