A Visit to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

Exploring 300 acres of gardens, fairy housing developments and trolls

I’ve never seen so many plein air artists in my life. Every time I turned a corner at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens I’d be greeted by more.

If there was a flower or vista worth painting, there was someone painting it. It didn’t distract from our visit – I found it charming – but it certainly colored (pun intended) my visit to these beautiful gardens.

Brooke and I (and the baby) visited Maine a few weeks ago. A pizza inspired this trip north. Our good friends (hi Megs and George!) opened a pizza place in Warren and we wanted to try a slice. We decided we’d also check out Acadia National Park and a few folks recommended we stop at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens on the way, located a little over an hour from Portland, Maine. The garden opened in 2007 but the planning started in the early 1990s when, according to their website, “a small group of MidCoast residents dreamed of building a world-class public garden on 148 acres of rocky coastal forest.” Clearly, they succeeded with their mission and it’s now the largest botanical garden in New England.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is now spread out over 300 acres – some of that is heavily “gardened” while other areas are wooded natural spaces where trails zig zag along the shoreline. I was consistently surprised by this garden’s breadth throughout our two hour visit. Entering the garden, we were greeted by a more formal planting. Though most of the garden features native plants, they also have this lively spiral iris garden.

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As soon as I had the chance I ducked into the woods. I really appreciated these areas where they blurred the edge between planted and wild spaces. This pond featured surround-sound frog noises.

One thing I loved about this garden was the multitude of little mysterious paths I kept stumbling upon. I wanted to see where each one led.

Some connected to other trails. Others led to quiet sitting areas.

We strolled through the children’s garden which was full of adorable little cottages offering hands-on activities.

In their Garden of the Five Senses they created a horticultural therapy area, where vertical plantings of flowers and lettuce could be more easily tended by a gardener in a wheelchair.

Along a trail in the woods we stumbled upon the Fairy House Village. In this clearing, visitors were invited to build fairy houses.

The area was stocked with large pieces of bark, twigs, stones and pinecones to aid in construction.

And to my delight, this space was full of people of all ages eagerly building cabins and condos to house the local fairy population. Also, there are trolls!

Danish artist Thomas Dambo constructed five massive trolls that are tucked into various corners of the garden. I’d seen Dambo’s work online but never in person and these sculptural creatures made of recycled wood are incredibly impressive. It’s hard not to smile when you happen upon one of these fantastical woodland residents.

If you’ve ever driven down a road in Maine this time of year, there’s one flower that’s more present than any other: lupine. I asked someone about these iconic blooms at the garden and was surprised to learn that while there is a lupine that’s native to the area, (Lupinus perennis), the lupine that’s lining every roadside actually originated in California. Here’s a photo I snapped out the window of our moving rental car:

This west coast lupine, (Lupinus polyphyllus), was introduced to the area by landscapers and is now considered invasive by many local organizations. Meanwhile, the native Maine lupine may be essentially extinct in the wild. The gardens have been involved with an effort to reestablish Maine’s native lupine, which is a bit less showy but serves as a host plant for the endangered Karner blue butterfly.

And I also found out why there were so many plein air artists that day at the garden. It was part of their “Plein Air Days” event. It’s an annual tradition so keep an eye on their calendar if you’d like to participate next year.

Have you visited any new gardens this summer? Or do you have plans to? I’d love to hear about it.

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And one more thing: The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden has a beautiful art installation this summer featuring the work of Patrick Shearn of Poetic Kinetics. I visited the garden for TALK Pittsburgh the other week and photographer Scott Danka captured some amazing drone shots of the artwork:

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