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Bus Trip: Connecticut Summer Soiree
by DIG-IT
Relax. Sit back. Leave the driving to us on the Rollin’ Garden Party Bus Summer Soiree for guided tours of two exemplary private gardens in Connecticut, where we’ll savor a catered lunch and wine in a garden. Then we’ll dive into passion-quenching shopping at White Flower Farm and enjoy a 10% discount on all plants plus a $25 raffle.
Stop 1: Private Garden:, an eight-acre utopia, Redding, CT
It has been described as an eight-acre utopia and “a study in restoration, both of the site and the mind” (World Landscape Architecture Magazine).
Designed as a garden for entertaining, it exhibits outdoor sculpture, cascading water, pools and fountains, outdoor entertainment areas, meadows, woodland walks and garden rooms.
Heritage, both human and landscape, is big here. The garden employs a comprehensive, sustainable landscape restoration program. Old barns have found new life as arbors and pergolas. Native trees replace invasive species in the surrounding woodland and native annuals and perennials comprise three acres of meadows.
Gardens, designed by noted landscape architect Richard Hartledge, include multiple terraces, trails, meadows, lawns, expanses of arching grasses and a sunken garden, all melding seamlessly. More formal gardens encircle the house.
This garden was featured on HGTV’s Top Ten and published in Architectural Digest and Metropolitan Home, It is an exciting landscape of restored grandeur through the use of mostly native plants.
Stop 2: Private Garden a 40+-acre hilltop estate
This country estate garden overlooking the southernmost Berkshires includes cutting gardens, orchid house, wetland garden, a woodland garden where spirea blooms as delicately as any woodland plant, a wisteria-covered bridge, a small orchard, herb garden, rose garden, blueberry patch and a conservatory with gardens where we will enjoy a wine-tasting from two acres of home-grown grapes and a delicious, home-made, gourmet, catered lunch from The Bridgewater Store.
The garden is home to environmentally sound management practices. Integrated Pest Management is used in every garden and field plot where produce, flowers and crops are grown to supply the local village store. Bee-keeping and berry plots encourage wildlife.
This garden is a member of Audubon International, the Rainforest Alliance's Smart Wood Program for forestry management, and uses Northeast Organic Farmers Association’s guidelines.
Each year over 40,000 units of different annuals and perennials are grown to provide a unique display. Each area has its own designer who will guide us through the gardens and, if we’re lucky, through the gardens surrounding the house, pool and loggia.
Well sated, we’ll drive off to our last stop: White Flower Farm, one of the country’s most noted mail-order plant growers and sellers, for more display gardens and lots of discounted shopping and $25 coupon raffle.
Prepare to do lots of walking on uneven terrain: grass, mulch paths, stone, etc. Nothing is handi-capped accessible. No sandals or heels, please.
DATE: Wednesday, July 15, 2015
PLACE: Lakeland Bus Lines, 425 E. Blackwell St., Dover, NJ. Possible second stop: Nanuet, NY
TIME: Bus leaves 8:00am SHARP and returns approximately 8:30-9pm
COST: $85/person. Cost includes bus transportation, tip, all garden admissions and guided tours, luncheon in the garden (food, tax, tip, delivery). And Mary’s home-made Rollin’ Garden Party cookies!
Register: Click here.
More Info:
In Situ
Maywood Gardens
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published May 27, 2015
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