Imagine strolling through a magical garden where a delicate waterfall gracefully falls over a natural outcropping into a pond as mango colored koi meander amidst water lilies and papyrus. Continue down the road to another property where you wander along a woodland path framed exclusively by native trees, ferns and wildflowers. Welcome to a garden tour.

July is the high season for garden tours. Just as the stately royal blue delphiniums or the more casual wine colored hollyhocks and sunflowers are bursting upon the scene, we are invited to take a peek into a plethora of distinctive, private gardens. What a rare and wonderful opportunity to be privy—for a small fee—to such a visit, rain or shine. As Gay Tucker, a garden enthusiast and professional landscaper, puts it: “What I particularly love is the serendipity of discovering new ways to use familiar plant material. Never would I have thought of placing tall grasses near outdoor shower walls or adding red dahlias to my rose beds.”

Inevitably, upon returning to our own gardens with a fresh eye and a head brimming with ideas, backed up with scribbled notes and photographs, we can’t help but pause as we evaluate our own backyards. Hopefully, the price tag won’t be too steep later on....

Not so long ago, here in the Berkshires, opportunities for visiting private gardens were less common than if one lived in Charleston, South Carolina or in Vancouver, British Columbia. More significantly, in the United Kingdom, hosts have been opening their gates to the public for decades.

Today in America, garden tours are growing in popularity. Here, in the Berkshire-Taconic region, opportunities to visit gardens from spring to autumn are ever expanding. Similar to the jump in sales of garden books since the 1980s to the more recent explosion of rooftop and backyard vegetable gardens, marveling at private outdoor rooms is a phenomenon that is here to stay.

On the national level, The Garden Conservancy, founded in 1989 and based in Cold Spring, New York, was a pioneer. With its mission to “increase public appreciation and enjoyment of America’s gardens in all their regional diversity, and to build an audience to support garden preservation,” it established its Open Days Program in 1995. Modeled after the British National Gardens Scheme, this program was the first of its kind in the United States. Dedicated to preserving and restoring outstanding gardens for the public, the Conservancy relies, in part, on revenues generated by its Open Days Program. With over 75,000 garden visits annually, the Conservancy's work continues to move forward and provide assistance to a number of public gardens. These range from the restoration of the Alcatraz vegetable gardens to public gardens decimated by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

In 2005, the Open Days program began to include the Berkshires. Over a dozen gardens have been opened on a specific day each year from Williamstown to Sheffield. For a second year, the Berkshire representatives are reaching into northwest Connecticut as well as Columbia County, New York. Although both states have offered tours since the program began, the Berkshire contingent has located new gardens to marvel at!

The Conservancy’s local restoration efforts include a partnership with the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society to restore Steepletop in Austerlitz, New York as well as a project to preserve the renowned George Schoellkopf garden in Washington, Connecticut. In addition, a generous percentage of tour revenue is donated to the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Poised to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2011, The Lenox Garden Club, a local icon, was at the forefront of garden tours. Its annual “Hidden Treasures of the Berkshires” is held every second Saturday of July when an average of 600 people participate in visiting not only local gardens but certain homes as well. It goes without saying that such an effort requires skilled organization and a team of volunteers!

Revenues from the Lenox Garden Club’s ticket sales help fund local projects, particularly relating to the environment, town beautification projects, education and public gardens. “Over the years we have given back over $250,000 to a number of community organizations, such as the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Naumkeag, Riverwalk, Habitat for Humanity, Lilac Park and the Flying Cloud Institute,” explains Mary Harrison, a long-standing member.

Today, a host of garden clubs, including the Pittsfield Garden Club, and non-profits, such as the Spencertown Academy Arts Center, have jumped on the bandwagon, offering tours in their own
specific area. Like the many cultural events, that can make for some tough choices—ah...what a dilemma we face! Choices abound, but fortunately, dates and locations cooperate. (See page 47 for a list of area garden tours.)

For garden aficionados, it’s not hard to understand why visiting a private garden can become a passion, if not an obsession. (I met one gentleman at my own Open Days tour in Great Barrington who mentioned he planned to visit as many gardens as possible across the country.) After all, one is given the opportunity to get a glimpse into another’s “turf”. Gardens reflect the personal tastes and whims of the owner—and/or designer/landscape architect. No two gardens are alike. Finally, visiting gardens often turns into a social event as well. Unlike attending an exhibition at a museum where one may seek solitude, touring gardens often resembles attending an outdoor party—more than one party in fact...

As Laura Palmer, director of the Open Days Program states:
"People love to visit gardens for many reasons, to be inspired, as a restful retreat from their busy lives, or simply to peek at what other gardeners are doing in their gardens. Whatever the reason, many Open Days garden visitors return each year, sometimes to the same garden."Honey Sharp has a landscape design business in the Berkshires and can be reached at hs@honeysharp.com or found at www.honeysharp.com.

How Do Their Gardens Grow?
Scheduled Garden Tours
“Hidden Treasures of the Berkshires”
Saturday, July 12, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.. Tour of gardens and houses presented by The Lenox Garden Club. Saturday, July 12, six distinctive properties in Great Barrington and Alford MA, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. rain or shine. Tickets available by mail to: PO Box 552, Lenox, MA 01240 or in specific locations. For more information, call (413) 528-3089 or visit www.lenoxgardenclub.net.

“Hidden Gardens Tour”
of the Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Saturday, July 12, 10:00 a.m. - 4 p.m. At 9:00 a.m., kick-off lecture by Mick Hales, renown garden photographer. Fundraiser for community programs at the Academy, including the arts & education program for the Chatham Public Schools. Call 518-392-3693 or visit www.spencertownacademy.org for more information.

Pittsfield Garden Tour:
Saturday, July 19, 10:00 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Sunday, July 20, Noon - 4:00 p.m. For more information call 413-445-5583 or awpasko@verizon.net

Garden Conservancy Open Days Program:
- Sunday, July 20, 10:00 a.m. - 4 p.m., three distinctive gardens in Columbia County, NY and Richmond, MA.
- Sunday, July 27, three gardens in Sheffield, MA and Taconic, CT.
- Sunday, August 3, 10:00 a.m. - 4 p.m. three
distinctive gardens in Stockbridge, MA including the renowned 1826 Pease-Lincoln House’ whose garden was designed originally by Daniel Chester French.
Call 1-888-842-2442 for more information or visit the
www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays.html. Directories sold at the Berkshire Botanical Garden and other locations.