You reminded me that I was going to do that. Thanks. Are the open days always on the weekend?

For the most part, yes, the Open Days are on the weekend, pretty evenly divided between Saturday or Sunday - in some
lucky situations, a garden will be open BOTH days (giving
you more choices!) and a few are even open multiple days
during the season - but in those situations, it's usually
a garden you WANT to see both in late spring and fall. . .

Would you like me to send you last year's directory just
so you can see how it works, without committing to membership? Or: you and anyone else who's interested can
just let me know what weekend you're available and join
me on a tour or two - I'll even let you buy a couple of my
"member's only" $2.50 entry fee tickets!

Carl

This year you can view most of the open days online. Give it a whirl!

Miss Rumphius Rules again! Thank you for pointing that out - I get so excited getting my full-color directory
every Spring, that I never even thought to pull up the
schedule on their website. Using the link below, you can
look at individual states, ordered by date or location as
you choose. . .it's a handy quick reference and so my offer
still holds to anyone interested: pick a date!

Carl

Here is a link that might be useful: The Garden Conservancy Open Days / 2007 Schedule

I would strongly advise a visit to Frog Pond Farm in Hunterdon County on June 2 and 3. Ruby and Martin are neighbors of mine and have a simply lovely garden and are wonderful people.

Here's a funny OT story: When I first moved here, I had a dog who was depressed from being moved from a suburban to a rural setting, so I got him a friend. Well, the friend was just plain bad - she was a terrier mix who could worm her way through the smallest opening in the fence.

The first time she ran away, she was brought home by the local police department, sitting proudly in the backseat of the police car.

The second time she ran away, she ended up at the pound. I went down to pay her bail and was asked if I wanted to know where she was found. That didn't sound good, but I hesitantly said yes.

Well, she been found at a neighbor's house. She'd got through their fence and into their yard. Their house had a cat door which this dog used to gain entry to the house. From there, she found the owners asleep in their bedroom, got in bed with them and began licking the husband's face. He pushed her away once, thinking it was his cat. But she persisted and the second time he reached out to give her a good shove and realized that the hair he felt was not his cat's hair. I guess he turned on the light and saw this dog sitting on his bed with a big smile on her face.

They called the police who came and got her and took her to the pound.

It was Martin's and Ruby's house the dog had entered.

A few days after this episode, they were having an open garden so I stopped by to apologize for the dog's bad behavior. They were so kind and just laughed about it.

Since that time, Ruby has been gracious in sharing her knowledge and some of her plants with me.

What a great story. I've been to Frog Pond Farm. For anyone who has ever taken a class at Rutgers on design or garden structures with Bruce Crawford that's 'The Wall'...the gardens are amazing.

I would also run don't walk to Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills. I went several years ago when the restoration was just starting and it was beautiful--untamed and wild. I can't imagine what restoration will do, but there's one thing for sure, it will still be beautiful.

You are very generous Carl, but I think I will just go ahead and join.
I wonder if a lot of these are the same gardens open from year to year (which would be fine). I imagine they are.

"...same gardens open from year to year."

Yes, and no. . .while some do repeat annually, others you
kick yourself for missing and pray they'll turn up again some day! In the directory, after each indivual garden listing, there is a bold-face date indicating the last year
that garden was open, or it will say NEW. . .in this years
New York/New Jersey listings, a quick scan showed more than
25 new gardens - but I'll be first in line to see a couple
of the repeats from last year, they were that good!

Incidentally, I may not have mentioned that after each
state's listings, there are listings of Public Gardens in
that state - some real treasures have turned up this way,
The Leonard J. Buck Garden (for example) in Far Hills, or
The Presby Memorial Iris Garden, in Upper Montclair.

Thanks Carl. I did join but as I thought would happen, my weekends are getting full of obligations. Summer is such a false sense of freedom left over from school days. You think you are going to get to this and that but in truth, it is booked up before it starts.