Bobbie Farrell

Bobbie Farrell.mp3

Excerpt from recording above

Herbs and Growth

Bobbie Farrell has lived in Cleveland Heights for over 50 years and formerly taught at Hathway Brown. She has been a member of The Village Garden Club member since 1993 and a member of the Western Reserve Herb Society.

"Such a wonderful group filled with accomplished women"

Bobbie Farrell (1).mp3

Full interview with Bobbie Farrell and Caitlen Cameron above, also available on Cleveland Voices.

Cailten Cameron [00:11:16] How did you migrate to the Village Garden Club?

Bobbie Farrell [00:11:23] Well, that, I was so grateful to be invited to join the Village Garden Club. I had a good friend and neighbor, Irene Smith, who belonged to Village Garden Club, and another good friend, Bland Banwell, who was also a neighbor who proposed me for membership in the Village Garden Club, and that's when I really started to learn about perennials and gardening. And I'm constantly learning. But I really, through their programs, horticultural programs, and I really started learning more about gardening. And so Village Garden Club is such a wonderful group of very accomplished women who love gardening and love to share their knowledge of gardening. And so it's been a wonderful experience for me to be part of Village Garden Club.

Cailten Cameron [00:13:02] What type of programs did you do? You remember any specific programs that [you did]?.

Bobbie Farrell [00:13:06] Well I remember more the members who I was impressed with. Jean Eakin was still a member and Mim Greene and Kay Fuller, and they all had been involved in preventing a freeway from going through the Shaker parklands and they were organizing and going to Washington. I know in our archives we have a photograph of them in Washington. And Jean Aikin brought Stuart Udall, who was then Secretary of the Interior, to Cleveland. Or he was in Cleveland. She brought him and marched him through Shaker Lakes and...

"How did you start gardening?"

Bobbie Farrell [00:06:18] Oh yes. Well, I think I was interested in gardening when I was a kid. I always remember that my mother got a box of pansies every year on Mother's Day and we would plant the pansies and... But she was never really much of a gardener. But I remember in elementary school in Cleveland, there was a gardening program. It may have been leftover from the days of Victory Gardens, but you were given seeds and instructions and you went home and you planted your own vegetable garden.

And I did that for a few years with my dad's help more than my mom's. But but my first interest in gardening was herbs. And I was a member of the Western Reserve Herb Society and for many years and because we lived in a house that had a lot of sun, and herbs love sun. So that was my first real attempt at my own gardening was with herbs.

And our first house also had a rose garden. So I had to work to maintain the rose garden, but my plantings were herbs. they grow themselves, really. They, they're very not fussy. They don't mind the clay soil that we have in Cleveland Heights. They don't want to be wet, they don't want wet feet, but sun and a little bit of rain or watering and they're very happy. And I love the fragrance, the thyme and oregano and rosemary. Well, rosemary, you have to bring in, but so many others that you can grow outside.

Create your own lavender wand

Cailten Cameron [00:08:07] Do you have a favorite herb?

Bobbie Farrell [00:08:08] Well, my favorite herb because of its fragrance is lavender...In fact, I was just making lavender wands with my granddaughter last week. I harvested some of the lavender and made lavender wands.

Cailten Cameron [00:08:57] How do you do that?

Bobbie Farrell [00:08:57] Well, you pick I think an odd number of stems, usually eleven I think. And you bend the stem, you bend the stems over the flowers so that here are the flowers and you bend the stems over so that you're covering the flowers and then you weave ribbon in and out of the stems. And so you have a little, a little wand and then you just wind the ribbon around the base. The empty stems after you've covered the flowers inside and wind it really tightly. So when they dry, they won't fall out, and you can put it in your cupboard, hang it somewhere where you'd like to sniff lavender.

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