MONMOUTH — The Monmouth Garden Club is sponsoring a garden tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 30, rain or shine, and members have selected gardens to enjoy which provide variety, inspiration and information.

The garden settings include shady, sunny, sloped, intimate and rocky. One of the gardens is on an island and includes a boat ride, and another is part of a country estate. Garden owners will be available to answer questions and explain their approach to gardening, according to a news release.

Penny Ackley’s garden features huge ledges in the shade, providing a serene moss and hosta environment. Kent Ackley offers a visit to One Big Sustainable Island by pontoon boat. Visitors to the island will see the Monmouth Academy students’ sustainable outhouse project, as well as an archaeological dig and erosion control planting.

Keith and Leslie Hunt offer islands of plant compositions surrounded by a velvety, sloping lawn. Marty and Barbara Bumann incorporate their collection of antique tools into their vegetable and perennial gardens. Candy Gray offers her intimate, charming, flower gardens and shade loving plants along a brook’s edge. Judy Nisbett has combined tried and true perennials into many flowing gardens, including a Mother Earth garden, and will share with visitors her strategies for minimizing gardening labor. Nancy Trider will be painting en plein air amidst her flowers and David Trider will show gardens on his 30 acres, which include fruit trees and a vegetable garden.

The country estate of Vicky and Larry Catlett includes horses, and a collection of antique carriages in a lovely setting with iris and lily ponds along with a massive stone boulder wall, according to the release.

Lunch will be available to tour goers and the general public from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at East Monmouth Methodist Church Vestry, Route 135, East Monmouth. Members of the Ladies Auxiliary will serve lobster rolls, and a choice of homemade salads, dessert and beverage. The Vestry has well-developed perennial beds that have been designed and maintained by garden club and church members

Advance tickets for the tour are $15 and are available at: Longfellows in Manchester, DR Struck, in Winthrop, Roak the Florist, in Lewiston, Gammon’s Nursery in Auburn, and Springbrook Golf Club in Leeds. Each ticket comes with a description of the gardens and a map with driving directions to each location Tickets on the day of the tour are $20 and can be purchased at any tour site.


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