A Day at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Yesterday was a beautiful, clear-blue-sky and warm, late summer day, so we took a drive up Maine's coast to Boothbay, met my sister, a niece, and her husband, and visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. This was our first visit there, and we weren't disappointed. The gardens are fairly new, but they have the appearance of having been lovingly cared for for many years. We were especially impressed with the meticulous landscaping which allows the natural habitat to be relatively undisturbed.

The Great Lawn and Ledge Garden, to the left here, is the first view visitors see after leaving the  Visitor Center to explore the 128-acre  area.

This is a typical bed of flowers, scaevola in this case, but we also saw sumptuous beds of Russian sage (one of my favorites),  coreopsis, rudbeckia, daylilies, spirea, roses, and lavender, to name only a few.

The Gardens also contains hundreds of intriguing trees, mosses, plus stone sculptures and stone benches.

We spent a lot of time in the Fairy Village, checking out the dozens and dozens of little fairy houses built by visiting children. Each house is unique and provides the woodland fairies with a comfortable home.

The Vayo Meditation Garden, on the banks of the river, contains an amazing huge stone basin, which you can perhaps see here in the center of the photo. The stone used to make it appears to be marble; the top edges have been ground and polished to a beautiful, smooth finish. 

We also enjoyed lunch at the Visitors' Center Kitchen Garden Café.

Martha Stewart herself recently visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and she gave the place an enthusiastic stamp of approval. I can see why. This is a place we'll want to return to often and see in all of its seasons.