BELFAST — Open Garden Days, the Belfast Garden Club’s beloved summer event series, kicks off Saturday, June 24, with a picturesque farmhouse garden overlooking Belfast Harbor.
Sherri Klosterman’s garden at 76 Bayview Street in Belfast will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $5. It is the first of nine private gardens the club will showcase this season on Saturdays from June 24 to Aug. 19. Highlights from these gardens in and around Belfast include lavish floral displays, raised vegetable beds, striking hardscapes as well as the strategies and passions of each gardener.
The Klosterman garden, the first of three on charming Bayview, features flowering perennials in the front yard and to the side of the half-acre property, a stone path, descending beds of flowers and trees and a pergola.
“I have a panoramic view of the bay,” says Klosterman, a retired licensed clinical social worker who holds a Ph.D. in social work. “It’s so peaceful to watch the boats and the water in the morning with a cup of coffee.”
In the backyard, Klosterman has a small orchard of fruit trees and raised boxes primarily for vegetables. Klosterman moved to Belfast five years ago from Pasadena, CA. She says she fell in love with the town after a vacation here.
At her new home on Bayview, she converted the front yard from a grass lawn to flowering beds. She has been adding to her gardens little by little.
“I think it’s important not to try to construct a garden too quickly,” she says. “We change over time and so do our ideas and creative spirit.”
For more on the Open Garden Days schedule, visit belfastgardenclub.org. A season pass may be purchased for $35. Proceeds support the garden club’s school programs, camp scholarships, library donations, and Belfast’s public gardens.