Written By Barbara Lombardo | Photos provided
Maureen Nest loves being in the garden. She loves flowers that attract bees and butterflies, and plants that remind her of her childhood. She loves tucking tomato plants in unexpected places among perennials.
Simply put, she says, “I feel very comfortable playing in the dirt.”
“People have lost touch with the earth,” Maureen says. “I don’t want to sound off the wall, but kids don’t play in the dirt anymore.”
Getting out in the sun and down in the dirt makes you stronger, helps your immune system, and is good for the soul, says Maureen. Her eclectic garden is one of 11 that will be on the 29th annual Secret Gardens Tour presented by Soroptimist International of Saratoga County on Sunday, July 14.
Maureen’s garden is testament to what can be accomplished in small spaces, a theme of this year’s tour – although expansive secret gardens on the tour are sure to inspire as well. Many of the gardens are designed to attract pollinators and are focused on edibles just as much as flowers. Some owners do all their own gardening, while several achieve their goals with a combination of sweat equity and professional assistance.
Just outside Saratoga Springs, new garden features unfold each year all around the generous suburban property of Sharon Finch and her husband, Jack Chapman.
Their garden transformation began about six years ago when Sharon was looking out the window of her home office. “I’d love to see a garden and a waterfall,” she told Jack, whose career as a home builder and carpenter came in more than a little handy.
For this initial project, Jack worked with garden consultant and artist Susie Kane-Kettlewell. “Susie made him take all the rocks down and do it all over,” Sharon says. “It turned out really nice.”
The waterfall garden was finished, but Jack was just getting started.
Evidence of Jack’s imagination and expertise is everywhere: a trellis that leads to a koi pond, (where a stone bench allows visitors to sit and enjoy the music of falling water), a little sitting area looking onto a shade garden, bird feeders, a patio, a deck, and a firepit.
“It’s hard to hold him back,” says Sharon, who enjoys the fruits of Jack’s labor. Whether looking out her office window or relaxing in a backyard sitting area, Sharon says she feels “fortunate. Blessed.” And, she adds with a laugh, “Spoiled.”
Sharon has years of experience as a Soroptimist, including a stint as chair of the hard-working committee that organizes the Secret Gardens Tour. Founded in 1979, the nonprofit Soroptimist International of Saratoga County is part of a more than 100-year-old international organization whose mission is to improve the lives of women, girls, and their communities. The one-day, self-guided tour is the local club’s sole fundraiser. (Visit soroptimistsaratoga.org for ticket information.)
The club’s keynote program is Project Hope and Power, provided in partnership with Wellspring to help domestic violence victims in Saratoga County obtain financial and legal independence. The organization also funds scholarships for women and girls seeking to further their education, and recently introduced a two-day program for area high school girls to build skills and self-confidence.
Last year, between ticket sales and sponsorships, the Secret Gardens Tour raised about $40,000. “The success of the event rests first and foremost with the generous people who show their gardens,” said Joette Delaney Drum, a co-chair of this year’s tour committee.
Gardens for the tour come to Soroptimists’ attention by word of mouth and, more often than not, by club members walking and driving around and knocking on the door of homes where gardens look promising. Sometimes members have their eye on a particular garden for several years before the timing works out. Such was the case with the sprawling, park-like secret gardens of Karla Austen and Pamela Perry, barely a mile from Saratoga Springs’ bustling Broadway and yet a world away.
Behind Karla and Pam’s impressive home are rolling lawns with terraced upper and lower gardens, a kidney-shaped pool, ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials, and a picket-fenced vegetable patch. Enter the lower lawn and gardens from a central English bluestone staircase or, alternately, from large fieldstone steps framed with a hand-hewn Adirondack-style fence and handrail. Stands of Norway and blue spruce frame views to a meadow line, accentuating specimen flowering trees and beckoning to other rooms of the landscape that meet the wings of the house. It’s abundant, elegant, and relaxed, all at once.
Good things on the 2024 tour also come in small packages. The home of Niki Rowe and Michael Amo, a short walk to Saratoga Race Course, offers a totally organic garden, home to insects, birds and chipmunks. Walk through their compact corner lot to discover the “outdoor rooms” for reading, contemplation, or watching the races on the TV that rests over the fireplace. They asked Suzanne Balet of Balet Flowers and Design to “make us an English garden,” though they had only an inkling of what they meant. But Suzanne understood.
Suzanne’s handiwork can be seen in a multitude of local gardens. Patty Lane and her husband, Eric Tepper, say they couldn’t have the garden they enjoy today without the expertise of Suzanne and her team. Despite limited space for planting, they have created an impressive “urban edible” garden and a flower garden with splashes of color from summer through fall. A whimsical cricket weathervane and woodpecker sculpture peek through a variety of perennials, vegetables, and herbs. Several neighbors along this city street have joined in to create an informal “pollinator corridor” between the sidewalk and curb.
On the other side of the city, the chemical-free garden of Susan Wendelgass and Mary Withington, who describe themselves as “very non-professional gardeners,” is highlighted by a rich variety of hosta and assorted native species shaded by looming pines and maples. Outdoor art is scattered throughout for visitors to discover.
In Ballston Spa, three adjacent houses are on the tour. The gardens of Jean and Peter Relyea and, next to them, the gardens of Buddy Glastetter and Cathy Shiffert, reflect the owners’ special touch with some help from Daisies and Dahlias, a garden design and plant care business. Jean opts for pink and purple blooms that thrive in direct sunlight and complement the colors of their Victorian home. Next door, Cathy selects the statuary situated throughout their property, where annuals add lasting color among the perennials.
On the other side of the Relyeas live Bradlea and Michael Raga-Barone, who do all their own gardening, tweaking, pruning, moving, and redesigning as needed. Visitors will find a mix of vintage perennials and more contemporary plants, as well as a potted olive tree, antique urns, and a weeping cherry. Many of the plants were given to Bradlea by her mother, herself an avid gardener.
Sharing plants with family and friends is part of the joy of gardening.
“That’s fun for me,” Maureen Nest says. “As you divide things, you tend to give plants away. I have some extra valerian, I’ll ask, you want some?”
Two of Maureen’s neighbors across the street are also on the Secret Gardens Tour. Judie and Fred Brenner have increased their number of garden beds to 10 in the front, back and sides. A raised-bed vegetable garden sits in the lower half of the yard. Next door, Rose Fennessey’s roughly quarter-acre lot boasts a riot of season-long color and thriving ornamental trees, not to mention hard-to-find vegetables like Chinese broccoli.
“Rose turned me on to a lot of Asian greens,” says Maureen, who strives to keep her own garden as “organic and clean as I possibly can. You’re eating it, you’re working in it.”
And, of course, playing in it.
The Secret Gardens Tour is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 14. Tickets are $25 in advance online and at select locations, and $30 on the tour day outside the Saratoga Heritage Area Visitor Center. The tour program includes descriptions of the gardens and a map with suggested driving directions. Visit soroptimistsaratoga.org to learn more. Questions? Email
