“I think of gardens as public art,” Pam Ketchum said. “And when people in a community see a garden in nice shape, they get a sense of well-being. They feel, ‘Something is good in this world right here.’ ”
With an artistic touch and true grit, she has voluntarily developed and maintained many of the Brockport Village gardens since 2009. With occasional help from citizens, organizations and church groups, she tends Remembrance Park, Sagawa Park, Harvester Park and the Welcome Center, Corbett Park, and Village Hall. Add to those, many of the 26 garden fenced-in garden squares on Main and Market Streets.
Besides volunteer help, Pam regularly works with individuals doing court-required community service, wanting to engender in them, she says, a sense of self-worth and accomplishment.
Keeping gardens interesting year-round
In the first years Pam would pull weeds and, with permission, do touch-ups to the Village gardens. Over the years, she has become more involved with design. “I am trying to create gardens that are interesting year-round for the public,” she said after working several gardening seasons. For instance, in spring there are tulips, daffodils and giant alliums. Summer brings irises, day lilies, sedum, hydrangea, coral bells, hostas and ever-blooming roses. Winterberries bring their red berry appeal in winter.
She has had to re-work some areas, such as Sagawa Park. Inundated with weeds, she took out almost everything in the north and south border four years ago. Now the south border looks “good and stable,” while the north border “is defying me” with persistent weeds, Pam said.
The 26 garden squares on Main and Market Streets have been a special project. Merchants donated to some of them. Others were purchased by individuals with a plaque to honor someone; and among these, some donors have done the planting and maintenance themselves. Pro-Brockport coordinated the funds for this project. Last year tulips were contributed and have provided a “strong visual effect” in all the garden squares, Pam said.
Reviving gardens and restoring people sent by the courts
For community service helpers, Pam keeps careful records on hours worked and reports back to the courts and the College at the end of a season. In 2016 records as of June 23 show 31 people doing court-or-college-required community service for a total of 555 hours beginning in January. In 2015 she worked with 14 people completing 208 hours of community service from April to December. All were from the Village Court except one from Town of Sweden Court. In 2014 it was 20 people completing 324.5 hours, from April to November, ten from the Sweden Court and five from the College
Pam started working with the Sweden Town Court in 2011. The first “co-worker” assigned to Pam said to her later in the first work day, “You are being so nice to me. I thought I was supposed to be your slave.” Pam answered that she believes in respect. “That was the way the day went. We had a great exchange and we worked hard with great respect for each other and for the community that we live in.”
She has gone from supervising one or two court-appointed helpers to as many as eight at one time over five years. As the numbers have grown, her managerial skills have evolved, she said. She trains and encourages her co-workers as a team. “We introduce each other and have a pretty nice time,” Pam said. “I feel like everybody has something to offer and we can learn from each other.”
Comradery is cultivated in chatting about recipes, travel or other favorite things. “We don’t talk about offenses but concentrate on making the village gardens nice.” Pam’s attitude is that, “They are all good people who just made a mistake. We all do that,” she said. “They are valuable in helping the village and helping me. And, there is such a good sense of therapy for everybody involved, including me. It’s so worthwhile.”
Beautiful gardens are a free gift to the public
“Priceless beauty” is a good term for the aesthetics as well as the economic aspects of the public gardens. Besides volunteer labor, contributions of plants and funds for plants come from a variety of donors, leaving essentially no demand on Village funds. Pam has done her own fund raising at times, once with buckets of hydrangeas in front of her house with a sign “Free or make donation.” That gleaned $100 and selling plant bulbs at a garage sale also made money.
Bill Andrews contributed funds for the eight ever-blooming roses Pam wanted for Remembrance Park. Ute and Ray Duncan have donated plants from their garden. The tulips on Main and Market Streets were donated by Josephine Matela. Duane Beckett (owner of Sunnking, Inc. Brockport), and his cousin who owns a tulip bulb company in Holland, donated tulips, daffodils, alliums and crocus a year ago. Kathy Kepler at Sara’s Garden Center has provided plants and systemic plant food at discounted prices.
Pam’s gardening skills are free, but she wants her volunteer work to be of high value. “I feel a responsibility to do it right, do it well,” she said as her reason for earning her Master Gardener certification at the Batavia cooperative extension. And, her work has received the attention of the regional Master Gardener’s organization. Ten of the members visited Pam in mid-June to view the Brockport gardens. Discussion included garden design, volunteerism and a program that ties law enforcement with community gardens and parks. “They were impressed with what is going on in Brockport,” Pam said.
In 2013, Pam Ketchum was one of the first winners of the Monika W. Andrews Creative Volunteer Leadership Award. See the article sub-titled “Reviving gardens, restoring people, respecting history for Brockport’s vitality” (Suburban News, Hamlin-Clarkson Herald, February 3, 2013, www.westsidenewsny.com).
