Indiana Organic Gardeners Association

  Sat. Oct. 16

     11:00 am

 

Lunch & Meeting at Spurgeon Farm

2500/2504 W. 42nd St., Indianapolis

 

Followed by Tour of Oldfields Estate Gardens

At the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA)

4000 Michigan Rd., Indianapolis

 

                                                11:00                Arrive at Spurgeon Farm

                                                11:15—12:00    Great Pitch-in Lunch

                                                (bring food to share plus table service)

                                                12:00—  1:00    Introductions & Gardening Q&A

                                                  1:00—  1:15    Business Meeting

                                                  1:15—  1:30    Drive to IMA

                                                  1:30                Tour of Oldfields Estate Gardens Begins

 

Join us for lunch and meeting at Spurgeon Farm, home of IOGA member Marilyn Spurgeon, and see Marilyn’s lovely vegetable & flower gardens.  Following lunch and meeting, we will caravan 10 minutes to the Oldfields Estate Gardens at the IMA.  After the garden tour, return to Marilyn’s if you wish to dig up perennials she is dividing (bring a shovel & plastic grocery bags).  On the tour at the IMA, we will see the newly restored gardens at the Oldfields-Lilly House.  The gardens were installed in the early 1920’s by the famous Olmsted Brothers.  (See article below)

 

For the pitch-in lunch, bring a favorite dish filled with food to share and your plate, fork, and drink.  Also, bring chairs!

 

To Spurgeon Farm:  Take I-65 to 38th St., then go north on Kessler Blvd. for a short distance to 42nd St.  Turn right on 42nd St.  Look for a white mailbox soon after a bridge near Cooper Rd.  Turn left into Spurgeon Farm and follow the road up to the house.  To IMA:  Following the lunch and meeting, go back to 38th St. and go east (left) to the 38th St. museum entrance (first light after the river) and turn left into the IMA.  Then turn right and follow the signs to the greenhouse parking lot.

 

Everyone welcome!  Questions, call Paula Boone 317-758-4789 or cell phone (if lost) 317-453-9773.

IOGA’s October Meeting to Include Tour of IMA Oldfields Estate Gardens

IOGA’s meeting October 16 will include a tour of the Oldfields Estate gardens at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA).  The newly restored gardens were originally installed in the early 1920’s by the famous Olmsted Brothers who also designed the gardens at the Biltmore, the Vanderbilt estate in North Carolina.  The IMA did extensive research to maintain an appearance of what existed originally, but allowing some flexibility to use modern cultivars if they look like historic varieties.  For example, the disease resistant apples Goldrush and Enterprise are more disease resistant than the traditional varieties that were originally used but their appearance is similar.  The IMA researched planting lists from the original garden plans, copies of seed catalogues from 1914-1933, and period photos including those in magazines.  Though not a strictly organic garden, they are committed to using no herbicides and hopefully no non-organic fungicides or insecticides.

 

There are gooseberry and current bushes, commonly used as garden hedges through the 1930’s.  Instead of the original black currants, the 1952 variety Consort will be used since the original variety is the alternate host for the White Pine Blister Rust.  White squash were popular including Golden Hubbard for which seed is still available.  White veggies were en vogue.  Heirloom seeds such as the cucumber White Wonder introduced by Burpee in 1893 are still available from heirloomseeds.com.  Early White Bush summer squash (patty pan squash) was also planted.  Heirloom tomato Brandywine is being replaced by the less crack-prone Polish immigrant Soldacki (1900).  There were beans – pole, bush, green, wax, shell and lima.  Other vegetables used were celery, sweet corn, radishes, beets, peas, onions, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, rhubarb, and asparagus.  Broccoli was NOT planted and was an extreme novelty at the time.   One quarter of the 3,000 square foot garden at the estate was perennials (rhubarb, strawberries and asparagus). This restoration began in 2008 with the first planting in spring, 2009.  Along with the vegetables, flowers such as iris, mums, phlox, tulips, lilies, cannas and peonies were also planted.

 

Less than a dozen estates designed by Olmstead Brothers are still intact.  This is a real gem, and the restored gardens will be a treat for IOGA to enjoy!