Category: What’s New

The Friends of Robbins Town Gardens and the Arlington Historical Society are Co-Sponsoring a lecture by Lucinda Brockway titled Polishing a Masterpiece: Rediscovering Arlington’s Winfield Robbins Memorial Gardens . The talk will be held at Town Hall Tuesday April 30th at 7:30 PM.  People are encouraged to walk through the Winfield Robbins Memorial Garden before the talk to see the newly restored and operating reflecting pool. Admission is free for members of the Historical Society and of the Friends of Robbins Town Gardens. Like a work of Paul Revere’s silver or a master’s painting, designed landscapes need some regular polish to look their best. The Winfield Robbins Memorial Garden, between the Robbins Library and the Arlington Town Hall, is such a landscape jewel.  In 1938, the Olmsted Brothers were hired to re-imagine R.…

This has been a very exciting week!  Once the bricks were replaced and the coping stones were placed along the edge of the reflecting pool, it was time to start planting the ground cover, shrubs and trees that will line the ripple and circle the fountain.  Several trees (including- a birch,  3 dogwood and a white fir), some shrubs (2 pieris and 2 mountain laurel 4 alberta spruce) and pachysandra,have been planted.  The pebble tech lining of the reflecting pool was installed, acid washed and cleaned and by the end of this week,  water was added to the reflecting pool to cure the pebble tech surface.  Things are really starting to come together. [huge_it_slider id="10 "]

While many finishing touches remain, we are starting to be able to imagine the end of this project.  You can see lots of progress has been made since our last slide show. (See Article - "What's Happening Behind the Fence")  The reflecting pool has been re-cast, the brick walkways are restored.  There is a new vault with new pumps and machinery with a smaller footprint. <?php echo do_shortcode("[huge_it_slider id='8 ']"); ?>

People can learn more about the fountain and gardens restoration, and other upcoming projects by attending the Annual Meeting of the Friends of Robbins Town Gardens. When:Wednesday, June 27, 7-8:30pm Where:Lions Room, Town Hall, Second Floor Meet friends and members, learn more about current and upcoming garden plans (including how to get involved), and enjoy some light refreshments.

  [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="428"] The new fence[/caption]                         The rain finally stopped and the project team met to get the restoration project started. The first thing the contractor and his crew will be doing is building plywood boxes to cover and protect the benches and the ripple as well as creating the construction entrance to the site.  Over the next two weeks, workers will be protecting trees, the Menotomy Indian Hunter sculpture and more. A fence will be put up and pruning will be done to ensure that the trees don't suffer from accidental damage. Then work on the lower pool will begin. The Contractor submitted his own images to document the site prior to beginning the work.  These…

Wednesday, February 24 was unseasonably warm - a perfect day for preparing the Garden for Spring..  Ingrid Gallagher, Patsy Kramer , Christine Harris, Robert Charest, Emily Snyder, Diane Geis,  and Stephan Miller members of the  Friends of Robbins Town Gardens, Master Gardeners, Arlington Garden Club and Historic Gardener, Mona McKindley, joined together in Phase II of the Garden cleanup. First we focused on pruning the remaining yews around the Town Hall.  When we finished, you could see the Town Hall's first floor windows. [caption id="" align="alignleft" width="307"] Patsy Kraemer & Stephan Miller before pruning[/caption] [caption id="attachment_601" align="alignright" width="312"] Yews after pruning[/caption] [caption id="attachment_607" align="aligncenter" width="251"] Bob Charest & Diane Geis haul away Yew trimmings[/caption] [caption id="attachment_595" align="alignleft" width="300"] Stephan Miller, Bob Charest, Mona Mckindley and Ingrid Gallagfher trim lilac[/caption] [caption id="attachment_594" align="alignright"…

7 pm at the Robbins Library Community Room.   The Friends of the Robbins Town Gardens invites the Arlington community to attend a presentation about the exciting, Community Preservation Act (CPA) funded restoration and renewal projects that will begin in the Robbins Town Garden, Spring 2018. Everyone who loves the garden, who is interested in this specific project, or who may wish to join our organization is invited. Refreshments will be served. Jim Feeney, Assistant Town Manager, Christine Harris, President of the Friends, and JoAnn Robinson, Chair of the Arlington Historical Commission, will introduce the program. Our consultants from Weston and Sampson - an engineering firm that among many projects restored the George Robert White memorial fountain in the Boston Common, will describe their recommendations for restoring the water features…