“Much Ado in the Garden,” the Shakespeare-inspired festival at Cutler Gardens, is back on the calendar after being postponed earlier this summer. A July storm toppled eight trees, scattered limbs and debris across the grounds, and shut down the Cooperative Extension for weeks.
Event coordinator and master gardener Eve Berman says the loss was significant:“The shade garden isn’t as shady as it used to be. We’ll be planting new trees, but it will be many years before they’re as large as the ones we lost.”
Even with the damage, the festival will go on with performances, dancers, scavenger hunts, face painting, ice cream, raffles, and a children’s costume parade. New this year is a Shakespeare-themed vegetable scavenger hunt, along with signs that connect plants in the garden to the Bard’s poetry and plays.
“Shakespeare didn’t waste words,” Berman explains. “His plant references were specific and meaningful. In his time, audiences would have understood them immediately. Seeing the actual plants today makes those references come alive.”
“Much Ado in the Garden” takes place Sunday, September 21, from noon to 4 p.m. at Cutler Gardens, next to the Cornell Cooperative Extension at 840 Upper Front Street in Binghamton. More information is at ccebroomecounty.com/events.