For one Saturday every other summer, gardens that might otherwise spend the rest of the year screened by hedges and stone walls throw open their gate to welcome curious visitors. On July 11, the Garden Club of Manchester runs its biennial Garden Tour: eight private gardens across Manchester, Dorset, and East Dorset, self-guided, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Tickets are $35 per person, and every dollar goes to the club's scholarship fund.
What holds the tour together is the depth and range. "Every garden has something special," says Pattie Haubner of the Garden Club of Manchester - "a spectacular vista, rare plants, sculpture, or a water feature." Rather than walking eight versions of a similar perennial border, you are walking eight ideas about what a Vermont garden can be.
The one people will talk about is in Dorset. This year's route includes a house set in and around an abandoned marble quarry, and the scale of it is hard to prepare for. "The sheer size of the tumble of cut marble, and the deep rock walls with brilliant colored aqua water below, is jaw-dropping," Haubner says. The same property holds a lily garden, a cactus garden, and a moss garden - three distinct worlds on one piece of land.
Getting on the tour is its own process. Club members and friends will see a garden, or hear about one, and recommend a visit; the co-chairs go and check it out, says Becky Burke. "In addition to identifying memorable features, unusual plants, outbuildings, views, etc., we also take into consideration access, parking, and location." Owners, she says, genuinely like opening up: "Gardeners are a passionate bunch who are proud of their properties. There is nothing more rewarding than sharing them with others and having those people appreciate what has been done." Two gardens asked to return this year because they had added new areas since their last turn.
The tour is the visible day, but the club behind it works year-round, and has since 1920, when it was founded as the first garden club in Vermont. It marked its centennial in 2020. Ask why a volunteer group lasts that long when so many others fade, and the answer is not really about plants. "Our real staying power has to do with our collective focus on supporting our community and the diverse skills our members possess," Haubner says. Many recent members are new to the area, and the club is how they meet people and get to know the Northshire.
The community work is everywhere once you know to look for it. Members maintain the plantings on the Town Greens of Manchester and Dorset, hang the holiday wreaths on public buildings and on the bridge in Manchester, and bring fresh flower arrangements to the Manchester Community Library every week - in summer, cut from their own gardens. And each year the club awards a $4,000 scholarship to a graduating local senior headed into botany, environmental science, sustainability, or a related field. This year's recipient is Christopher Madsen of Rupert, a recent Burr and Burton Academy graduate now studying wildlife biology at UVM. The $35 you spend on Saturday is what pays for it.
The tour rewards a plan. Download the map from the club's website, then either start in Manchester with lunch and spend the afternoon in Dorset, or start in Dorset in the morning and work your way back toward Manchester. This year the Marsh Tavern at The Equinox is offering a tour-day lunch menu and donating a share of the proceeds to the club's area beautification programs, which makes it an easy midpoint (lunch is paid separately and isn't included in the tour ticket price). Two house rules are worth remembering: the gardens are private homes, so pets and picnicking are not allowed, and you should ask permission before taking photos.
The Garden Club of Manchester Garden Tour runs Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Tickets are $35 per person, with proceeds going to the scholarship fund. Online ticket sales are now closed, but you can still buy tickets in person through Friday at Northshire Bookstore and H.N. Williams, where credit cards are accepted. On the day of the tour, tickets can be purchased at any of the gardens. The Barnstead Inn is the only one that accepts credit cards - the rest take cash or check only. The full tour map is at gardenclubofmanchester.com.
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