Heirloom Gardener

What gardener doesn’t like to visit other gardeners’ homes? The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days for 2009 are beginning around the country this weekend. In their words:

“Here at the Garden Conservancy, we believe that the best way to learn about gardens and to appreciate them, is to simply spend more time in them. Through the more than 300 gardens that will be open in 2009, we invite you to explore first-hand examples of outstanding design and horticultural practice that are growing in America’s gardens.”

For the whole schedule, click here. Around my area of New Jersey, I am looking forward to seeing the following private gardens on May 16th:

The Hay Honey Farm
Far Hills, New Jersey

Nestled in a valley with long pasture views, the gardens reflect a diverse range of interests, and include an early spring patio garden, a summer-to-fall perennial border, and a wide variety of trees and shrubs. A walk along a stream leads past a wet meadow to a rhododendron glade with year-round interest. There is also a large vegetable and cutting garden.

Kennelston Cottage
48 Post Kennel Road
Far Hills, New Jersey

Several gardens surround the early 1900s main residence, reflecting the English Tudor architecture of the house and the European tradition of creating garden rooms. Organized along axial lines, the gardens form enclosures within walls, fences, or plant masses, each for a different function and each with its own ambiance, enhanced by a rich planting palette. There is a courtyard garden with a reflecting pool, a potager, a shrub garden with its millstone, a sunken garden set within an old stone foundation, a conservatory terrace garden, and a pool garden. Further away, there are less formal lines of a pool garden, bird garden, and a shade garden. The property also features an English greenhouse by Alitex and a small nursery and boxwood garden near the barn complex and, at the main entrance, an early colonial gatehouse surrounded by an old fashioned cottage garden. Evolving over the past twelve years, the gardens were designed by B. W. Bosenberg & Company of Far Hills and Ania Bass of Peapack.

Hedgerows
200 Old Chester Road
Chester, New Jersey

The landscape surrounding this nineteenth-century farmhouse unfolds to reveal several acres of gardens with different themes, set in meadows where a flock of sheep graze. There are perennial borders, a formal herb garden, and woodland gardens with a reflecting pool and stream. The owners are enthusiastic collectors, and many rare plant species are growing on their property. Island beds showcase unusual shrubs and trees, and a series of trough gardens contain rock and alpine plants. The gardens are planted to create interest throughout the year.