PORTLAND — Jane Bayer and Steven Goodman stood in their Munjoy Hill yard Sunday welcoming a parade of strangers into their gardens.
“This is a weeder’s paradise,” Bayer announced, as people bent over her burgeoning raised vegetable beds and admired the water fountains gurgling away between roses and day lilies.
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The couple, who moved to 89 Morning St. from Brooklyn, N.Y., three years ago, and nine other neighborhood homeowners volunteered their gardens and patios for the Hidden Gardens of Munjoy Hill tour. The tour, in its seventh year, is organized by the Friends of the Eastern Promenade, a community group that works to protect the 68-acre Eastern Promenade park.
The tour coincided with the Society for East End Arts Open Studios Tour, with neighborhood artists opening up their work areas to the public.
Visitors, some in sun hats, some carrying parasols, got a peek at landscapes that are usually hidden from public view.
The gardeners said opening up their yards helps raise money for a good cause, and they pick up gardening tips from their visitors.
“It’s nice to have gardeners in. You learn things,” said Aynne Doil.
Doil’s garden at 118 Eastern Promenade is filled with plants with names that relate to friends and family members.
She planted Invincible Spirit hydrangeas in memory of her next door neighbor who died of cancer, an Always and Forever rose bush in memory of her late husband, and Sweet William for her grandson William.
At 1767 Eastern Promenade, Geri Rose of North Yarmouth aimed her camera at a moveable salad table garden filled with red-leaf lettuce, nasturtiums and arugula.
“You get ideas, not that I do them all,” Rose said
Friends Ann Marie Knoepfel of Portland and Kathleen Egan of South Portland said they couldn’t pass up the tour.
“I have done this tour five times. It is beautiful and inspirational,” said Knoepfel.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:
bquimby@pressherald.com
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