This Week's Podcast: A Replay: A New Garden Opens to the Public — Kristin McCullin
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I was a plant freak (already) back in my college days. Then, it was houseplants that I sought for my apartment. I scoured the nearby nurseries, and on special occasions, I would take a trip to New 
Bedford, Massachusetts, to visit Allen Haskell’s nursery. It was like a museum of plants and the greenhouses — filled with living jewels grown to perfection — were much neater and cleaner than my dorm room or apartment. His designed cobblestone paved entry garden was much photographed and published.
Allen was a horticultural prodigy who grew up and spent his entire life in New Bedford. He frequently designed the major installations for the Boston Flower Show and won awards for his horticultural achievements all over New England.
After Haskell’s death in 2004, his relatives planned to sell the six-acre property for development. But in 2012, The Trustees of Reservations stepped in to get the City of New Bedford to save the landscaped gardens, historic buildings and half acre of greenhouses and open them to the public.
Kristin McCullin is the first superintendent of the new Allen C. Haskell Public Gardens. 
I first met Kristin when she was the Senior Horticulturist at The Garden in the Woods, the property run by the 100-plus-year-old New England Wildflower Society, the oldest such organization in the country. I included her in my first Organic Gardening magazine article on up-and-coming horticulturists.
Kristin studied science and art and spent a year as an intern at various UK gardens. She combines her love of plants with a command of the machinery behind the scenes to help make this new venture a success. Learn more about the Allen C. Haskell Public Gardens.
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