Sixty years after its opening in 1961, the Hammond Garden is in the midst of a 2021 Hammond Japanese Stroll Garden Revitalization Project, funded by a Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership grant. Guided by Charles King Sadler, horticultural and design expert, Hammond volunteers have pruned the crabapples that explode with flowers in spring and droop gracefully over our central pond. We have trimmed our Kwanzan cherries, allowing these beloved trees to form an inviting aisle, but also giving each tree space. Further pruning revealed a nearly hidden stone path in our lantern garden, as Charles Sadler removed lower branches from a Japanese maple and overhanging honeysuckle and demonstrated how to cut back overgrown azaleas naturalistically. The Revitalization Project also includes planning for larger scale changes. New deer-hardy plantings will enhance the hidden and revealed views so important to a Japanese garden and native woodland plantings on the perimeter will contribute to the greater environment of the Hammond and North Salem community.

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