Thursday, October 1, 2026
As spring growth begins to emerge behind the historic Earle-Wightman House, on Summit Street in Oyster Bay, members of the North Country Garden Club are continuing a major restoration of the site’s 18th century-style garden. The club has cared for the garden, behind the 300-year-old house that is now the home of the Oyster Bay Historical Society, for five decades.
According to the club, members first designed the five geometric flower beds surrounding the backyard’s central sundial in 1975. The space was redesigned in the early 1990s, and underwent its latest refurbishment last summer, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the club’s stewardship.
“We’ve had our 50th anniversary this past fall, to celebrate 50 years of maintaining the garden, and we redid it,” Liz Mocorrea, the club’s vice president, explained. “We put in all these new boards, new fence, new gravel, new irrigation.”
The latest redesign is meant to mimic a garden of colonial times, with designated areas for practical and educational uses. Organizers said the new planting plan includes a medicinal garden, a culinary section and a sensory area for children.
The restoration effort has also become an important training ground. The club uses the site as a hands-on learning space for its provisional members, who serve a two-year introductory term.
“We use it for the provisionals — our people who have just joined the club come here and work and actually maintain the garden,” Mocorrea said. “It’s a good way to introduce them to gardening and tips on gardening and horticulture.”
Much of the recent work focused on underground infrastructure. The replacement of the irrigation system was one of the most significant parts of the renovation. The new drip irrigation system allows members to adjust water flow seasonally using an onsite control box, reducing the labor once required to keep the garden alive through the summer months.
“In the olden days, before the sprinkler system went in,” Christey Robinson, the club’s communications manager, added, “the provisionals would have to come on a weekly basis, and throughout the summer.”
Over the fall and winter, members prepared the space for spring blooms by planting roughly 200 bulbs. Signs of that work are already visible, with peonies, irises, lady’s mantle and day lilies beginning to emerge.
“A garden is something that never ends,” Helen Remmel, who chairs the club’s Wightman Garden House committee, said. “You constantly have to be thinking about it and adding to it and taking out, and it’s a live thing which you just have to keep working on.”
According to the garden club, which was founded in 1913 by 12 women on Long Island’s North Shore, the project closely aligns with the club’s longstanding mission to promote gardening, horticulture, conservation and civic beautification.
“This project is garden restoration, garden design, civic and community focused,” Robinson said. “It embraces all the different things that we have that are important to us.”
The site also serves as an educational resource for the larger community. Club members said that school groups touring the historic house, which was built around 1720, often visit the garden, and the new design is intended to make that visit more interactive for children.
“We want to really focus on having a garden that will bring children in,” club President Gigi Sheldon said. “School groups can come and experience smelling, touching plants, having a sensory experience.”
The garden should be especially vibrant in late spring, members said, in late May and early June. There will also be a secondary bloom in late September and early October.
“It’s nice for families to come with their children on the weekend,” Sheldon said. “We encourage people to come over and sit on the bench and enjoy.”
