Herons in the Forest Pond
Although it was beastly hot (89°F in the shade) yesterday, we enjoyed our visit to the Coastal Maine Bontanical Gardens. The Garden is located on a mid-coast peninsula along the tidal Sheepscot River in Boothbay, with nearly a mile of river frontage. It is a truly spectacular site, with huge craggy ledge rising from the ground, steep gullys, and native woodland. There are currently six distinct areas: the Visitor Center with Great Lawn, Rose and Kitchen Gardens, the Forest Pond, and the Woodland, Hillside, Meditation and Rhododendron Gardens. It was relentlessly sunny, so I took few photos, but will post some.
Each area featured a mix of native and non-native plants and pleasant gravel walking paths. Currently on exhibit are kinetic sculptures by artist George Sherwood, amazing work of primarily stainless steel, most of which moved even in the slight air currents yesterday. If I had any disposable income to speak of I’d buy a piece immediately, but alas, OPEC ate my disposable income.
A good deal of construction was ongoing, to the garden of the five senses due to open next year and a children’s garden in 2010. The noise of the construction was unfortunately omnipresent, which really in my opinion detracted from our visit enough to make me wish we planned to come on a weekend. As gorgeous as these herons were, the incessant beeping of the backhoe was enough to make me move on pretty quickly
The Garden is still young, and I’m sure most of the efforts (and rightly so) are going toward the structural details –landscaping, stonework, establishing trees and woody shrubs, and construction of buildings and new gardens, but I was surprisingly underwhelmed by the flower gardens. Most of the perennial flower beds were in the sunny areas near the great lawn. They featured roses, of course in the Rose Garden, but also hosta (lots in full, relentless sun), zillions of astilbe, Russian sage, lamb’s ear, salvia, coneflower, yarrow, campanula, lavender, geranium, Japanese Iris, turtlehead, gaura, cimicifuga, a few daylilys, clematis, a few delphinium.
Nice plants all, but fairly common, and I must say, I did not feel these were planted in very interesting ways. I hate seeing hosta in full sun anyway, but the all plantings were strangely lifeless. Again, maybe it is because the garden is still young, but everything appeared to be marching neatly in order, plants lined up by height like a grade school photo. It was very flat, and posed looking, with no enthusiastic over-achievers
The terrace near the Carved Orb on the Hillside Garden path
shooting over their neighbors, or spilling out of their assigned places. Even though I need to move a lot of plants around in my garden, it made me appreciate it even more when I got home to see it.
The stonework, however, was fantastic. I didn’t get a photo, but by the great lawn was a stone terrace made with huge pieces of cut stone, with various forms of thyme growing between the stones –gorgeous. Along the hillside garden path was a stunning glass globe titled “Carved Orb,” set beside a stone terrace with huge stone benches for those wanting a rest or time to reflect.
- Hillside Garden art view
Past the Hillside Garden lies the Meditation Garden, overlooking the tidal Sheepscot River. The garden
Meditation Garden with stone basin
features a stone terrace with an enormous carved basin begging to be touched. Stone seats surround the garden which lied in dappled sunlight in the late morning. Above the terrace, a braided stone path led to more stone seating and an overlook of the Garden and Sheepscot River.
A new feature in the garden is the large waterfall and
pond in the Rhododendron Garden. It was stunning. The pond lies at the bottom of the hilly rhodie garden, and the waterfall drains into the pond across the pond from the rhodies. It was new enough that the paths were still being finished and some nearby plantings added as we walked around the waterfall. Most of the rhodies had gone by, but it was an extensive collection, set in a naturalistic, shaded setting. We had to dodge a sprinkler to get down to the pond, but the mist felt pretty good by that time, as we’d been through 2/3 of the garden by then and it was approaching noon and hot.
The walk back to the visitor’s center took us past a gorgeous exposed ledge which looked amazingly like a slightly bemused whale. We followed the Birch Allée back; alas, the birches are still too young to give any shade and the walk along the allée was hot
and dusty. Approaching the Center we passed what will be the Children’s Garden, at the moment teeming with children due to an educational program. There seems to be a good deal of programming designed for children; all well and good if you are a child, but one of my greatest disappointments, and the reason we have not become members, is the lack of interesting adult programming. The only two events listed for adults at the Center and on the website are a talk on Persian gardens later this month, and the Antiques in the Garden fundraiser featuring Martha Stewart. Maybe (most likely) I’m a freak but 
I would love some good programming on garden design, propagation, planting with natives, a review of invasives to avoid and strategies to be rid of the ones you have, etc. Surely I’m not the only potential member out there seeking programming other than children’s programming?
All that aside, the place was gorgeous and I urge all Mainer’s to visit. Dan and I will surely visit at least every year to see how the garden matures, and if they begin to offer something for me, I’ll become a member.
Today I planted broccoli (Waltham and Premium Crop), cauliflower (Graffiti), Brussells sprouts (Oliver and Falstaff), and lettuce (Batavian cv Magenta) for the hoophouse, and Dan transplanted some lettuce he started 2 weeks ago. It was a good day to plant as we’ve had rain showers all day, and it has been very humid, ugh.
moderate and we’ve had no strong winds, let alone a tornado. Several communities in New Hampshire were hit by severe winds/tornados; we are lucky.
