Boothbay Region High School (BRHS) recently announced plans to expand its Graduation Garden to add the Martha Landry Legacy Garden. This project, sponsored by the Class of 2024, recognizes Landry’s 24 years of service to the BRHS community in light of her retirement this past June. Landscape designer and BRHS alumnus Karl Alamo is volunteering his time and services to the addition. 

“It is an honor to help the Boothbay Region Schools and community,” wrote Alamo in an email to the Register. The experience has also been special for him as his younger sister, Ariel, is a part of the sponsoring class. “Many of (my sister’s) classmates are like family to me as well, I have watched them all grow up alongside her, and I feel privileged to help realize the gift that their class has given.” 

The Graduation Garden’s current design consists of plant beds arranged like a capital B, filled with perennials, shrubs and a small tree donated by Conley’s Garden Center. Blue and yellow annuals are also planted each year in preparation for BRHS’s graduation events. According to Alamo, the new supplement will maintain the B-shape but—in partnership with Conley’s—add a mixture of hardy, drought-tolerant and pollinator-friendly perennials and North American natives.

“The selection will capture the blue and gold Seahawk spirit and will continue to serve as a celebratory spring-blooming graduation garden, as well as a fall-interest welcoming garden for the back-to-school season,” he explained. 

Landry was part of the team that spent years getting the area to be graduation photo-ready, and helping students get their required community service hours by maintaining the space. This is why the announcement of an addition held extra significance to her. 

“Holy cow! I was almost in tears,” recalled Landry. “It’s just a huge honor to have that dedicated to me.”

Looking back on her legacy, Landry said there are too many memories to even begin, but hers was a job that required “infinite patience.” Over her tenure, she encountered students with a variety of backgrounds and attitudes toward school, but she did her best to help them graduate no matter the circumstance. 

But the most important thing, she found, was to listen to students — whether it was about homelife troubles, or daily compliments about her fun sock collection. “I learned from each one of these kids how things were, and how you needed to pay attention. Just be there. Just to be an ear.”

Installation of the garden is scheduled to begin in the fall.