Main Garden
One of the benefits of blogging is forming online friendships with like-minded folk. Occasionally, the opportunity presents itself to meet these ‘stranger-friends’ in person. I had the great pleasure of meeting Laurie (and her husband) from Notes From the Hinterlands for a short visit during a stretch of perfect summer weather.
We took a day to visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor, only an hour from her home. I had heard from a friend that it was a spectacular place and had it on my bucket list. Do click her link as she has created three great posts outlining the major aspects of the gardens. As I couldn’t top those, I’m free to post some of my own photos to round out the superb job she did.
Waterlily pond – very Monet
The Children’s Garden was particularly noteworthy and not to be missed as we are all children at heart.
In the forest, there is a garden of fairy houses, where one is encouraged to build a house of your own with natural, non-living materials.
There are plans to expand the gardens over the next four years, as well as seasonal exhibits like the fairy light display during the Christmas holiday season, so I expect I will visit again. Who knows, we might create a Blogger Meet-up Day for other blogging buddies in the area, any takers?
Eliza Waters 
Looks like a great place to explore and connect to nature … and fairies!
Yes, indeed, it is!
How perfectly wonderful!
Thank you, Cindy! A great garden to visit if you ever find yourself in Maine. 😉
The water lillies are just beautiful, Eliza. I need to look up their symbolism.
Thank you for thinking of that, Kim. I came up with ‘rebirth and optimism’ – which speaks perfectly to me! ❤
I was there a couple years ago and loved the gardens. There was a waterfall in the Japanese garden that threw down a glassine sheet of water. It also afforded both shade and sun and some pretty neat sculptures. Glad you were there and met up with Laurie. Fun!
It was a grand time. Nothing like visiting a public garden with a fellow gardener/photographer. We moseyed, oohing and ahing the whole way. ;-D
I’ve paid virtual visits to this garden to this garden through the photos of different bloggers and love it more every time. I’ve no plans that will send me to Maine anytime soon but I definitely want to get to this garden one day.
Definitely a good one for the bucket list. That area of Maine is spectacular.
Looks like a really nice place – my mom would love it 🙂
Well worth the trip. (And they have a shuttle!)
One of John’s & my favorite gardens. I love that you can walk along dense woodland trails & suddenly come upon ocean inlets. The best of both worlds!
I didn’t realize you have visited here. I was very impressed with the layout and use of native plants. Bill Cullina’s hand at work. 🙂
We’ve been there a couple of times & then I was there with Niki once. Loved the stone sculptures….rocks, water & plants. How can you go wrong?!
🙂
Wow. Beautiful.
Thanks, Gigi. Not as large as your CBG, but well-designed and delightful.
What a wonderful little trip! I especially love the little tiny faerie houses and the very Monet water lilies.
Ah, that it was, Mary. A truly outstanding, well-designed garden that uses a lot of native plants. Inspirational!
So beautiful! 💖🌸💖🌸
Thank you, Trini!
It looks lovely! Much too far to visit in the foreseeable future, but certainly someplace to wish about by the looks of it 🙂
Thank you, it was a great and inspiring place to visit. Some day, perhaps you will find yourself out that way, who knows? 🙂
Looks beautiful and how wonderful to meet a fellow blogger:)
Yes, indeed. One of many I would love to visit and know better. 🙂
They were just constructing this garden when I left Maine – Oh, how I wish it had been finished so I could have visited! Then again, I would love to travel through Maine again and this would be a wonderful destination!
I’ll let you know the next time we plan something. Who knows, you might be able to join us! That would be a delight!
Count me in. 🙂
Yay!! 🙂
Wonderful images. Oh, I would love to live in the fairy house!
Thank you, Sylvia. Wouldn’t a fairy house be fun? That must be why Tiny Houses are all the rage now. 🙂
What a wonderful time we had! And how wonderful it was to have you stay here and get to know you. Hope we can have another trip next summer, with Judy and perhaps other bloggers involved.
That we did. Thank you (and Clif) again for your generous hospitality. An annual get-together sounds ideal!
There should be fairy houses in every garden.
