Explore seven private gardens on Nantucket, open to the public to benefit the Garden Conservancy and Sustainable Nantucket. No reservations required; rain or shine.  Special highlights include topiary lilac, a homemade greenhouse, a charming garden shed, and a copper-lined rill among the plants.  Begin at 11 Mill Street, where volunteers will be available to assist and answer questions, or see website, www.gardenconservancy.org,  for additional locations. Most gardens can be reached by walking or biking. $5 per garden. Please note that Moors End Farm, 40 Polpis Road, is also open on this date, offering plants and produce available for purchase (see proprietor Sam Slosek below – photo by Nicole Harnishfeger).

11 Mill Street is old fashioned and whimsical.  Heathland Gardens at 131 Polpis Road abuts the Middle Moors with a peek at the harbor, and includes many perennial beds connected by stone walks.  Kathryn Young’s Secret Garden at 77 Polpis Road is hidden in the scrub oak and wild shrubbery, and contains five areas of perennials and roses.  The Morash Victory Garden at 41 Shawkemo Road has expanded several times during the past thirty years.  Today, two deer fences protect twenty raised beds.  The MacKenzie Garden at 35 India Street was designed by Nantucket landscape designer Lucinda Young in 2008, with garden designer Kristina Wixted collaborating on the choice of herbaceous flowering plants.  The Tristram Bunker House is nearly 300 years old and was originally located in Nantucket’s early harbor town of Sherburne.  It was moved to its present location (address will be disclosed through the Open Days Directory or at any of the other gardens open the day of tour) in 1756. The Twin Street Gardens at 1 Twin Street is a charming downtown garden behind large hedges.