The Black Swamp Herb Society welcomes you to share our enthusiasm for the cultivation of herbs. Our garden has roughly 150 varieties of herbs, from the edible to the fragrant, and includes a collection of herbs used for centuries to treat a wide assortment of ailments. But we are getting ahead of ourselves…
What is the Black Swamp Herb Society? More than 20 years ago women inspired by Jean Gamble offered to transform a meadow into an herb garden that would become a quiet oasis for all visitors to enjoy, to educate them on the beauty and uses of many herbs. It consists of four main gardens: culinary, medicinal, fragrant, and everlasting. We have usually no more than 1-3 of each plant, being an educational space Where visitors can see the form and space needed to grow the different ones. There are also two thyme beds, a grandmother’s garden that resident groundhogs keep intruding upon, a butterfly garden, much smaller with our museum improvements being done. We have had a children’s garden for years, a delight that children looked forward to visiting, but it was sacrificed as parking and ongoing improvements had to be placed there.
There are no longer regular meetings and such, as membership in the society has shrunk to about six reliable volunteers, but they have been so faithful in caring for this special place on the museum grounds. So, though our numbers decreased greatly, the garden remains a favorite spot for many to stroll through.
