Boston Flora

Tag: Marblehead Garden Tour

  • Sunday, July 24, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Essex County Open Day

    Sunday, July 24, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Essex County Open Day

    The Garden Conservancy will hold its Essex County Open Day on July 24 from 10 – 4.

    The Glass House in Swampscott is a modernist home designed in 1957 by Martin Bloom, a Harvard graduate and student of Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus School. Carefully sited on an acre of wooded grounds, the house interacts with the landscape through walls of glass, framing views and blurring the boundary between indoors and outdoors. There are five distinct outdoor gardens/spaces wrapping around the house. The unassuming front yard garden gives way to a planting of bamboo anchoring the elevated deck. The back of the house has a rocky outcrop garden framed by mature trees. A bend in a stone path surprises a visitor with a moon gate that leads to two distinct courtyard gardens where conifers have the presence of living sculptures throughout the changing seasons.

    The close interaction of the house and the gardens was recently captured in a piece by Tovah Martin, featured in the March/April 2021 issue of New England Home Magazine.  Register HERE.

    Seaside Farm in Marblehead (below) is on a two-acre site on Peach’s Point overlooking Doliber Cove has a rich garden history. During the early 1900s, it was an Italianate formal garden with pools, formal rose garden, and statuary, part of an enormous estate owned by yachtsman Francis Crowninshield and his heiress, historical preservationist wife, Louise du Pont Crowninshield.

    The current owners bought the property with its overgrown and neglected gardens in 1996. Three years later, after discovering the property’s rich landscape history, they hired Doug Jones from Boston’s Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture firm to restore the gardens. Based on period black-and-white photographs from 1937, new replicated iron railings were installed, caved-in concrete pools were rebuilt, and old roses were planted to recreate the garden. The original house no longer exists, thus certain landscape transitions presented challenges that have been handled delicately. The new house sits on the water and the gardens surrounding it have been done in a more contemporary style. The property has some enormous beeches that date to the original period. Register HERE.

    • Pre-registration is REQUIRED for each garden. Pre-register for each on this website, except where specifically indicated otherwise. Children under 12 are free and do not need to be pre-registered if accompanied by pre-registered adult.
    • Capacity is limited. Sorry, no walk-ins allowed; no paper tickets or cash payments will be accepted on-site.
    • Masks are required, at the discretion of the garden owners, and social distancing is encouraged at all in-person events.

  • Saturday, August 8, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Marblehead Open Day

    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.

  • Saturday, August 13, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Marblehead Open Day Garden Tour

    Join the Garden Conservancy on Saturday, August 13, from 10 – 4 in lovely Marblehead on the North Shore.  The first garden (although you may visit the gardens in any order) is Grey Gulls, at 429 Ocean Avenue. This stretch of craggy coastline presents a challenging environment to the garden owner, not least because of winter winds so harsh that wattle fences are required to protect the plantings. Nonetheless, hundreds of unusual annuals, perennials, and bulbs now thrive here. A whimsical vegetable garden was installed recently featuring heirloom varieties, vines climbing fancifully over wooden obelisks, and delectable berries. The surplus of this latter crop finds its way into homemade liquors gifted to friends during the cold winter months. Even the design of the garden reflects a consciousness of its unique location, with sinuous beds mirroring the surrounding curves of shore and sea. By collaborating with the environment, one is provided with a rich horticultural experience as well as the excitement of experiencing the beauty of raw nature.

    A very different environment will be found at the Fettyplace-Bowden House on 15 Waldron Court. This exemplary early eighteenth-century house has been little changed through time, but its land has become much smaller. For the best multiple use of the outdoor spaces, to accommodate a lot of plants, and to be a good gathering place for groups of people, the heart of the property was made more level. Local stone, ancient cut granite, and bluestone were used to create raised and sunken planting beds, a patio, and paths.Hand-cut granite inserts and stone framed existing tree grades and ledge outcrops make the areas around them plantable. Stone walls became seating and setting-down places by design. A lavishly planted roof sits on top of a wood storage alcove, sending flowering cascades down to decorate this stacked splitwood “wall,” making double use of that place. The garden is populated by a great diversity of favorite plants. Colonies of many prized and unusual perennials, edibles, overwintered annuals, shrubs and trees cover every available piece of ground. Narrow vines enhance the walls and fences in all possible locations. Dwarf conifers, late flowering shrubs, vines and perennials will be among your greeters. Two planted granite troughs and a rain chain to stone interface enliven the entryway.

    At 19 Circle Street, visit The Parable (Ellen Cool’s garden.) In the oldest part of Marblehead alongside a 1720 house is a garden gate leading into gardens of diverse stone and plant materials. It has been designed to be naturalistic and compositionally satisfying in all seasons. This landscape represents a gathering of the longest blooming and otherwise particularly pleasing hardy perennials and rock garden plants. Long established dwarf and unusual trees, shrubs and vines are also featured and a large collection of planted stone and hypertufa troughs may spark some ideas you can readily use in your own place. This is the working space as well as the display garden of a landscape designer, so the garden buildings, stone features, tools, books and working systems may provide inspiration for your garden work. The summer of 2011 will be the thirtieth anniversary of Stone Garden Designs, Ellen’s landscape design company.

    Tickets may be ordered online at www.gardenconservancy.org, or may be purchased on site the day of the tour.

    The Parable -Ellen Cool's Garden, Marblehead, MA.

  • Sunday, June 27, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program in Marblehead

    On Sunday, June 27th, explore three private gardens in Marblehead, open to the public through The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Admission to each private garden is $5. Open Days are rain or shine, and no reservations are required. Call 1-888-842-2442, or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for more information.

    At The Fettyplace-Bowden House (15 Waldron Court, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) local stone, ancient cut granite, and bluestone were used to create raised and sunken planting beds, a patio, and paths. Colonies of many prized and unusual perennials, edibles, over-wintered annuals, shrubs, and trees cover every available piece of ground as well as the roof of a wood storage alcove. The gardens at Grey Gulls (429 Ocean Avenue, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) feature sinuous beds mirroring the surrounding curves of shore and sea, hundreds of unusual annuals, perennials, and bulbs thrive, and a whimsical vegetable garden includes heirloom varieties, climbing vines, and delectable berries. At The Parable – Ellen Cool’s Garden (19 Circle Street, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.), the landscape represents a gathering of the longest blooming and otherwise most pleasing hardy perennials, dwarf and unusual trees, shrubs, and vines, chosen for foliage and/or other reliable attributes to keep the garden freshly lovely from May through October. This is the working space as well as the display garden of a landscape designer, so there are stone features, garden buildings, tools, books, and working systems that may provide some added ideas for your own garden work.

    These Open Days gardens are featured in the 2010 Open Days Directory; a soft-cover book that includes detailed driving directions and vivid descriptions written by their owners.  The directory includes garden listings in 21 states and costs $21.95 including shipping. Visit www.opendaysprogram.org or call the Garden Conservancy toll-free at 1-888-842-2442 to order with a Visa, MasterCard or American Express, or send a check or money order to: the Garden Conservancy, P.O. Box 219, Cold Spring, NY 10516.  Discount admission tickets are available as well through advanced mail order.

    The 2010 Open Days Program is generously sponsored by Garden Design Magazine as its National Media Sponsor.  The Garden Conservancy introduced the Open Days Program in 1995 as a means of introducing the public to gardening, providing easy access to outstanding examples of design and horticultural practice, and proving that exceptional American gardens are still being created. The Open Days Program is America’s only national private garden-visiting program, and is made possible by the work of hundreds of volunteers nationwide.

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