The Jane E. Lytle Memorial Arboretum’s 18th annual garden tour will be held on Sunday, July 13 from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. This ever-popular event will offer participants a private, self-guided tour of six beautiful gardens in the Croton-Ossining area. Tour coordinator Laura Seitz has selected a variety of landscape settings created by local residents who have generously offered to open their private gardens to the public.
The sites on the tour are:
A totally private preserve with a vegetable garden, orchard, perennial beds, lawn and woods, maintained without the use of pesticides by a master gardener, horticultural therapist, and New York Botanical Garden instructor.
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An old farmhouse dating back to the 1840s surrounded by perennial beds and huge old maple trees.
A village quarter-acre plot that’s been transformed into a virtually self-sufficient farm, with just about every bit of land, including the front yard, under cultivation. The vegetables in the front are set in circular and rectangular beds as if they were flowers and edged with the real thing. In back there are raised beds with more vegetables, herbs, and flowers, with beehives on the perimeter.
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An exquisite small garden on a terraced hillside plot that feels like a world apart in the midst of an urban neighborhood. The owner has developed the garden with a particular eye to color and unusual combinations—so visitors should look for the tricolor willow and 12-foot high ironweed.
A working farm that has been in the same family for a hundred years, managed by an enterprising descendant who boards horses, raises bees, grows heritage crops, sells produce on a shares basis, and encourages a veritable community center on the property. There is also a small store that sells flowers, house plants, and unusual perennials, annuals and herbs.
A magnificent 23 acre historic estate, originally part of the much larger homestead of a family that settled in Cortlandt in 1735. Anchored by a large house built in 1895, the sweeping lawns are dotted with beautiful mature trees. There are three ponds on the property, several other homes, a tennis court, a vegetable garden, and a gate house. There will be a display of 100 year old photographs of the house, family life and local landmarks like the New Croton Dam, Quaker Bridge and Van Cortlandt Manor.
Tickets for the tour are $20 each (or $35 for two, if purchased in advance). The tour is limited to 200 participants, so order your tickets today by calling (914) 487-3830.
Tour maps and any remaining tickets will be available on Sunday, July 13, from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 6 Old Post Road North (at the corner of Grand Street), Croton-on-Hudson. The tour takes place rain or shine.
All tour profits benefit the Croton Arboretum and Sanctuary, Inc. a volunteer, non-profit organization that provides environmental stewardship for 20+ acres of wetlands and woods at the Jane E. Lytle Arboretum in Croton-on-Hudson. For more information visit www.crotonarboretum.org.
