Pentagoet Garden Tours and Afternoon Tea  Schedule 2010

The Pentagoet Inn will be hosting a monthly Garden Tour and Afternoon Tea from June through September.   All tours will be presented by the inn's gardener Pamela Johnson. Pam is the owner of Lamb's Quarters in Sedgwick.  Afternoon Tea will follow at the inn. The cost for the tea is $10.00 pp. There is no charge for the garden tour. Please call for a reservation 207-326-8616

June 23^rd

The pleasures of shade gardening: serendipitous plants that light up dark places; how to make the most of limited light and benighted soils. Planted under, and among the roots of mature trees, the Pentagoet Inn’s gardens are primarily shade gardens. We'll discuss the challenges of the site, share what we think has been most successful (shrubs, perennials, bulbs) beyond the obvious and familiar choices. 

July 29th

Castine's Home and Garden Tour: During July the Pentagoet will be one of the gardens featured in Castine's Home and Garden Tour, "Under the Elms, By the Sea".  The Pentagoet garden will be featured July 29th.  Be sure to book early for this very popular event.

August 18^th

Why do we plant what we plant? The evolution of a designed garden: This tour presents an opportunity to visit and discuss a dynamic year-round garden that is taking shape under a number of influences and determinants. The talk will touch upon some of the historical influences of New England gardens, as well as the challenges of gardening in a changing climate.

September 15th

The year-round garden in Zone 5: even in a small northern garden it is possible to have a wide variety of plants providing sensory delight, as well as contributing habitat to wildlife, in all seasons. Emphasis will be given to low-maintenance native shrubs and perennials. 

Begun in 2001, the woodland garden at the Pentagöet Inn features native shrubs and shade perennials with a long season of interest, something fragrant and blooming from February through November. From the garden’s inception we have been committed to organic gardening practices, using compost rather than chemicals. Some of the herbs and edible flowers that we grow are used for the restaurant. The garden is full of pollinators, birds, butterflies, even a few resident toads in our village setting.

Every June the Pentagöet holds a benefit for Castine’s venerable elm trees, “The Elm Tree Benefit Dinner” where all of the  proceeds are donated to the Castine Garden Club to help fund the protection of our surviving trees and to plant the next generation. 

Native witch hazels  bracket the garden's activity.  A collection of fritillarias extends the Spring bulb season into early summer, while an emphasis on foliage represented by traditional woodlanders, balances the high summer color of annuals in window boxes and container plantings.  Native Cimicifuga (Actaea) racemosa buds in late summer, then  flowers well into autumn with American delphiniums , perennial prairie petunias, and self-seeding gauras.  Autumn crocuses and colchicums sparkle beneath the colorful foliage of native aronias and shadbush

Stroll through our beautiful gardens to discover native perennials that

flourish in the unique climate of coastal Maine

We hope you'll visit; there is much to enjoy.