news-record.com

Tucked behind High Point Museum’s Haley House and beside Hoggatt House and the Blacksmith’s Shop is a living exhibit that is steeped in history but perhaps taken a bit for granted.

It’s an herb garden, and if you think that sounds simple, think again. The circular plot with its clusters of plants not only represents a vital part of our city’s past, it also pays homage to those who are desperately trying to preserve it.

The herb garden was a gift from the Alexander Martin Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution, the local chapter of the DAR, and was planted in 1976 in honor of our nation’s bicentennial.

Last year, DAR member Elizabeth Walsh was asked by the local DAR leaders if she would take on the task of restoring and maintaining the garden.

“I’m a gardener, but I didn’t know squat about herbs,” Walsh said, with an emotion that’s somewhere between excitement and exasperation.

That’s because the garden was suffering mightily from neglect. Budget cuts, staff reductions and time had taken its toll on the exhibit.

When Walsh and her mother Anne Douglass, also a DAR member, visited the garden last fall, it was so overgrown with weeds and Bermuda grass that you couldn’t see the beautiful brick edging, the engraved memorial plaque or tell that the circular bed had four distinct quadrants for plantings.

“It was a total disaster,” Walsh said.

With the help of museum Director Edith Brady, Walsh looked at the garden’s history and purpose.

“The garden represents the late 18th and early 19th century time period,” Brady explained. “The herbs in it are all documented to this area during that period of time, so the herbs would have been typical.”

This garden with its four sections, however, is more formal than you would have found in the Carolina backcountry. But this exhibit helps us all understand the role herbs played in the lives of High Point’s early residents.

“Our garden is done this way for modern educational purposes. ... It helps people get a sense of the multiple uses for herbs,” Brady said. “And of course, many herbs had multiple uses and could really be represented in more than one quadrant. In those days, people already knew all the various uses, so they didn’t need to have them separated into different sections of the garden to keep track.”

The culinary section contains, or will soon contain, plants such as chives, basil, thyme, rosemary and dill — items essential to seasoning food, both today and in days of yore.

The aromatic garden contains herbs that were valued for their scents. Plants such as spearmint, lemon balm, English lavender, costmary and pennyroyal were used for making potpourri, warding away bugs and for “freshening the breath.”

As with most herbs, many of the aromatic plants did double duty. Mixed with vinegar, pennyroyal acted as smelling salts. When crushed and rubbed on the skin, pennyroyal also helped repel ticks, chiggers and houseflies.

The medicinal portion of the garden contains herbs that aid in healing — plants such as lamb’s ear, comfrey, elecampane, feverfew, tansy and hyssop. The thick, soft, fuzzy lamb’s ear leaves were used as bandages. Comfrey was used for coughs or fashioned into salves for sores. The root of the elecampane plant was used for bronchial and lung problems such as asthma, and some thought it was helpful in combating kidney stones and in halting the spread of snake venom.

The final section of the herb garden is dedicated to dyes. Plants such as madder, tansy, wild indigo and lady’s bedstraw produced colors such as pink (from madder), green (from tansy), blue (from indigo) and red and yellow (from lady’s bedstraw).

The garden is popular with visitors of all ages, Brady said. “Children love to smell the different herbs. We’ve done several programs with children where they make their own herb butter and are able to taste the different flavors of the herbs. We’ve made sachets and scented herbal waters with adults and children.

“People love to try to identify the different herbs. We have a few that are not very common today, so even avid gardeners sometimes learn about a new plant. I think part of the reason the garden is so appealing is that it engages multiple senses.”

Without help, however, the garden can’t function as a living history exhibit. Although Walsh has had help from a few DAR members and one husband in clearing and tilling the garden, she has undertaken responsibility for ordering and paying for the hard-to-find herbs by herself.

When she can, Walsh goes to the museum to water and weed the garden, but she can’t maintain it alone, and that’s where you can help out.

If you would like to help with High Point Museum’s herb garden or help fund this project, contact Elizabeth Walsh at 812-1035.

Contact Cathy Weaver at CWeaverNR@gmail.com