SEARSPORT, Maine — Gardeners, foodies, fiber artists and outdoor enthusiasts alike are in for a treat when Searsport Shores Campground opens its grounds to the public 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, June 24, as part of Belfast Garden Club’s Open Garden Days.
There are more than 40 gardens at Searsport Shores Campground: rows of raised vegetable beds, swaths of ornamental shrubs and perennials, a waterfall garden, an orchard started from deer droppings, and individual campsite gardens that add privacy, color and edibles to the camping experience. Cilantro, mint and cherry tomatoes can be found in beds close to the campsites, among perennial flowers, decorative shrubs and trees. Many of the campsite gardens were planted by guests, a perk for a summer-long stay. The campground encompasses 40 acres along the shores of Penobscot Bay in Searsport. Steven and Astrig Tanguay have been revitalizing and working with the land there for 18 years.
“Searsport Shores is an extension of what we enjoy most — gardening and fiber arts. A place we can give classes and meet people,” Steven said. Today the Tanguays have built their dream into a successful agritourism business, drawing guests from Belfast to Japan and all around the world.
Though the Tanguays now grow their own produce to eat year-round, much of the soil did not start out as optimal garden space. At the center of the property, Steven bends down, puts his hand in a puddle and comes up slimy with hard-pack, blue clay. “This whole area of the property is completely clay, the result of bad clear cutting,” he said, “These are my floating gardens.” Raised beds “float” on the mucky soil separated by 10 to 12 layers of cardboard and woodchips. The beds are now growing strong healthy plants in rich soil created with compost and mulch made on-site from seaweed, worm castings from food scraps, leaves, needles and tree debris. Twenty-eight to 30 dumptruck loads a year are cleared from campsites that sit beneath ancient oak and pine trees.
“No one thought he could reclaim that terrible soil. If anyone could, it is Steven,” Astrig said. Those raised beds are flush with garlic, potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, beans, peas and brassicas. A special lemon balm garden for teas and for the garden’s prized honeybees whose two hives can house 60,000 bees each. Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and grapes are robust, and a salad garden grows 25 varieties of herbs and lettuce. The campground also boasts 600 feet of shoreline on a boardwalk raised above the ocean water. Along the embankment, salt resistant, low-water-use perennials such as iris, yarrow, lupine, Russian sage, creeping juniper and soapwort do an excellent job holding up the retaining wall beneath stately 250-year-old oak trees.
In addition to a passion for growing food and native plants, this enthusiastic couple enjoys an artistic existence as well. Twig huts and climbing arbors, sand-cast giant mushrooms and hand painted signs enhance the garden ambiance.
New this year is a hops arbor Steven designed and built. Eventually the hops will grow up and over the frame creating a hops house. The hops will be harvested and used to brew beer, and also for dying wool as part of Searsport Shores’ focus on fiber arts. A small herd of cashmere and angora goats provides fiber, which is processed and dyed with plants from a special “dyer’s garden” including black hollyhocks, coreopsis, indigo, amaranth and white birch.
During the Open Garden Day, a concurrent, botanical-themed fiber show is planned featuring local and internationally known artists of the Midcoast. Twig sculptures by artist-in-residence Susan Perrine, garden quilts by Mary Ellen Krantz, traditional Fair Isle knitting of Mary Jane Mucklestone, Nuno felting with inclusions like puffs from milkweed pods from Josette McWilliams, and the knit sculptures and natural dyed yarns of Karen Jelenfy.
On Friday the unstoppable Tanguays will offer homemade french-fries and muddles — an old fashioned drink made with lemon balm, strawberries, ginger and soda water. “This way of life is a lot of hard and constant work,” Astrig said, “but we’re doing things we love, and we get to do it together.”
Tickets may be purchased at the garden on the day of the tour for a donation of $4 for one garden or $15 for a five-visit ticket. Proceeds from the 2011 Garden Tour will benefit the club’s civic beautification projects.
For more information, contact Martha Laitin at 948-2815, belfastgardenclub@gmail.com
or visit http://www.belfastgardenclub.org.