Garden tour fan alert: It’s time to watch for the tasteful signs popping up around Lyme and Old Lyme, foretelling the upcoming Child and Family Agency’s biennial garden tour. Every two years, the local auxiliary of the region’s children’s service agency organizes a much-sought-after peek into private gardens and landscapes, all in support of helping children in the region who lack the physical, emotional and intellectual care and nurturing they need.

This year’s self-guided tour, on Friday, June 19, and Saturday, June 20, promises escapes into six mesmerizing settings in Lyme and Old Lyme. Some focus on unique combinations of plants for sun or shade, food or color, or for pollinators and insect predators. Others are an homage to the arts. Sustainability is a big theme.

“Sustainability is the cool thing in garden design, creation and maintenance these days,” says Mary Dangremond, an auxiliary member who has written the garden descriptions in the tour program guide since the first tour in 1995. “A lot of the gardeners talked about it; we’re very proud that sustainability is one the themes in this year’s tour.”

Most of the gardens are maintained by their owners, some with more assistance than others. A few of the gardens are recently planted creations; others have been nurtured for decades by their owners. For the sake of surprise and privacy, exact garden locations will not be revealed until the first day of the tour.

The first stop, Brave New Gardens, is the home of a professional gardener who strives to create organically farmed, sustainable landscapes. She sees herself as a steward of the earth, eschewing synthetic inputs; recycling pine needles and leaves as mulch; and selecting native trees and shrubs, perennials and herbs to attract and support birds, dragonflies and bees and to survive the deer. Her scope of gardening for food spans from fruit trees, brambles and berries to asparagus, herbs and annual vegetables.

Another long-term gardener welcomes tour patrons to see his attempt at “sustainable repurposing,” or years of continually moving plants around the property to find where they are happiest. It’s a chance to study terraced garden beds designed by noted garden designer Sarah McCraken. Serious gardeners can ask to see the designer’s list of interesting and unique perennials for reference and inspiration.

Friendly volunteer garden docents will be on hand at all of the stops, including an entourage of certified master gardeners at a research botanist’s home that showcases exotic plants in a greenhouse, native plants in a conservatory setting and a myriad of insects and wildlife that have decided they like it, too. The garden tour program lists scheduled talks by gardening and plant experts Nancy Ballek McKinnon, Anu Koiv and Paul Armond.

One property features an artist’s studio that once belonged to Charles Volkert, a member of Miss Florence Griswold’s artist colony. The space is still used for its intended purpose. At another, the tour detours indoors through an acclaimed interior designer’s new gourmet kitchen. It extends from a 1768 farmhouse and connects to a kitchen garden of flowers and herbs.

Tour patrons get to see what could be the largest Connecticut specimen of a Franklinia Alta Maha (or alatamaha, depending on your historian), the rare and beautiful native tree found growing only along Altamaha River in Georgia in the mid to late 1700s. The species hasn’t been found in the wild ever since 1803.

Tomato aficionados will want to see the seven-foot ladder trellises one gardener has convinced her husband to build; she started tomatoes for the Essex Garden Club’s plant sale in her garage. Another gardener has created her own hypertufa planters and filled them with plants and miniature figurines.

A garden tour would not be complete without at least one chicken coop in the mix. This year, it’s a flock of Sussex hens enjoying their pastoral landscape.

Plan for time to buy lunch and shop at the boutique at one of the tour stops. The new owners have recently turned a former turkey farm into a “gentleman’s farm,” seeking to open the views and vistas of Lyme countryside. The boutique features finds and creations by several local artists, artisans, couture collectors, retailers including Ballek’s Garden Center, and Child and Family Agency.

The tour program, full of insightful descriptions, and tickets can be bought in advance online through Child and Family Agency or at four local businesses for $25, or bought at the first tour stop for $30.

To start the tour, look along Route 156 in Lyme for the quaint white signs with planters and arrows and observe the parking signs. The organizers, a team of 20 volunteers handling all aspects from planning and publicity to parking and the garden boutique, recommend allowing about 30 minutes per garden. The tour starts at 10 a.m. and gardens close at 4 p.m. each day; it is fine to split the tour between the two days, and one doesn’t have to tour the gardens in numerical order. 

Why take the tour?

Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut exists to promote the well-being and development of all children and their families. It provides programs and services to address children’s mental health and physical healthcare, child abuse prevention, the treatment of family violence, teen pregnancy, childcare, children’s safety and accident prevention and parent education. The non-profit agency is supported by private, state, United Way and federal funding.

“The auxiliaries are wonderful about raising money that supports the programs that the agency provides to children and their families,” said Lynn Fairfield-Sonn, CFA development director. “They plug the holes in the dike of funding, helping us maintain a level of service, given the vagaries of state funding.”

CFA provides in-home counseling programs, where clinicians go into homes to work with children and family members with mental health issues, or to help adolescents and their families deal with stresses, she said. Oftentimes, the child would benefit from continued help, yet state funding has run out. The additional support makes it possible to continue the help. Child guidance clinics in Essex, New London and Groton and school-based health centers also provide both mental and physical health care services on sliding-scale fees based on client income and needs.

There are six auxiliaries in the region, from Groton and the Mystic/Noank and Stonington groups to Lyme/Old Lyme and the Essex area. Each auxiliary has its signature events, and all help out at the agency’s tag sale, billed as the largest and longest-running event of its kind in the region. For the latest, go to www.childandfamilyagency.org.

IF YOU GO

What: Lyme/Old Lyme Garden Tour

When: Friday and Saturday, June 19 and 20; gardens open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine

Where: Self-guided, follow the garden tour signs

Cost: Tickets are $25 in advance until June 17; buy online at www.childandfamilyagency.org or at The Bowerbird and Old Lyme Landscape in Old Lyme, Hadlyme Country Market in Hadlyme and Pough Interiors in Essex. Buy tickets on the day of the tour for $30.

Info: Call (860) 443-2896, ext. 1403