Gardeners, history buffs and literary lovers may want to check out the lecture and garden tour at the Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick on Saturday, July 21 at 5:30 p.m.

Landscape gardener Nancy Wetzel will discuss the historic importance of community herbalists and herb gardens as described by famed late author Sarah Orne Jewett in her book, “The Country of the Pointed Firs.”

The lecture will introduce Jewett’s character Mrs. Todd, the fictional village herbalist, and describe the garden and kitchen where she creates remedies and consults with neighbors. Wetzel will describe how she researched and created a garden modeled after the one in the book. 

A tour of the garden will then let participants see, touch, smell and taste some of the herbs described by Jewett. The tour will include herbs used for remedies, flavoring foods, keeping bugs away, and liquor. Wetzel will also touch upon magic in herbal medicine, herb patches at old farmsteads, wild herbs, traveling herb peddlers, and herbal message bouquets.

The Jewett-Eastman House is at 37 Portland St., South Berwick, Maine. Admission is $15. For tickets, call 207-384-2454 or visit www.historicnewengland.org.