With the city of Bath’s growth and prosperity during the 19th century, grand Federal, Georgian, Greek Revival, Italianate and Victorian style homes became very popular.
Each year, Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc hosts the popular Historic House & Garden Tour to take you through some of these stately homes. Docents and often the home-owners will host you, offering insights about architectural details and period features. Plan to stroll through a variety of charming summer gardens as well, which range from formal to cottage, spectacular sun-loving rose gardens, and lush shade gardens.
Again this year, The Montsweagers, a small cadre of musicians from the Monstweag Road in Woolwich, will provide visitors with tunes and styles of music including Celtic tunes, old time Americana, and roots music.
The Tour will take place rain or shine Thursday, July 20, 2023 from 9:30-4 PM at various gardens throughout Camden and includes a retrospective gardening exhibit, special events, and new attractions for ticket holders.
From expansive seaside garden estates to small bungalow side yards, the Tour aims to spotlight the very best examples of individual gardens in Camden.
This year, five private gardens will be showcased featuring a variety of landscaping, planting styles, and architectural structures, with a modern emphasis on sustainable horticulture and native plantings.
Tickets will include immersive gardenside performances by local award-winning musicians, local confectionary treats, a flower arranging demonstration, the chance to win a painting done en plein air throughout the day by Maine artist Alexandra Perry-Weiss, and access to a free public month-long retrospective Garden Tour exhibit at the Camden Public Library.
Since its beginning in 1948, the Tour has been the highlight of the Camden summer season. The first Tour featured 10 private gardens throughout Camden and it has continued every year since then with the exception of 2020, which was suspended due to the COVID pandemic. Tickets purchased online will be picked up the day of the event at the Camden Public Landing. The Camden Public Landing is located in downtown Camden on the water in the parking lot in front of the Camden office for the Penobscot Bay Area Chamber of Commerce (2 Public Landing, Camden) where our ticket pickup table will be set up. More instructions will be provided in advance of the event. Purchase online at https://www.camdengardenclub.org/75th-annual-garden-tour
The Boothbay Region Garden Club’s 2023 Home & Garden Tour, The Sea Around Us, returns July 21 from 9:30 – 4:30.
Annually, in July, BRGC offers our community an enjoyable opportunity to tour Boothbay peninsula homes and gardens that showcase the creative ways that homeowners are meeting the unique gardening challenges of our rugged coastal environment. The Home and Garden tour is a highlight of the summer season in the Boothbay Harbor area and a great way to gain an insider’s view of the natural beauty that surrounds us.
Advance tickets are available for $35 at the Boothbay Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Call 207-633-2353. $40 on the day of the event.
This year’s tour features five spectacular and fascinating homes and their surrounding gardens; and one beautiful garden. On the tour are architecturally significant homes with incredible views on Linekin Bay, the Damariscotta River and Southport’s Pratt Island, a charming home in Sprucewold and an 1840 Greek Cape Revival in Boothbay Harbor. Transportation will be provided on air conditioned buses to each location on the tour. The committee works with homeowners to preview and select homes and gardens to be included in this tour. In addition, BRGC members serve as ‘hostesses’, parking monitors and bus organizers, and provide flower arrangements for each of the homes. For complete information visit https://www.boothbayregiongardenclub.org/home-and-garden-tour
The Camden Garden Club held its first House and Garden Tour in 1948 with ten sites visited by about 500 people. The funds raised by these tours ensures that the Camden Garden Club will be able to continue in the spirit of the original founders all those years ago. Preparations for this year’s Tour are well underway. This major fundraising event has been the highlight of the summer season since it began in 1948, and this year ticket holders will be able to visit many beautiful homes and gardens that have graciously agreed to open their doors in support of this event.
This year, tickets include access to the month-long retrospective Garden Tour exhibit at the Camden Public Library, immersive gardenside performances by local musicians, local confectionery treats, flower arranging demonstrations, and the chance to win a painting done en plein air throughout the day by Maine artist Alexandra Perry-Weiss.
Once again, the Camden office of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce will be Tour Headquarters. This is our central location to pick up online purchased tickets and buy tickets the day of the tour. Tickets purchased the day of the tour are $40. Tickets are non-refundable. No credit cards will be accepted the day of the tour day. The tour takes place rain or shine.
