The annual event, sponsored by the Beaufort Garden Club, features seven gardens.

This year’s Garden a Day event, celebrating National Gardening week, is June 5 to June 9, and features gardens on The Point, Bay Street, Broad River Rd, Beaufort downtown and Lady’s Island. The Beaufort Garden Club invites the public to visit these gardens, free of charge, from 9 AM to Noon, rain or shine.

Garden a Day Schedule:

Monday, June 5 – 2203 and 2009 Bay Street

Tuesday, June 6 –  1 Laurens Street, The Point

Wednesday, June 7 – 2215 Wilson Street and 610 Bladen Street

Thursday, June 8 – 882 Broad River Drive

Friday, June 9 – 41 Sunset Bluff

“We are thrilled to offer seven beautiful and very distinctive gardens for this event – in spite of the challenging conditions created by our December freeze. These will please and inform all types of gardeners,” said Deena Culp, 2023 Garden-A-Day Chair.

“We continue our long history of demonstrating the many benefits of gardening in the Low Country and we are very appreciative of the dedicated gardeners who are making this possible,” said Lora Quincy, President, The Beaufort Garden Club.

The Beaufort Garden Club, the second oldest garden club in South Carolina, has been holding its Garden A Day event every year since 1994.The event draws large crowds from South Carolina, surrounding states and even as far as Canada.

Garden visitors are asked to not bring pets.

THE GARDENS

Donna and Don Altman (Monday)

2203 Bay Street

Landscape architect Brad Hill designed this garden in 2019 to take advantage of the beautiful live Oak, Dogwood and Tulip trees as well as to attract pollinators and to provide privacy for outdoor living on a busy corner lot.

Many of the plants selected had a purpose – Podocarpus contribute a privacy hedge, oak leaf red holly trees buffer the property line, and juniper trees serve as screening. A variety of low maintenance native plants adorn the shade areas – autumn ferns, Farfugiums, hydrangeas and azaleas.

Through a careful selection of perennials and annuals, the garden provides a wonderful habitat for birds, bees and butterflies. The sun garden lends a unique calming touch with a water feature and a reproduction of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Garden Sprite. A raised garden bed for herbs and vegetables completes the garden.

 

Alexis Bomar (Monday)

2009 Bay Street

The Schein family built this house in 1939 when this end of Bay Street was considered the country. It then sat on three lots and has been through several changes. The current owner fell in love with the mature Camellias, the house and the view and loves to experiment with plants.

The garden, like the house, has many influences: Edward Marchetti with Buds and Blooms, designed the parterre to the right of the house. The late Frances Parker helped with the plantings around the brick patio added four years ago. The tall ginkgo tree in the back left yard was brought from China by a sea captain in the mid 1940’s. The odd-looking plant in the blue pot on the patio is a Plumeria, or Frangipany, and is kept in the garage in the winter. The raised beds on the right side have been reserved for strawberries and whatever volunteers to grow there.

 

Katie and John Tashijan (Tuesday)

1 Laurens Street, Tidalholm

Anyone familiar with Beaufort history knows about Tidalholm, the mansion Edgar Fripp built in 1853 and is surrounded by the Beaufort river. The home welcomed many Fripp family members until 1861when the union seized it, turning it into a union hospital during the Civil War. It was later auctioned and purchased by a Frenchman who gifted it back to the Fripp family.

Today, the home’s 1.38 acres display an English garden relying on Asian jasmine ground cover, magnificent live oaks, as well as countless Magnolias, Palms, Gardenias and Podocarpus.

The home’s new owners have thoughtfully restored the mansion, and added a large carriage/guest house which adopted the original home’s style.

 Naomi and Paul Trask  (Wednesday)

610 Bladen Street

‘Napa’s Garden’ is a dream come true for Naomi and Paul. Four years ago when the couple started a plant based diet, the short supply of organic vegetables motivated Naomi to research a simple way to grow her own tasty favorites.  This is not an ordinary farm garden; it is an urban garden growing in the backyard parking space just two blocks from Bay Street.  Using well designed rectangular tubs, the garden has grown to 14 tubs. With a blend of soil enriched with healthy mulch, carrots, kale, berries, etc. are sweeter, full of moisture and most appealing in flavor and color. The guru/mentor supporting this development is “Rita’s Roots” a store and agriculturist in Charleston, SC.  Rita Bockman’s website was a guide for seeds, soil and other simple strategies to create your own organic vegetable garden. Naomi’s knowledge has provided the basic skills for eating  healthy, as well as the skills to preserve, dehydrate or freeze the overflow from this small 21st century home garden.

 

Frances and Jim Ackerman (Wednesday)

2215 Wilson Drive

Our garden and yard is blend of our personalities and commitment to nature. We endeavor to celebrate our beautiful live oak that is the pinnacle of our yard and home by  minimizing the used of grass while substituting ornamental shrubs. We celebrate neighborhood garden history with transplants of Agapanthus and pink perfection camellias from Fletcher and Pinkney gardens. We try to incorporate our strong utilitarian values with our kitchen garden and chicken enclosure. We blend in our love of entertaining with our whimsical back yard, patio and fire pit. We finish with our love of peace with a walkway for reflection.

Lindsey and Paul Varnes  (Thursday)

882 Broad River Drive

What a thrill to be part of the Garden a Day Tour. We are a large, busy family and our yard is broken into two distinct areas.  The backyard is a functional, natural area for our family to play in.

Our front yard is still a work in progress as it grows and matures since its 2017 rebirth.  What started as one large bed along the road is slowing becoming the walk-through garden we dreamed of.  Our garden style is low/no maintenance evergreens and perennials, allowing more of a natural growth with minimal pruning.  A large live oak allows for shade gardening while other areas are in full sun. We are still adding, transplanting, and loving the experience.  We want to pass the wonder and joy of gardening on to our kids, who helped to plant over 30 bulbs this winter.

Cindy and Dr. Brad Collins (Friday)

41 Sunset Bluff

Melrose was built on the banks of Factory Creek in 1905. The garden has thoughtfully evolved over the years with respect for the surrounding beautiful low country landscape and to maintain natural habitats for wildlife. The stately live oaks from the original landscape plan create a canopy over century old camellias and azaleas where the owners have incorporated hydrangeas, ferns and other shade loving plants. The westerly facing side of the home has a lawn flooded with afternoon sun and views of sunsets over Beaufort’s old point.

The garden features a mix of elements old and new. Boxwood gardens have been restored and expanded around a kitchen parterre created as a gift by a loving husband. An old pump house serves as a potting shed adjacent to the original cistern tower wile a new outdoor living space and pool were added for outdoor family fun.

The garden is a mix of past and present, shade and sunlight, formal and whimsical but most importantly it is a reflection of a spot enjoyed by family and friends over the years with places to rest, reflect, work and play.