The Garden Conservancy will sponsor an open day tour of Braveboat Harbor Farm, 110 Raynes Neck Road in York, Maine, and a Cape Neddick Garden on Saturday, July 22 and Sunday, July 23, from 10 – 4.
This Braveboat Harbor Farm garden has been evolving over the last seventy-five years. It surrounds and complements a Georgian-style stone house. There are formal and informal borders, a vegetable garden, orchards, and collections of various flowering trees and shrubs. Apples and pears are espaliered on the house and along the walls of the formal front garden. Water features include a newly expanded pond in the woodland garden, a farm pond with rustic bridge, and the Atlantic Ocean. This treasure is protected by a sculpted arborvitae hedge on the northwest, a mature stand of hickory on the northeast, and an extensive screen of old lilacs on the south. New projects include expanding the collection of magnolias and rhododendrons, introducing hydrangeas, an espaliered pear fence, a woodland walk, and a summerhouse with views to the pond and the sea.
Directions: Located off Route 103 South and Braveboat Harbor Road to end of Raynes Neck Road. Please park in field below house.
In the Cape Neddick Garden, stroll down a curving, sylvan drive with wooded hills on the right and ferns or lower plants as an offset to the woods and a vernal pond area on the left. Take one of the foot trails to find a path along a marsh and the pond. Return to the drive and find rolling lawns and gardens. Then pass between the house and a lily pond on the way to a rocky Maine coast. Walk along the rocks or stay on the lawn in front of the house to pass through a gate onto a grassy walkway bordered by a stone wall, flowers, and shrubs. Ahead and on your right, you will discover a rock-rimmed swimming pool nestled in a grotto below a rocky promontory. Walk around the pool to climb some stairs, or meander up a grassy promenade toward the house, to find the drive once again. Leave the property the way you entered. (NOTE: this property is only open Saturday, July 22)
For tickets ($5 Garden Conservancy members, $10 nonmembers) and more information, visit www.gardenconservancy.org. Prior registration is required – tickets will not be sold at the properties.
