Five gardens will be featured in the The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program on Saturday, July 20, from 10 – 4.
Rock Bottom Garden, owned by Rosemary Monahan and Stefan Cover, is a one-acre garden shaped by two decades of collaboration between a woody plant zealot and a perennial gardener. From the 1840’s house situated on top of a dry knoll, one can enjoy sweeping vistas of the gardens below. These include mixed borders, a woodland garden, an herb garden, a bog garden, cactus garden, and rock garden. The gardens feature numerous unusual woody plants including many rare magnolias. Damage to the trees from the 2011 “Halloween storm” has allowed the perennials to flourish now that they have sunlight again, although this is a temporary situation since the woody plant zealot has been hard at work planting more trees.
Glenluce Garden, 18 Marlboro Road, Stow, (below) is a small, person, and romantic garden. Entering by the western gate, you will find yourself on a mound with green paths beckoning in seven directions. Explore these paths to discover a grove of paperbark maples, an island of tree peonies, or a border of fragrant native azaleas. A pergola covered by climbing roses leads to a frog pond shaded by heptacodium and a courtyard with raised vegetable beds. Glenluce Garden is the home of at least twenty-two magnolias, eighty-eight rhododendrons, 100 peonies, and more than 150 old-fashioned roses.
A Secret Garden is sheltered by tall maples that grew from old stone walls. This garden leads you from sun-washed beds through a picket fence into a quiet place apart. The surrounding trees and shrubs, both native and exotic, buffer against the outside world and provide year-round interest. Ferns, shade-loving wildflowers and herbaceous plants soften the understory. Stone stairs at the front of the mid-nineteenth century house lead to an intimate patio, screened by a variety of shrubs and trees.
Brigham Hill Farm is located at 128 Brigham Hill Road in North Grafton. This 225-year-old colonial house and barn were purchased in 1975 by the present owners. Mature sugar maple and tulip trees encircle the house. The first thirteen years were spent in dealing with the ailments of an old house and in the rebuilding of old stone walls on the property. After all this work was finished, the gardens were planned and planted one by one. The herb garden was planted in 1996 off the south side of the kitchen wing. In 1997 a woodland water garden was started on the hillside to the west of the barn…this has become an ongoing project! In the fall of 1998 the perennial bed by the swimming pool was redesigned using most of the original granite and perennials. In 2007 and 2008 off the north side of the house, a large bluestone terrace was installed for entertaining with many large container pots for plantings. Down the broad steps from this area is a high-walled vegetable garden with a rill and granite-raised beds. Warren Leach of Massachusetts designed and planted all the above gardens. There is another large vegetable bed to the north of the barn which holds raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, cutting gardens, and various slow growing annual vegetables. Eight chickens occupy a hen house there with a roof planted with “hens and chicksâ€. Allow forty-five minutes to one hour for your visit.
Maple Grove can be found at 16 School Street in Boylston. Designed around a late-eighteenth-century Cape Cod-style house, Maple Grove is framed by mature sugar maples. Located within the historic district of Boylston, the garden is adjacent to an eighteenth-century cemetery, giving it charming borrowed scenery. A true collector’s garden, Maple Grove has a wide assortment of choice woody and herbaceous plants in a connected series of borders, beds, and islands, with sculpture and water features.
For complete information, directions, and ticketing, visit www.gardenconservancy.org.
