Weston Hall, one of the properties featured on the Gloucester-Mathews tour Saturday, April 17, enjoys magnificent views of the East River and beyond to Mobjack Bay. (Photo by Sandy Geiger)
Confined to our homes by COVID-19, many of us are escaping outdoors to the freedom of our own backyards. On patios, porches, terraces and decks, “people are enjoying exterior spaces in a way they never have before,” says Karen Cauthen Ellsworth, director of Historic Garden Week. Even as our social circles have shrunk to the number of people who can sit safely around a fire pit, we are finding comfort in nature. The Garden Club of Virginia’s annual statewide “garden open house,” Historic Garden Week, returns April 17-24 after a year’s absence.
“When the 2020 tour was canceled as a result of the pandemic, we knew that 2021 was going to be different,” Ellsworth says. “So we started planning for that from the very beginning.” The club has consulted with the governor’s office to follow safety protocols for accommodating large groups. “We’re using all the available technology and tools to ensure a safe and pleasant experience,” she says. Timed ticketing, online registration and reduced capacity will help enable social distancing, control crowds and minimize risk.
The eight-day event showcases 200 private gardens, public landscapes and historic sites throughout the state, from the foothills of the Shenandoah Valley to the beaches of Tidewater. “The featured properties are selected, and the tours hosted, by member clubs across the state," Ellsworth explains. “The 30 tours offered this spring really show off what's special about the various regions in our beautiful state. All of them will capture the commonwealth at the peak of its springtime bloom."
Floral arrangements created by club members will be on display at each site. Tour proceeds will underwrite the restoration and preservation of Virginia's historic public gardens, as well as a graduate-level research fellowship program in landscape architecture.
“Richmond is unique in that there are three different tours here,” Ellsworth explains. Tuesday features the Hampton Gardens neighborhood in Richmond’s Near West End. On Wednesday, the club will collaborate with Historic Richmond Foundation to offer a walking tour of courtyard pocket gardens on Church Hill. Thursday will highlight the gardens of Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue.
“Open spaces are not only essential to our well-being,” says Missy Buckingham, president of the Garden Club of Virginia, “but a healthy antidote to our current reality. Gardening is grounding. But it’s also about having a hand in reshaping and reimagining our environment, and thus, our future. There is fundamental hope in planting a seed or a bulb.”
Information about tours, tickets and the availability of Historic Garden Week guidebooks, which include logistics and tour descriptions, is available at vagardenweek.org.
