The Real Gardens of Amenia
Saturday, July 13, 2024 | 10 am - 2 pm

This year's tour is proudly sponsored by Paley's Market and Garden Center

ONLINE SALES FOR THE TOUR HAVE CLOSED.
TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED AT ANY OF THE GARDEN STOPS WITH CASH OR CHECK.
See You in the Garden!

Tour Map

TOUR INFORMATION
Explore the vibrant gardens included in this year's Real Gardens of Amenia annual tour. Our mission is to celebrate the diversity of gardens, showcasing the passion and creativity of the Garden Club of Amenia members who are genuine garden enthusiasts. Unlike perfectly manicured gardens tended by staff, our gardens are authentic reflections of personal love and dedication. While they may not be flawless, they are cherished, and we invite you to embrace their unique beauty and learn from the ingenuity of our five garden hosts.

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Tour Guidelines

• By purchasing a ticket you agree to assume all liability for yourself and any guests and release the Garden Club of Amenia and the garden hosts from any injury, loss or damage resulting from participation in the garden tours.
• The gardens are open rain or shine.
• If you are not feeling well, please be considerate to our garden hosts and visitors and stay home. 
• Please no pets are permitted at the gardens.
• All children must be under parental control at all times.
• There are no bathroom facilities available at the gardens.

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FEATURED GARDENS

Phantom's Rock, Garden of Wendy Goidell
This 30-acre parcel on the south side of Macedonia Mountain was purchased in 2004.  Since then, I have built an energy efficient home and art studio perched on a rock ledge that affords stunning views across Bog Hollow to the mountains beyond.  The original gardens were designed by Andy Durbridge.  The plentiful slabs of native gneiss rock provide structural elements to the gardens that surround the home.  The terraced vegetable gardens above the driveway features foxgloves, delphinium, sage and lavender.  Below is a meadow with a mix of wildflowers and native grasses such as switchgrass, Indian grass, and little bluestem designed to source the neighbor’s honeybees.  At the far side of the meadow is an array of solar panels.
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The Garden of Charlie Miller
My little garden started in 2016, a year after purchasing my house. The property is built on a former cornfield, and there was little landscaping aside from a massive lawn, a few mature pines, and a sugar maple. Most of my focus has been on foundational elements - evergreens, flowering trees, and shrubs. All winter, I look out and imagine what new beds I can make, and every spring, I get out the shovel and dig up more grass, fill my little truck with mulch, and dig hole after hole for more trees. I've made so many mistakes. After the first few years, I had to move about 50% of what I planted. My property is the product of one guy futzing around on weekends. I'm so grateful to Marsha Kaufman, who I call every spring to give me suggestions. Ken Monteiro and Leo Blackman, along with Gaye Parise, have been amazing resources. The wonderful thing about gardening is that everyone who's into it loves sharing their knowledge and resources.
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The Garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin
I have been an organic gardener since… forever. The seasonal game I play (and with the new crazy weather, you have to let it go. There is always next year) is eating as early in the season and relishing the last of the harvest in November. The backyard vegetable/flower garden is 40 by 100. My one-acre plot in Amenia has given me 35 years of abundance. A cup of coffee and clippers in hand is the beginning of most mornings. I’m off for a walk about and to pick flowers for a bouquet. So I need spring bulbs to meet me early and monkshood and fall aster to take me to frost. 
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Maitri Farm, Managed & Farmed by Jen and Alisa
The site of a former dairy farm and hay fields, Maitri Farm was purchased by the current owner in November 2011 and has gone through a few incarnations over the years. Pigs, sheep, goats and chickens have all come through, with varying degrees of success before its current life as a developing hub for crew, neighbors and visitors alike who come together to appreciate beautiful cut flowers and delicious organic produce and enjoy the many beautiful spaces the farm has to offer. The current co-farmers have focused on not only developing the almost ten acres of production fields in a regenerative fashion but have developed a conservation plan that focuses on clearing invasive species; native plant installations; habitat restoration and wetland preservation with a big focus on scheduling work around the numerous native bird populations that call the farm home. Recently, Maitri Farm began developing programs that provide opportunities for the farm to be open to the public to visit, including a seasonal farm stand, Open Farm Days and on-site events and classes, to broaden the connection between the public and where and how their agricultural products are grown. We are managed and run as a small-scale production farm, which tends to be labor-intensive, so our gardens' aesthetics are unique. Here you can enjoy a wide diversity of vegetables and flowers as they grow side by side in our fields as well as the neighboring creeks, wetlands, flood plain, and hay fields. We strive to balance beauty and functionality to create a productive and pleasurable space to work in and enjoy.


Chez Cheese, Garden of Joan Feeney & Bruce Phillips
Over the last thirty years we have worked with fifteen acres on the flank of Silver Mountain to create a variety of landscapes that are delightful to live in and that reward our random rambles. We started with a small square house that began life in the 1850’s as “Wilson Cheese Factory”, lived on as farmhand housing, and which we modestly expanded. Two streams emerge from a gully and a calcareous fen (aka swamp) and converge just below the house. They were essential for cheese making and have carved distinctive contours through fertile farmland and stone outcrops. Whether they are trickling or raging/destroying the sound of water is ever-present. While respectful of the land, we have made enthusiastic interventions including three new ponds, two docks, Joan’s Beach, a folly, a fenway, a dozen bridges, various weirs, 200 tons of laboriously-stacked bluestone, two courts, a hillside orchard plus a hundred other trees, a berry patch, and a mile of paths. We have modest formal garden beds and terraces near the house, but the rewards are best found in the surrounding landscape where strategically placed chairs, benches, hammocks, and swings beckon.