Garden Variety

URI Master Gardener Martha MacBurnie provides inspiration to aspiring green thumbs

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For hundreds of garden enthusiasts, the opportunity to explore the sprawling expanse that URI Master Gardener Martha MacBurnie has tended over the past 12 years was one that couldn’t be passed up. So on the 2008 Gardening With the Masters Garden Tour, more than 750 green thumbs showed up to take in her 100 different kinds of daylilies, 30 kinds of irises, dozen-and-a-half kinds of hydrangea, robust vegetable and cutting gardens and hundreds more eye-popping plants.

Martha concedes her Wakefield garden has been a labor of love. “Real gardeners don’t mind doing some work,” she laughs. When she and her husband Bob Baxter first moved to the property from Connecticut, they knew they had their work cut out for them. While the house and surrounding grounds were in fine condition, the two had a vision: The interior renovation would include knocking down walls and rearranging spaces to achieve a more updated open floor plan. The exterior would include an extensive brick patio surrounding the pool and offer an outdoor living space that would take advantage of the bounteous gardens. Since that was the plan, it was time for Martha to get going.

At the time, Bob traveled frequently, and the garden became Martha’s domain. “Every time [he] went on a business trip, I’d take up chunks and chunks of lawn,” she says. “There was quite a bit of work. There were truck loads and truck loads of compost.” The compost was fundamental to a prosperous and long-lasting garden, as Martha stresses the importance of good, healthy soil. “The best thing I can say is just keep feeding your soil. Get it tested and the soil will feed your plants. The more you feed things, the stronger they’ll be.”

Martha is a proud member of the South County Garden Club and both she and her husband belong to the RI Wild Plant Society. She says the society’s annual June plant sale is a wonderful place to buy plants.

Martha starts all of her plants from seed as early as February and has planned out her garden so that plants bloom from the time the final snow melts through the end of the year. (“It’s spectacular!” she swoons.) As one of her specialties as a master gardener is non-toxic pest control, Martha’s garden is both organic and sustainable.

For aspiring green thumbs, Martha offers some advice. Give plants and flowers the amount of space they need (if the instructions call for 8” apart, plant them 8” apart). Prep the soil well. If you’re on a budget, start small and work in concentric circles around your starting point, and look for local nursery sales and online growers for a bargain.

gardens, gardening, south county, uri master gardener, martha macburnie, wakefield, so rhode island

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