Please note last entry to all houses on the tour is at 3:30 p.m. This is not a walking tour. We encourage you to carpool. Visitors tour at their own risk. Properties on the tour are not handicapped accessible. Cameras, cell phones, pets, packages, strollers and umbrellas are prohibited in the homes. The tour is not appropriate for children. Infants may be carried on the tour. Any walking child must have a full-price ticket. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit https://www.camdengardenclub.org/events/2023-annual-garden-tour
The 11th Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour in Maine will take place July 15 in beautiful Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
The tour will feature beautiful gardens with ocean views, backyard wildlife habitat, native plants, woodlands, stonework, and more – this popular self-guided tour is not to be missed. Proceeds benefit the Friends of Fort Williams Park, a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose work preserves and enhances this amazing space through the Ecology Project. Our ongoing stewardship includes the revitalization of Children’s Garden amenities, tree and shrub plantings along the Cliff Walk, and increasing native plant diversity in Cliffside, and all our sites. To access a copy of our previous Garden Tour (2021) program, click here: 2021 Cape Elizabeth Garden Tour Program. Any questions, please contact Deb Riley at gardentour@fortwilliams.org.
Join herbalist and gardener Deb Soule in Rockport, Maine on July 13 at 3 pm in exploring the lush beauty of the medicinal herb gardens at in Rockport, Maine — just a ten minute drive from the beautiful ocean coast.
Deb is the author of the book The Woman’s Handbook of Healing Herbs, an inspiring guide to herb gardening and crafting herbal remedies. She is the founder of Avena Botanicals, an herbal apothecary that grows ingredients for its artisanal remedies in the gardens she began creating there decades ago.
In this delightful hour-long tour, Deb will invite you into the pollinator Sanctuary Garden, where you will learn about a variety of medicinal plants that you can add to your own garden for your own beneficial use. Many of these herbs are also of benefit to bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.
This is the only tour to be offered by Avena Botanicals in the summer of 2023.
Children ages four and under may attend the event free of charge. Adults and children ages 5 and older may buy a general admission ticket for $15. No tickets will be sold at the gate on the day of the event. Register HERE.
A benefit trip to Boothbay Harbor, Maine from Cape Cod will take place July 25 – 27, supporting Meetinghouse Farm’s Labyrinth and The Sampson Fund for Veterinarian Care. Susan’s Custom Tours & Travel provides transportation from the Cape, two nights at the Boothbay Harbor Inn including Continental Breakfast, tickets to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and Pineland Farms, all for $675 per person based on Double Occupancy. Call 774-238-2332 or email scttsmg@gmail.com for complete details.
You’re invited to visit six inspirational gardens in Bar Harbor and enjoy stunning borders of colorful perennials and annuals stretching to the water’s edge. View gardens that take advantage of shade with ferns, mosses, and groundcover, and others that creatively use paths, walls, and containers to shape outdoor space.
$40 tickets will be for sale on our website. Tickets sold on the day of the tour will cost $45. Free parking and shuttle service. The tour headquarters will be located at La Rochelle, 127 West Street, home of the Bar Harbor Historical Society.
Proceeds support non-profits on Mount Desert Island that protect natural resources, address food insecurity, and foster a dedication to horticulture among youth. For more information on the Bar Harbor Garden Club visit https://www.barharborgardenclub.org/
Homes on Tour 2023 features a collection of private homes in historic Wiscasset Village including some of the most significant and iconic buildings in the neighborhood. While these homes are currently treasured private residences, glimpses of the past remain. See how contemporary taste blends with, and enhances, these notable structures.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, picturesque Wiscasset had a prolific ship-building industry, now long gone, along the shores of the Sheepscot River. But those remaining emblems of wealth – the well-preserved, handsome Federal-style homes – are why Wiscasset is known as “the prettiest village in Maine.”
Wiscasset’s Homes on Tour features history, splendor, and inspiration! Read about the 2022 tour in Wiscasset Newspaper.
Tickets are priced at $30 each (plus processing fee) and may be purchased in advance – Eventbrite link HERE – or in person on the day of the tour, 10am to 3pm, at the parking lot at 36 Water St., Wiscasset, ME 04578. In 2023, several of the featured homes are located in walkable Wiscasset Village. Homemade sweets will be available at each home on the tour.
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.
