Visitors got to explore the gardens at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in Elverson during a program presented recently by Hopewell's Friends group. The garden tour highlighted the site's three gardens - the pollinator garden, which is located in the front of the visitor center; the Ironmaster's garden, also known as the kitchen garden, where herbs are grown; and the dye and fiber garden.

The program was led by Berks County Master Gardeners, the group that maintains the gardens. Speakers included Becky Hughes, Mary Benischeck and Margaret Yevics. Yevics explained that one garden at Hopewell - the vegetable garden located at the tenant house - is maintained by the Chester County Master Gardeners. "A very small portion of this park is in Chester County," she noted.

The visitor center garden has been certified as a pollinator-friendly garden by Penn State Extension. The garden is meant to attract bees and butterflies. "A lot of people are afraid of bees, but you don't need to be afraid of them. They will not attack you unless you disturb them," Yevics said, adding, "Wasps are a different story."

She said it is important that a pollinator garden has enough plants to attract bees from early spring through late fall. "Bees are like us. They want something to eat, something to drink and somewhere to live," Yevics stated. "We want to have continual blooms. We want to make sure we have plants that will feed the bees through September."

She then pointed out several plants in the garden, including golden rods, which are fall bloomers; penstemon, which is a spring blooming plant; asters; and obedient plants. "We try to have only native plants. There are some non-native plants, like the blackberry lily," noted Yevics.

The master gardeners clean out the flower beds and remove weeds when they threaten to take over the other plants. "One man's weed is another man's wildflower. A weed is just a plant (that grows) where it is not supposed to," Yevics said. "Before the end of June we do a Chelsea chop (a pruning technique), which is taking the plants down by a third."

The visitors also toured the garden in front of the Ironmaster's mansion, which contains a variety of herbs that were used in cooking and for medicinal purposes.

Benischeck explained that the garden contains strewing herbs. "A strewing herb would have been thrown on the floor and walked on, and the essential oils would keep pests away or it was used to make your house smell better," she said.

She also pointed out the soft leaves of a lamb's-ear plant as well as germander, used to border herb gardens. "Lamb's-ear was used as Band-Aid. It's very soft," said Benischeck. "Germander was for fragrance, but it was used as a hedge row. If you are familiar with formal herb gardens, it was used to outline the shape of the herb garden."

She said that the colonists brought herbs and seeds for growing with them to the New World. "They brought what they knew, but the Indigenous people did teach them about the echinacea, the cone flower. That is native to here," Benischeck noted. "They also learned about wild bergamot. They were taught to use it to make tea after the Boston Tea Party. It became the Earl Grey of its day."

Other herbs grown in the garden include fleabane, which was a strewing herb used to keep bugs away; tyme, which was used to get rid of pests and in cooking; lavender, known for its scent; soapwort, which was used to make soap; lemon balm, which was used to make jellies and jams and in soups and fish dishes; and mints used for tea, as breath refreshers and for strewing.

"Calendula was used in both culinary and medicinal (ways)," said Benischeck. "The flower could be used in salads, or they could be sprinkled on a fancy cake. You can also make a healing salve out of them. Calendula is the scientific name, but Mary's Gold was the common name."

She added that the herb garden contains sage, which is an antimicrobial. It was believed that sage in stuffing could help prevent bacterial growth while cooking inside a chicken.

Visitors also toured the fiber and dye garden at Hopewell. Plants grown there were used to dye clothes and other linens.

The Friends of Hopewell Furnace hold presentations on select Sundays at 2 p.m. in the visitor center at Hopewell Furnace, located at 2 Mark Bird Lane, Elverson, about 5 five miles south of Birdsboro off Route 345. Programs are free and open to the public. Upcoming topics will include Sept. 21, Daniel Boone; Oct. 19, Fort Mifflin; Nov. 9, African Union Church; and Dec. 14, Civilian Conversation Corps.

For more details, visit http://www.friendsofhopewellfurn.org or http://www.facebook.com/FriendsofHopewellfurnace. Those with questions may email friendsofhopewellfurn@gmail.com.