Join the Garden Conservancy on Saturday, August 8 from 10 – 4 in Marblehead and Beverly. The Lodge Garden at 239 Hale Street is seven acres and has been in the family for more than 150 years. The family planted four European beech trees in the mid-nineteenth century and they continue to add beauty. Other specimen trees include yellowwood, catalpa, katsura, and yellow birch. The garden has equal numbers of exotic trees and shrubs and native plants. The emphasis the last few years is to encourage bird and insect life so large numbers of native wildflowers and shrubs have been added. There is a small but interesting border with annuals and perennials and a large vegetable garden. Two acres are a wildflower meadow.
The Parable (Ellen Cool’s garden) is located at 19 Circle Street (pictured.) In the oldest part of Marblehead alongside a 1720 house you will find a garden gate leading into a landscape with extensive stonework and ornamental plant materials. These are the working spaces and display gardens of a landscape designer, so the garden buildings, stone features, tools, books, and working systems may provide some ideas you can readily use for your own garden. Mature dwarf and unusual trees, shrubs and vines are featured along with long blooming or otherwise particularly pleasing hardy perennials and rock garden plants. There are stone and hypertufa troughs planted with alpines and other winter hardy materials, as well as annual plants in container groupings. Ellen Cool’s website, http://aReasonedLandscape.com is searchable by subject, with many articles about landscape and garden design and unusual plant materials.
Admission to each garden is $7. For more information and directions visit https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/all-events/marblehead-ma-open-day.