I agree! I need to work on that. 🙂
A good record of a lovely trip. So pleased you met
🙂 It was a pleasant one.
This looks like an amazing place – I do love to go to a good garden. Or maybe I just enjoy seeing flowers that someone else is responsible for taking care of!
It certainly is outstanding. I saw a couple young workers tending beds and thought I would have loved to intern in a place like this for a summer when I was their age. They have a huge membership volunteer base, so that helps keep costs down. If you ever get to Portland, it isn’t far and so worth the trip.
I will keep it in mind! I really would like to do a road trip. I don’t think it’s in the cards this year – next summer!
Let me know if you go, I’ll drive up! 🙂
Awesome!
What a beautiful area! I was really excited about your post! My friend and I are planning to visit coastal Maine next summer; I am going to put this on my list of places to visit:-)
Oh definitely! May I also recommend the Rachel Carson NWR and Wells Reserve at Laudholm in Wells? Not to be missed!
Do you know when you are going to be there? I think it’d be great to have a blogger gathering if we can pull it off. I love to meet my blogging buddies in person!
Thank you for the tip Eliza; I added it to the list of places to visit. I am planning to stay for a few days in Kennebunkport, so that will work out perfectly!
If things work out, I plan on being in Maine the week of July 10, 2017. What a great idea to gather some blogger friends together! Please count me in if the timing works out:-)
Wonderful! That is such a beautiful area. We’ll see what we can manifest next spring!
How nice! Love the picket fence
Isn’t that fence great? I loved it!
It’s a fascinating garden to visit because it is relatively new. Also they label all their plants with the usual info plus the year it was planted. Really helps to visualize.what might be in the future.
I missed the dates on the labels… I think I was floating along and just absorbing the gardens, missing details that I will hopefully get on my next visit! 🙂
Thanks for showing me this Eliza, I love botanical gardens because I can shoot and explore at ease since they’re public. This is a gem too.
You’re welcome, glad you liked it!
Lovely shots. We are from Maine originally (lakes region between Bangor/Ellsworth), and I do miss the flowers there. We can grow many of them at higher elevations here on the Big Island, and we have some pretty cool flowers, but … 😉 Aloha.
Totally different climate to adjust to. One that I’d be willing to try – lol! 😉
Yes, we’d lived on the islands a long time ago, as well. But kids wanted to return to their good schools, which we couldn’t argue with. Good education is hard to come by here, but you can’t have everything, I guess!
Yes, the girlfriend’s parents moved to OR just for that reason. Sad for the locals though who can’t do that. You would think, being a state, that there’d be adequate federal funding.
That’s presuming priorities are the same, which in my experience, they are not. Local Hawaiians, much as I hate to brand any group of people, focus on family first. Enjoyment of life. It’s a great place for two hard work ethic type of people to live and learn to mellow out as much as they/we can. We appreciate it. Yet still I believe education is the way out for any conquered people in this era of colonialism. Still, if people do not feel oppressed and are content with their lives, who the heck am I to judge? And so we live our own lives, loving our community and its spirit of live and let live. Have a great weekend, Eliza!
Tropical living! 🙂
A beautiful series Eliza, and you’ve captured one of my favorite scenes no matter where I see them with your “Waterlily pond – very Monet” Yes, very, very Monet 🙂
Thank you, Randall. I thought they did a beautiful job designing this garden. Highly recommended!
It’s interesting to see the vast difference (even for me who can barely distinguish a rose from a sunflower) between this far northeast botanical garden, and our far southwest botanical garden in Pasadena California. What a great opportunity for you to tick another BG off your bucket list.
Now that you have mentioned it, I’ve now visited a BG in each of the four corners of the US – OR, CA, FL and ME. All very different climates!
Perfect example of blogging friendships and gardens coming together, Eliza 🙂
Yes, so much fun! Blogging brings like-minded souls together. 🙂
Interesting innovative touches in this garden, which I admire from afar 🙂
Thank you, Carol. They are in the midst of doubling their grounds, so in a few years I’ll have to go back and see the changes. Another superb garden to look forward to seeing!