Painter, gardener, and floral designer Margo Pullman calls her West Newbury garden an “artist’s garden.” Wandering through it will show you why in the lushest way possible.
“The thing I’m attracted to most, in painting, gardening, and flower arranging, is color first,” she explains.
There are warm and cool greens; whites that seem to glow at dusk; 80 varieties of showy dahlias; a trellis dripping with climbing roses; flowers that attract brightly colored birds, bees, and butterflies; and hemlock and Japanese maples. There are layers of texture, too, thanks to stone walls, brick paths, a standing fountain, and sculptural elements.
There’s also her artist studio, where she paints using pastels, oils, and watercolors. But whether Pullman has her hands in paint or dirt, the creative process is the same. “Gardening and flower arranging, for me, is just art with a different medium,” she relays.
That idea of “Garden as Art” is the theme of this year’s Art in the Garden Tour, hosted by the West Newbury Garden Club. The daylong event, which takes place rain or shine on Saturday, June 14, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., invites the public to tour seven spectacular gardens in West Newbury and Merrimac.
In addition, the gardens will host plein air artists painting garden scenes and musicians (guitarists, violinists, singers), layering more beauty onto the experience.
“The painters are working right there as you walk through the garden,” says Claudia Woods-Estin, co-chair of the Art in the Garden Tour and treasurer of the West Newbury Garden Club. “And music complements the setting.”
Each of the seven gardens was chosen based on beauty, creativity, and distinctive artistic vision. They’re all spectacular, and none are professionally landscaped.
“They’re homeowner gardens that we think are pretty exceptional,” says Jane Jeffers, the event’s other co-chair. “They’re work-in-progress gardens that the owners have been shaping for years and years.”
Some are formal; others are more free form. “People can expect a variety of styles that reflects the artistry of the homeowners,” adds Jeffers.
For example, one garden in West Newbury leans into the home’s geometry and hardscapes. Its more formal design includes flowering shrubs, roses, and perennials surrounding a courtyard; vegetables and crab apples; and a small perennial shade garden.
Across the river in Merrimac, a garden designed to attract pollinators is filled with Joe-Pye weed, daylilies, ginger, helianthus, phlox, butterfly bushes, anise hyssop, milkweed, and asters.
Yet another garden in West Newbury uses the property’s rolling hills to its creative advantage. Here, the scenery includes a hillside succulent garden; shade garden with bleeding heart and corydalis; and borders of phlox, coneflowers, daisies, lady’s mantle, and daylilies. A barn, bee hives, horse, and donkeys lend extra charm.
Another exciting element of the tour is an antique home built in 1710. The Perigrine White Jr. House was originally built in Concord before being saved from demolition and rebuilt on its current location. Visitors can see its period landscaping and beautiful formal rose garden but also explore the home itself.
“The current owners have restored it impeccably,” notes Jeffers, adding that it’s the only house opening its doors—an unusual but delightful tour perk.
The West Newbury Garden Club hosts its Art in the Garden Tour every three years but is active year-round with field trips, meetings, education, workshops, and an annual plant sale. The club is dedicated to sustainability, the environment, and native plants. Above all, this special tour celebrates the beauty, diversity, and artistic value of horticulture as well as the dedicated gardeners bringing their visions to vibrant, blooming life.