The Newburyport House and Garden Tour is living proof that the past is an adventure not just found in books.
  
That’s because the gardens—which range from a period garden of a wealthy shipowner’s elegant federal mansion to the charming country garden of a cottage that was once home to an Irish immigrant who worked in a comb factory—all provide clues to the area’s rich history.
 
 “There’s levels of depth of history both in the houses and the gardens,” explains Elizabeth Petty, who has chaired the tour for the past six years. “You really have to experience this.”
 
Held on the weekend of June 14 and 15, this year’s garden tour celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Cushing family in Newburyport by not only inviting visitors to tour the private gardens, but also some of the antique interiors of the private residences not normally open to the public. This one-of-a-kind tour and special plant sale will include the unveiling of a new hosta named after the Cushing House Museum.

Tickets are good for both days and guests are also invited to enjoy hospitality and music at the Cushing House in a “garden party atmosphere,” says Elizabeth. “We have tables set out for people to eat, classical harp music playing, ladies in their straw hats. It is a draw for up to 2000 people who come from all over New England.”

The riches brought home by the once lucrative maritime trade are evident throughout the grounds of the Cushing house, a National Historic Landmark and home of the Historical Society of Old Newbury. Visitors will find a courtyard of rare, original river stone cobbles, an original carriage house, fruit trees, and a stunning period garden restored to the 1850s based on the childhood memories of Margaret Cushing. “We have original notes from her as a young person remembering the garden that she grew up in,” says Elizabeth.
 
Along with the Cushing House garden, this year’s gardens are clustered in Newburyport with two remarkable gardens an exit away in Byfield, which, says Elizabeth, shouldn’t be missed.

“All of the houses have a history,” she says. The tour brochure provides detailed histories of both the gardens and houses so visitors are well informed while walking among the historic sites.

One garden estate features a huge labyrinth, solarium, stone terrace, and dramatic driveway entrance lined with purple irises, lavenders, and asters to counter yellow day lilies. Another truly different  “secret garden” can be found tucked away in the middle of downtown Newburyport, where an oasis has been created complete with stone paths, roses and a stone bench where one can sit and mediate. “I want my garden guests to be transported to a timeless place where you can imagine history,” the homeowner notes in the tour booklet.
 
Homeowner Steven Dodge cultivated a traditional Colonial revival garden. Its centerpiece  is a double circle of boxwood, quartered by brick paths, filled with tulips and roses.  A vegetable garden, a cutting garden and refreshing green lawn are included in the design. Humble Mr. Dodge fails to mention that he started with a "bunch of boxwood" and built the stone walls, brick paths, a patio, a pergola, a garden porch and water feature himself. 

Steve, a master carpenter who describes gardening as a hobby though he won the 1992 Boston Magazine garden contest, studied gardens from the period of his 1834 house. The Colonial Williamsburg-style garden is often defined by its boxwood and bricked spaces laid in symmetrical patterns . “Think of a square,” says Steve, “divide it into four equal squares, and draw a circle in the middle.”
 
The 29th Annual Newburyport Garden Tour is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The tour will take place rain or shine, and Elizabeth says it’s well known among gardeners that cloudy days can bring out the full brilliance of the gardens.
 
“On the gray misty days, the colors of the flowers just pop out,” she says.
 
Tickets are $20 through June 10, $25 after, and $20 for seniors. They are available to purchase at Historical Society of Old Newbury on 98 High Street, Newburyport; the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce; Beach Plum Farms in Salisbury; Beach Plum, Too at the Tannery, Newburyport; and Newbury Perennial Gardens, Orchard Street, Byfield.
 
For more information about the tour contact the Historical Society at 978 462-2681 or hson@newburyhist.org ; or view their website at www.newburyhist.com.
 
Please note: It had been incorrectly printed in ACCENT Home & Garden that the tour would take place in July. We apologize for this mistake.