When Greenfield writer Pat Leuchtman was young, she remembers visiting her grandparents’ lakeside home at Lake Champlain in Vermont.
In her young mind’s eye, it was a place of magic, and these years later, now older, Leuchtman, who grew up in New York City, credits those visits as the impetus for one of her greatest passions: gardening.
“There was, relatively speaking, a grand entryway and a circle where the car could go and turn around. In the middle of that circle was a rose bush. I was quite fascinated by that rose bush, and as a very young child I had visions: This was a place where I could put little gifts for the fairies,” Leuchtman recalled. “Roses are very romantic … but also just a beautiful thing that anyone can have.”
Not far from the lake, her extended family owned Larson Farm, a dairy and vegetable operation near Burlington, Vt.
“I lived on that farm three different times and I loved the farm — I still love the farm, it’s right on Lake Champlain and we could dive into the lake anytime,” Leuchtman said.
While her grandparents’ roses served as a source of artistic inspiration, working on the farm gave her the tangible agricultural know-how that would serve as a foundation for future planting — at first a hobby that turned into a 40-year career as a gardening columnist for this newspaper.
Last week, Leuchtman penned her farewell “Between the Rows” column, which she started writing 40 years ago in 1980. And while Leuchtman will stay on as a freelance writer, her column will be retired.
In its place, starting next week, two local authors, Cris Carl and Eveline MacDougall, will write for Tuesday’s home and garden section. Carl, an avid local gardener, licensed therapist and certified herbalist, is also an experienced journalist who has written for the Recorder for many years. MacDougall, a published Greenfield author, grew up in a dairy-farming family. Over the years, she says she worked on various farms in Québec, Canada and the northeastern United States. In 1999, MacDougall founded Greenfield’s Pleasant Street Community Garden, now in its second iteration behind the John Zon Community/Senior Center. She coordinated the community garden for about 15 years and, while still a member, is no longer in a leadership position.
Undoubtedly, her regular byline will be missed by both faithful gardening section readers and editors alike. Leuchtman’s columns, which highlighted local gardens and gardeners alike, became a fixture in this newspaper.
Taking into account a few brief hiatuses, Leuchtman has written an estimated 2,000 gardening columns on topics ranging from mulching to planting, harvesting to cutting and everything in between. But of all the flowers about which she has penned, “Between the Rows” will be remembered perhaps most of all for its descriptions of roses.
Unlike vegetable plants, which have a utilitarian use, roses at first might seem superfluous and unnecessary. But Leuchtman has helped readers understand that roses are a necessary fixture in every garden — they are beautiful and delicate yet resilient.
“I think we grow into our flowers,” she said.
Of all the roses she’s described, one, in particular, stands out above the rest.
“One of my favorite roses was a gift given to me by one of the other women in town (named Rachel),” Leuchtman said. “She’d been living in Heath for her whole life and had roses. … She calls me up and says she has a rose and if I would like to have a piece of it, I could come and dig it up.”
According to Leuchtman, the rose had been planted in the woman’s front yard. During a construction project a few years before, however, it had been completely covered by dirt.
“It grew up through all that — it was a very determined and beautiful rose,” she said. “I was very honored that she gave that to me.”
For Leuchtman, retiring the column means she’ll have more time in the garden with her roses, which, after raising a family, she became reacquainted with at age 40 after reading “Onward and Upward in the Garden” by Katharine Sergeant Angell White. Her piqued interest encouraged her to write to start writing for the Recorder those years ago.
“My imagination was filled with this beautiful rural area and roses,” Leuchtman said. “In 1980, I was 40. I had actually written a couple of things for newspapers and that’s when I went to (Editor) Bob Dole.”
The rest can be found in the Recorder’s archives.
Over the last four decades, Leuchtman has achieved that which is within the grasp of only the most prolific writers: she has bottled up time, managing to recreate the magic of gardening she first noticed in the rose bush at her grandparents’ lakeside home in Vermont — a place where fairies reside.
Andy Castillo can be reached at acastillo@recorder.com.