At our October meeting on October 24 at the Congregational Church of Littleton, we welcomed Elke Jahns-Harms, Theresa’s backyard neighbor, for her talk “Magical Monarchs.” Elke teaches international development at the Fletcher School at Tufts, and about eight or nine years ago she and her husband Garth found an egg on a plant they had grown for butterflies and decided to see what would happen. They have since raised about 200 monarchs.

On Tuesday, October 6th, the Littleton Country Gardeners welcomed seven young gardeners to the Reuben Hoar Library for our fall Kids Craft program. The project was a seasonal favorite: fresh flower arrangements built right inside real pumpkins.

As the vegetable garden begins to wind down, there’s a temptation to think the season is simply over: pull everything out, rake the beds clean, and come back in spring.

But fall is actually one of the best times to improve the garden.

I keep honey bees because I love them—and because I like honey. But keeping a hive has taught me something uncomfortable: the bee I keep is not the bee that needs saving. Massachusetts is home to 390 verified bee species, many of them solitary, ground-nesting and able to travel only a few hundred feet from where they emerge. My honey bees can search thousands of acres for flowers. A small mining bee may depend entirely on what grows in one yard. That changed the way I garden—and the way I think about what it really means to help pollinators.

Step outside in Littleton right now and the air tells you everything. That faint sweetness still drifting over fences and across the Town? That's the last of the lilacs, and they're nearly done.

Somewhere between the first wagonload heading off to a car and the last hellos under dripping hoods, the weather quietly stopped mattering. Whatever grumbling the cold and the drizzle might have earned in the morning was outmatched by the smell of damp soil, the chatter up and down the rows, and the simple, warming fact that the day was working. The success of the sale — the plants finding homes, the neighbors meeting neighbors, the new faces lingering to ask questions — warmed us right through.

A 30-year Arbor Day tradition continues, courtesy of the Littleton Country Gardeners and the Littleton Shade Tree Committee

A 30-year-plus tradition continues this Arbor Day. Together with the Littleton Shade Tree Committee, we're once again putting a young tulip tree — a native species that can live 200 to 300 years — into the hands of every third grader at Russell Street Elementary on Monday, April 27, 2026.

Spring is officially in the air in Littleton — and the Littleton Country Gardeners are making sure it shows.