What’s one of my favorite things to do on vacation? Visit new gardens and farms, of course! Helen and I always love checking out new gardens together while on the east coast and this year we chose to visit Snug Harbor Farm, located in Kennebunk, Maine. What a charming place!
The mission of Snug Harbor Farm is “to provide plant enthusiasts with healthy, well-grown, interesting plant material and unique garden accessories all with an ‘old world’ style.” In addition, they provide visitors with a fun experience of exploring a property loaded with interesting plants (and animals!) in every nook and cranny.
The owner and landscape designer Tony Elliott owns the property now, which has been in existence since 1850, and he has added substantially to it over time. The original property is the house (which is currently The Shop) and barn. The Shop is fantastically curated and you just have to explore each of the rooms inside. We loved this adorable building covered with one (yes, one!) climbing hydrangea, containing old terracotta and glass containers.
We wandered the five greenhouses, a barn, nursery and growing fields on property. In the greenhouses we discovered Tony’s passion for topiaries, with two of the houses full of a variety of topiaries.
In another greenhouse we found a huge variety of succulents so enticing and adorable that you wanted to have one – and I haven’t really developed an interest in collecting succulents. He has obviously gone deep in his collection of succulent plant material, as with his other plants.
In another greenhouse, we discovered gorgeous begonias in a variety of colors. They’re such pretty flowers and I forget about them because I can’t really grow most of them in Napa. They’re really beautiful flowers. And I am always mesmerized by the Passion Flower, or Passiflora with all of its wonderful color and detail. We found a couple of vines happily growing alongside the begonias.
There are really interesting animals on property including several varieties of chickens, adorable miniature horses, decorative peacocks, decorative pheasants, some very happy ducks, geese and beautiful white pigeons. If you listen carefully, you can hear song birds as well. These are some very lucky animals to live at Snug Harbor Farm!
Ask Terry all of your plant questions and she will knowledgeably and helpfully answer all of your questions. She feels as lucky to work there as you do to have her assisting her. She helped us out with our plant purchases yesterday and we loved working with her.
Snug Harbor Farm is a must-see if you’re in the area. The bonus is that you will encounter other interesting stops along the way, so allow plenty of time for this visit.
