The Old Greenbelt Gardening Boosters, thwarted in our plans for in-person events this year (like everyone else), found a way to put on garden tours after all – three of them – virtually. For our Virtual Spring Garden Tour we solicited photos and used others that we took when they were all put together it was clear that the fabulousness of many of the gardens wasn’t conveyed adequately in photos alone.

Melissa Mackey’s garden is a good example. Though the photos are great, what people respond to even more is the experience of it – walking through the narrow side-yard path into the lush, serene, very private garden of a wildlife-loving, life-long gardener and plant-collector. All that behind one of Greenbelt’s small historic townhouses.

So for our Virtual Summer Garden Tour we’re going video-only, starting with Melissa’s garden, in partnership with Greenbelt  Access Television and its skilled videographer and station manager Phoebe McFarb. I met with Melissa in her garden to record a bunch of short clips, which I sent to Phoebe, along with a recording of an introduction to the garden written by Melissa. Phoebe did all the rest and we love it!

 

About Melissa

[As posted beneath the video on YouTube.] Melissa Mackey grew up on a farm in Southern Maryland and has been gardening around her home in Old Greenbelt since 1989. She also enjoys growing vegetables in a Greenbelt Garden Club community garden plot. She is currently President of the Beltsville Garden Club and Secretary of the Greenbelt Community Garden Club. She appreciates the generosity of fellow volunteers and gardeners, from whom she’s learned so much. https://www.beltsvillegardenclub.org/

NOTE: By contributing these pandemic stories, photos, et cetera, Greenbelters are making an unconditional donation of the material to the nonprofit Greenbelt Online.org and the Greenbelt Museum/City of Greenbelt, which reserve the right to keep, lend, or otherwise dispose of the donated material, and may use the material on our website, for social media or other postings, in promotional materials or in future exhibits.