Featuring 5 gardens, free to the public
This year’s Garden a Day event, celebrating National Gardening week, is June 8 to June 12, and features gardens in Beaufort and Port Royal. The Beaufort Garden Club invites the public to visit these gardens, free of charge, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, rain or shine.
The Garden a Day schedule can be found on beaufortgardenclub.com and is as follows:
Monday, June 8 – 501 Pinckney Street, Beaufort
Tuesday, June 9 – 908 Scott Street, Beaufort
Wednesday, June 10 – 901 London Street, Port Royal
Thursday, June 11 – 1315 Laudonniere, Beaufort (Pigeon Point)
Friday, June 12 – 126 Spanish Point Drive, Beaufort (Spanish Point)
“We are very grateful to our homeowners for welcoming us into their beautiful gardens,” said Sheila Drouin, President, The Beaufort Garden Club. “Every year this event draws large crowds from South Carolina and surrounding states.”
The Beaufort Garden Club, the second oldest garden club in South Carolina, has been holding its Garden a Day event nearly every year in June since 1994.
Garden visitors are asked to not bring pets.
THIS YEAR’S GARDENS
Christine and Tony Kameen, 501 Pinckney Street, Monday June 8th
The 1814 historic home Marshlands and portions of the gardens are listed as a National Historic Landmark. The Kameens have taken care to honor its history. Both gardeners, they have been diligently working to bring their garden back to life. Hurricane Helene destroyed many of their plants; however, the live oaks which surround the property survived.
Marshlands has been memorialized in the book A Sea Island Lady by Frances Griswold. This historical novel follows a New England woman, Emily Fenwick, who moved to South Carolina during the Civil War. “Some of the trees of Marshlands had been ruthlessly cut down for firewood since the Occupation, but many marvels remained. Particularly the old moss-draped live oaks with their wide spreading branches……” (page 59) One of the main trees in the front yard is a pre-civil war tree and is mentioned in the book as a wonderful perch where a broad fork in the heavy horizontal branches provided a generous lounging perch to quietly read, play with dolls, or keep track of the world below.
Christine is trying to recreate Emily’s Garden as described in the book. In so doing, she has discovered that some of the plants that once grew here do not do as well today. Christine tried to design a similar rose garden, which has been challenging. She has tried various types of roses but many have suffered from salt air and wind. Tony has raised vegetable beds in honor of Emily’s WWI war garden as discussed in the later pages of the novel.
While renovating the house, Christine had a ground penetrating radar performed on the property to locate historic outbuilding foundations and has found hundreds of buried artifacts. She has uncovered and dated coins, pottery shards, animal bones and teeth, and the face of a china doll.
Kim and Les Harbin, 908 Scott Street, Tuesday June 9th
This very large garden was started in May 2023, which our visitors will find hard to believe.
A young live oak is centrally located in the garden and Les said the tree has already grown over 10 feet in two years. As a horticulturist, he has been very conscience about what has been planted and where. He loves gardening and has been doing it since he was a child.
Their garden encompasses 2 lots and was a blank slate when they started in 2023. They were very concerned about getting the structure and design right. They planned the garden together, but she admits that Les is the primary gardener.
Kim said the ambiance of their layout reminds her of Sonoma, CA. The large yard has been broken into “rooms” with seating areas, a kitchen area, a raised bed section and a shady reading section under the canopy of a live oak. The plants range from citrus to vegetables to bamboo and ornamentals.
Kay and Ken Bodine, 901 London Street, Wednesday June 10th
Ken and Kay both have their hands in the design and gardening.” When they purchased the house their lot was considerably smaller. However, there was an adjacent unimproved lot. This lot contained a huge live oak which the owner wanted to cut down.
In 2008, neighbors and town officials did not want to let the tree be removed. As a result, this sparked Port Royal to develop stricter tree ordinances. The owner sold the lot to Kay and Ken. They consider themselves the “current” stewards of the tree. Bartlett Tree Experts perform annual maintenance for the tree which includes fertilization, lightning grounding, and removal of dead wood. The oak has been estimated to be between 250-300 years old.
As you ride by their house, you can’t help but notice the tree. Kay said that people will stop, roll down their window and take a picture. They added a screened-in side porch so they could be under the tree’s canopy. The garden is blessed with various shades of green and textures. Many of the plants are volunteers.
Teri Maude, 1315 Laudonniere, Thursday June 11th
Teri has lived in many places and was fascinated by the different plants that she encountered when moving to the Lowcountry. Her
garden is divided by sun and shade. The garden facing the street has multiple live and water oaks which provide lots of shade for her fatsias, ferns and azaleas.
The back side of the garden is a mix of sun and shade and faces the Beaufort River. There is a combination of gardenia, iris, daisies, lilies, and azaleas. Her most loved part of the garden is on the west side of her house where she grows roses. Primarily yellow, “Midas Touch” hybrid tea roses. Teri said that it’s a challenge. Two years ago, they were over-flowing with blooms and last year they struggled. She is looking forward to what this year will bring.
Michelle and Jeff Hiers, 126 Spanish Point Drive, Friday June 12th
The Hiers have been in their house three years. Originally from Estill, it took them a long time to find their dream property and they have. Oaks were a childhood love for Michelle and she wanted property with lots of them. After years of looking, they found it in Spanish Point. They designed their house on the property to maximize the number of oaks that could be saved.
Michelle said the garden is a blessing. She likes gardening and clipping flowers to bring inside. She especially likes camelias and has 22 in the garden. They also have azaleas and hydrangeas. She said that flowers are her “love language.” She always has some inside. One of her projects is to encourage a climbing rose to grow up into a live oak. It’s taken two years, but she thinks she will be successful.
Their view is vast, the garden beautiful and the splendor changes daily. Michelle is grateful for the opportunity to nurture and care for it.
