OCNJ HISTORIC HOME GARDEN TOUR 2024

TOUR INFORMATION:

2:00-5:00PM -

• Wristbands -   Wear your Wristband for Garden Tour admission.
• Life Saving Station #30 - Open for Guided Tours today by John Loeper and his docents. You'll be amazed at the museum's history.  The Garden Tour is Free, but "show some love" to #30 in their donation box for graciously hosting us today.
• Plants - Thanks to the donation from C&M Greenhouses (Vineland), the first 200 Attendees are invited to take home a free plant today. Visit their well-cared for greenhouses for your plants when you are looking to beautify your own gardens.   https://cmgrowers.com/
• Ice Cream - There's a "New Kid in Town", Kilwins which offers up premium ice cream. Now you don't have to go to Key West to enjoy, only to the corner of 8th and Wesley Avenue.  Take advantage of their offer, good for today only:  Show your Wristband for 10% off your Ice Cream and/or Candy purchase.
• Play Croquet - Play Croquet & Take Your Photo as you explore #30's Grounds.  Hint: This is the first photo required for the Scavenger Hunt.

4:30-7:30PM -

• Tour Routes - There are two routes on the Tour, please tour both routes for a total of 11 Gardens.  The Gardeners have been working hard to prepare for your arrival, and never think they are "Ready".   A Master Gardener, Bob Pelli, has judged and awarded a Purple Award and a Green Award as noted in the garden descriptions.                                 
  • The Purple Route runs along 11th Street from Central Avenue to Bay Avenue at 10th Street.  There are five Gardens on this Route.  
  • The Green Route runs from 4th and Central to Ocean Road, then to East Atlantic to First Street. There are six Gardens on this Route. In the middle of the Green Route, you'll find one Garden will be offering Tea and Treats.
• GettingAround - Be Careful as you Walk or Bike or Drive between homes.  Obey traffic laws including parking.   Get your Steps in!  Start at the beginning, or the end, or the middle of each Route....or start or end with ice cream. Just Enjoy and take plenty of photos, but dont pick the flowers!  Read descriptions of the next property while you walk.
• Jitney - The first Jitney will take you to the outlying gardens and drop you off for you to walk to the remaining homes in either the Green Route or the Purple Route.  The Jitney will also be available to take you between the Green Route or Purple Route.  See the Four Jitney Stops indicated on the Tour Map.  The Jitney will not take you to every Garden. The Jitney stops running at 7:30pm.
• Scavenger Hunt - You can win a Prize too:   Bill Merritt has built a wooden box from reclaimed wood from a Historic Ocean City home and inside is a non-alcoholic mixer called Seedlip.
  Take a photo of each of the 12 items indicated in Red in each of the 11 gardens descriptions, plus your photo playing Croquet at #30.  Submit your 12 photos for a chance at the Prize, pulled from a random drawing of entries.

GARDEN TOUR GOOGLE MAP WITH LEGEND

 (Click Above to Open Map)

THE  PURPLE  ROUTE

1101 Central Avenue

Pollinators’ Paradise 

Gardener: Nancy F Notaro

 JITNEY STOP

Welcome to the corner of 11th and Central Ave, a Pollinators’ Paradise.  Nancy calls her home, built in 1926, “The Audra JoJean”, where she has resided for 40 years.  As a frustrated 7th Generation farm girl, she had dirt under her fingernails, but only a 7-inch deep stone yard with black plastic underneath.  So over the course of 12 years, she sat out at the curb on a little garden mat and sifted out all the stones using a kitchen colander.  Finally by 2020, all the stones were replaced with dirt, flowers and trees.  The hydrangeas and daylilies were saved and transplanted from tear-down homes.  Wildflowers reseed themselves and new ones show up each year carried by birds or rain waters.  

