The annual Concord Museum Garden Tour, organized by Concord Museum’s Guild of Volunteers, has been a tradition for more than 30 years, and for the first time since 2019, the tour is once again live! This is your chance to go behind the garden gates of some of Concord’s most beautiful – and unusual – private gardens. This year’s tour will feature six glorious gardens, each special in both its natural setting and in its layout, design, and plant material. The six provide a rich variety of garden possibilities, each lovingly maintained by their generous owners.

One of the unique and completely owner-designed gardens is wonderfully idiosyncratic, with a multitude of variegated foliage and unusual plants not seen in the typical Concord garden. It includes a wide range of plants, including cranesbill, Clematis, Hosta, and unusual grasses and ferns. The front terrace is modeled after a garden in Provence, with mounds of boxwood complementing the stone structure. 

Moving from France to Italy, another garden features a somewhat formal Palladian setting with a long rectangle of lawn and plantings, including some that are rather whimsical.

Another garden was carefully designed to transition from a formal perennial garden surrounding the swimming pool to a practical vegetable garden and fruit trees. These give way via a scenic gate to a semi- “wild” area that features birch trees amongst naturalized grasses. The terrace near the house provides an expansive view over the open field below.

The river figures prominently in another owner’s garden design, with a table, benches, and hammocks for river viewing. Care has been taken to incorporate native plantings into the garden design to benefit birds, animals, and pollinating insects while also providing eye-catching blooms. A meadow with fruit trees, grasses, and wildflowers provides a serene landscape, while the cultivation of grapes and blueberries evokes Concord’s agricultural heritage.  

Still another garden, set on a dead-end street abutting conservation land, is a haven for butterflies, birds, and other wildlife. Its lovely stone paths draw the visitor into beds of June beauties like Iris, Salvia, trumpet honeysuckle, Viburnum, columbine, and beautiful ground cover in addition to lilacs and Rhododendrons.

Concord’s beauty is not only found in forests and fields. The final garden in the lineup is on a busy street and features a completely lawn-free concept. Boxwoods, shrubs, and an elegant custom fence provide privacy while natural stone groupings create variety and backdrop for the beautiful plantings. Raised beds for berries and stands of dwarf apple trees add to the interest of this unique property.

Tickets to the tour are available now at concordmuseum.org/events/33rd-annual-garden-tour/ and may be picked up at the Concord Museum, 53 Cambridge Turnpike, on the day of the tour, starting at 9:00 a.m. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the tour. For more information, visit  concordmuseum.org.

Hope to see you in the garden!

All photos courtesy of the Concord Museum