Wild Gardens of Acadia

Photograph courtesy of Charlotte Stetson.

The Bar Harbor Garden Club is pleased to present “Violets, Volunteers, and Vaccinium at the Wild Gardens of Acadia” with Helen Koch, volunteer and co-director of the Wild Gardens of Acadia on Thursday, December 9, 2021, by Zoom. Helen will speak about the beauty and challenges found within this remarkable native plant garden at Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park. “This is the 60th anniversary of the Wild Gardens–what’s ahead?”

Prior to her work at the Wild Gardens of Acadia, Helen was director of a native plant demonstration garden in California. Upon moving back to the East Coast, she almost immediately began volunteering at the Wild Gardens, 21 years ago.

In 1961, the walking paths and twelve plant habitats were established by the Park and the Bar Harbor Garden Club. Acadia uniquely reaps the benefits of being situated near the boundary of two major biogeographic regions, so it is able to offer a unique mixture of northern and southern plant species. The Wild Gardens include over four hundred plant species, all indigenous, representing natural plant communities found within Acadia National Park such as mountain, heath, seaside, coniferous forest, and nine other habitats.

In 2010, the Wild Gardens became an official committee of Friends of Acadia which sponsors a supervisory gardener and an intern, and funds tools, repairs, and educational materials. Yet without the incalculable help of greeters, gardeners, docents, educators and other volunteers, the gardens could not offer the high-quality visitor experience it provides today.

The Wild Gardens are located at the Sieur de Monts Spring and Nature Center, 2 miles south of Bar Harbor near the intersection of the Park Loop Road and Route 3 on Mount Desert Island.

The Club meeting will begin with a brief business discussion at 1:00 P.M. and the talk will follow at 1:30 P.M. All are welcome to join the meeting and presentation. This presentation is one of the monthly programs offered by the Bar Harbor Garden Club to the public, but non-members are asked to make a reservation by emailing president@barharborgardenclub.org or call 207-460-8496.