Open Gardens 2023

Walk through local wonder and beauty in 2023.

See our neighbors’ gardens at their peak. All the gardens are open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. rain or shine. A donation of $5 is suggested (checks or exact change is appreciated).

Saturday, June 24
Sherri Klosterman
76 Bayview Street, Belfast

Flowering perennials cascade in the front yard, and to the side of the half-acre property, take in the stone path, pergola, and more, all within a sweeping view of the bay.

Saturday, July 1
Jack and Susan Silverio
105 Proctor Road Lincolnville

The Silverio house (pictured right), studio, and gardens reach back to 1972, when Jack—who’s an architect—designed and built the homestead. With an able assist from a small flock of sheep, the garden boasts constantly blooming flowers and raised vegetable beds; there’s a frog pond, and a new sculpture. The garden is 50’ by 60’, with morning sun coming from the pasture and afternoon shade from the woodland. Susan, an early childhood educator, launched Ashwood Waldorf School in what is now a guesthouse. Fittingly, she says, “Over the years, I have come to enjoy plants at every stage of their development.”

Saturday, July 8
Bob and Marsha Siviski 
71 Cedar Street (Corner of Pine), Belfast

With over 70 combined years of gardening experience to guide them, Bob and Marsha Siviski left their extensive gardens in southern Maine behind and took on the Cedar Street site in 2020. Bob began with moving stone walls, recovering a trove of buried stone, and ultimately elevating an historic well stone to create a walled backyard patio. Shade gardens, dominated by a large oak and several Japanese lilac trees, are filled with unusual varieties of common shade plants and a few plants that may surprise you.  Marsha has a particular interest in foxgloves, especially the perennial varieties mertonensis, grandiflora, and lutea.  A  raised-bed vegetable garden showcases vertical gardening with the creative use of birdcages and other repurposed items. Raspberries, both everbearing and summer bearing, frame the rear gardens.  All gardens are a “work in progress.”  but as they note, the third year of a garden is typically a delight. 

Saturday, July 15
Bob Johanson and Michael Sczerzen
94 Bayview Street, Belfast

Six years ago, when partners Michael Sczerzen and Bob Johansen first set eyes on the small Arts and Crafts bungalow on Bayview Street, there wasn’t much of a garden. Norway maples filled the backyard. In the front were a few shrubs and a dying ash tree.

They’d left behind extensive gardens and wanted to hold on to what they held dear while also simplifying their gardening lives.

The garden is Michael’s design and handiwork: the stone walls, terraces, new beds, and hedges. But his daylilies still take pride of place: 200 varieties are arranged around a large birdbath. Elsewhere are hydrangeas, dwarf evergreens, and flowering shrubs. Two small raised beds, Bob’s domain, provide summer produce and herbs.  Although small in size and still a work in progress, the gardens provide a never- ending source of pleasure and satisfaction.

Saturday, July 22
Peter Millard and Emily Wesson
29 Wight Street, Belfast

On a sunny, south-facing spot, atop the graveyard of a construction materials depot, Peter Millard and Emia Wesson have created a lush garden of edibles and visuals. Using a sketch by landscape designer Claire Ackroyd, Peter and Emily landscaped the site themselves, expanding their efforts every year since 2014. This year they’re adding raspberries and grafting the pioneer apples with several varieties of apple cultivars. But don’t let the fecundity blind you to the rainwater catchment system with gravity flow for drip irrigation; the extensive use of seaweed, leaves, and woodchips; or the fact that this started with broken concrete and asphalt. As Peter notes, you can’t overestimate the importance of organic matter to improve soil quality.

Saturday, July 29
Mary Trotochaud and Rick McDowell
103 Northport Road, Belmont

With a goal of creating a sustainable, organic garden, Mary Trotochaud and Rick McDowell have established numerous fruit, vegetable, and flower beds that include cranberries, blueberries, rhubarb, raspberries, figs, breadseed, and hazelberts, as well as cherry, peach, apple, pear, crabapple, and plum trees. There are several perennial, grass and annual beds and new mushroom logs and beds.  A romantic but sturdy grape arbor supports three varieties of grapes. See also a fire pit, a pizza oven, a well-designed chicken coop, a beehive and a reflecting pool with a small fountain. A bonus: Mary Trotochaud’s pottery studio will be open. 

Saturday, Aug 5  
Judy and David Bond
15 Congress Street, Belfast

Asparagus and rhubarb, grape vines, and five varieties of blueberries share this in-town yard with bird feeders, bird houses, bird baths and a miniature Venus de Milo under a giant maple tree. Now in their tenth year in Belfast, Judy and Dave Bond note that over time flowers have become more numerous than vegetables, although they still plant corn, beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers. There are seating areas on a brick patio outside the kitchen, inside the vegetable garden, around a fire pit, and inside the tool shed.

Saturday, Aug 12
Jeff and Monica Van Peski 
9 Bayview Street, Belfast

Jeff and Monica Van Peski started a large garden with the goal of making an in-town haven for nature.  Specific areas in the garden cater to specific clientele: There are pollinator, monarch, and hummingbird gardens, and the pond supports frogs and small fish, as well as water boatmen and dragonflies. The pond water circulates and filters from one end of the pond to a water feature behind the elevated seat in the corner. It’s maintained naturally through regimen of aeration, beneficial bacteria, barley, and balanced plant life.  Meanwhile, the garden preserves the precious bay views for neighbors, with careful siting of the Himalaya Birch and Paperbark Maple. Jeff and Monica are self-reported beginners; their early work is inspiring.

Saturday, Aug 19
Jordana and Ross Martin
132 Bayside Road, Northport

It was the wide variety of heirloom fruit trees that first attracted textile artist and advocate Jordana Martin and her husband, creative marketer Ross, to the property. Soon, they brought in granite features—”Each piece of stone is a sculpture made by time,” Jordana writes—and in 2022 the Japanese-style garden was installed, with help from landscape architect Josh Tompkins. Circles feature prominently throughout the space, which pays homage to the Japanese Maple and other conifers. The most recent addition: a large natural dye garden—which includes Hopi amaranth, safflower, and indigo. (Jordana, who runs TATTER, often works with natural pigments to dye cloth.)