The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program Invites the Public to Visit Litchfield, Columbia & Dutchess County Gardens on July 30^th

Litchfield County, CT/Columbia & Dutchess County, NY: On Sunday, July 30^th, the public is invited to tour five private gardens in Millerton, Millbrook, and Pawling, New York, and West Cornwall, Connecticut, participating in the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (unless otherwise noted). The Open Day is rain or shine, and no reservations are required. Admission to each garden is $7; children 12 & under are free. Call 1-888-842-2442, or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for more information. Additional area Open Days take place on August 19 in Bridgewater, CT, Copake Falls and Hillsdale, NY; September 23 in Clinton Corners and Stanfordville, NY; and October 15 in Pawling, NY.

Gardens included on the July 30^th Open Day include:

• Garden of Belinda & Stephen Kaye, 658 Deep Hollow Road, Millbrook, NY; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – the recent addition of a neighboring property and pond has greatly expanded the scope of a garden that was originally designed around a lily pool and Carpenter Gothic-style potting shed at the entryway to the house. Additional highlights include a very informal parterre planted with ornamental vegetables, and annuals and perennials in shades of peach and red, a mini-rock garden/trough collection, and a fountain by a local sculptor surrounded by plantings of ferns and golden-leaved hostas.
• Hyland/Wente Garden, 95 Taylor Road, Millerton, NY; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – emphasizing grasses, textures, colors, and plant combinations, the gardens blend with surrounding wildflower meadows and are designed for interest in all seasons. There is a rill with bamboo, a secret garden, a pool garden, a garden of solar panels, and a wooded walk down to Indian Lake.
• Garden of Helen Bodian, Millerton, NY; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (address will be provided at other locations open on this date) – a series of gardens linked together by paths that pass around a pond, through fields and across a dirt road, eventually connecting to various woodland trails. In addition to a rock garden, there are traditional square borders planted with crabapples, large perennials and shrubs and framed by hornbeam and mixed hedges, a hedge row underplanted with different shade plants, a modernist walled garden displaying potted plants around a small pool, a greenhouse and an ornamental vegetable garden.
• The Brine Garden – Duncan & Julia Brine, 21 Bluebird Inn Road, Pawling, NY; 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. – with an emphasis on native plants, this naturalistic, six-acre garden and arboretum connects ecologically and horticulturally diverse areas. The twenty-six-year-old garden has a maturing plant collection including an allée of Taxodium d., groups of Chionanthus v., and more than twenty viburnum, some with showy berries. Several imposing hedges of Miscanthus giganteusstructure the areas and relate to the phragmites of this formerly agrarian landscape. You will receive a property map and a plant list which indicates U.S. and Dutchess County natives.
• Treetop, 218 Town Street, West Cornwall, CT; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – on the grounds of a family Arts and Crafts house built in 1928, an idiosyncratic hillside garden, incorporating granite ledge, steep ravines, placid greensward, and a wooded hillside sloping down to a lake. The gardens themselves are separated into two areas – the well-mannered Sissinghurst, flat ground, blues, pinks, silvers and purples, stone paths and emerald lawn; and Margaritaville, a wild and rocky ravine, rioting with giant ferns, tithonia, reds and oranges and yellows, salvias and nasturtiums and brilliant hues. Around the gardens are deep woods, with ferns and a woodland walk.

All Open Days gardens are featured in the 2017 Open Days Directory; a soft-cover book that includes detailed driving directions and vivid garden descriptions written by their owners, plus a complementary ticket for admission to one private garden. The directory includes garden listings in seventeen states and costs $27.95 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 Garden Conservancy is a national nonprofit dedicated to saving and sharing outstanding American gardens. Since 1995, the Garden Conservancy’s award-winningOpen Days has welcomed more than one million visitors into thousands of inspired private landscapes – from urban rooftops to organic farms, historic estates to innovative suburban lots – in forty-one states. Site-specific Open Days Special Programs – Digging Deeper, Experts in the Garden, and Family Time – invite participants to take a closer look at the garden world. Hundreds of volunteers help this robust annual program showcase regional horticultural and stylistic expressions in a national context, celebrating the rich diversity of American gardens. Get out and get inspired with Open Days!