Nancy likes whimsy in her gardens with a ceiling fan turned into a flower.  Look for “Jack in the Beanstalk” climbing the tree above the purple bike.  In the secret garden, you'll see a bowling ball with eyelashes, among other surprises.  In the driveway, you'll find the kitchen garden in an old soapstone sink from the cellar of Ocean City’s First Presbyterian Church Manse.  There are over 60 varieties of constantly-changing flowers, herbs and vegetables at the corner, including the evil bamboo which is thankfully now banned from being planted in Ocean City. 🌺

1114 Central Avenue

Railway Garden

Gardeners: Bob and Patti Haigh

 

Welcome to the center of the “Three Sisters”, the Burleigh Cottages, built in 1894.  Purchased in 1993, the small garden was a patch of half dead grass. Since then, we have fenced it in and planted lots of flowers, in ground and in boxes placed around the train tracks and buildings. Yes, train tracks. There are five tracks and upon them ride a variety of freight and passenger cars. On the lighthouse, is a list of things people treat as a scavenger hunt.  In addition, to the list, see if you can find a figure of Mike Piazza (a NY Met) and two turtles.  Bob’s family always had trains to set up at Christmas.  Patti's  father and brothers were also model train collectors.   Their railway garden has brought smiles to old and young alike.

The three homes were built by Enoch Burleigh for his three daughters in 1894.  Bob’s sister owns the house to their South. All three homes have fenced gardens and their peaks restored and are all now heated for year round living. 🌺

 1113 Simpson Avenue

Nostalgia In Bloom

Gardener:  Patti Schauffele

 

PURPLE ROUTE "BEST IN SHOW"

 

Patti and her husband Steve have lived at this happy Ocean City home, circa 1903, for the past 23 years. They enjoy celebrating and decorating inside and out to reflect the joys of each holiday and season. The eclectic cottage garden includes. . . hydrangea, roses, morning glory, geranium, impatiens, zinnias, coreopsis, petunia, black-eyed susan, hollyhock, echinacea, columbine, lantana, sedum, salvia, nasturtium, marigold, mandevilla, rosemary, mint, wisteria, english ivy and a few varieties of trees and bushes including . . . privet, euonymus, mock orange, catawba, sassafras, cedar, holly, crepe myrtle and a very tall spruce pine that is between 65 and 100 years old!
The garden also holds bits of old dishes, tea cups, bird houses, and shells. In the Spring, the wisteria blooms along the fence top and many birds build their nests in the officially recognized Natural Habitat Yard (sign posted on fence). Watch for the lace-decorated stepping stones and solar-powered water features. There is no better place than to sit on the porch overlooking the garden in this happy home in Ocean City, NJ. 🌺

4 E. 11th Street - enter from Bay Ave, rear access

 Hidden Oasis Tropical Garden

Gardener:  Holly Kisby

My row home was built in 1942.   This property is not a part of any HOA, a unique feature.  Each of the four owners actually owns the land beneath them.  My home is deeded as a single-family unit.  I just think that's pretty cool. You access the back garden through a deed-restricted pathway that runs behind our homes from Bay Avenue to the alley. 

I bought my dream home in 2007.  My backyard was weeds and vines all the way into the trees and power lines. While I went off to work, my parents, David and Beverly Cockerham, came over and worked tirelessly to remove the debris and weeds, uncovering quite a large backyard patio.   

In the last five years I've tried lots of different types of flowers, but I've come to love Cannas, Elephant ears and Banana trees.  My treasured Plumeria tree is from my parent's home, both who passed away in 2021.  The first year the tropical tree ever bloomed was three months after my mom passed away and it bloomed again in the winter after I brought it inside, after my dad passed away. 

What I love about my yard is that it attracts hummingbirds.  The cannas are perfect feed for the sweet little birds. I love to lay on the patio to relax in my tropical oasis and think how lucky I am to live here.   My hot tub and the smoker make for a great entertaining space and for relaxing in this secret gem that no one would know was here.   I'm surrounded by homes and some fences.  My back fence shields me from cool windy days and I'm able to maintain my Ocean City tan well into the fall and start as early as April on sunny days.  

My home may not be ‘picture perfect’ from the outside but we've survived Hurricane Sandy with over three feet of water flowing through my first floor.  I'm still here and no matter how much my husband, Doug protests I'm NOT selling.  It's the perfect space to enjoy Ocean City.  I walk to work, we can bike to our dock, we can stroll Asbury, catch a sunset at the end of the block, or just simply sit in the backyard and enjoy the flowers.  See if you can spot Doug's decoy in the garden, “Ted the Turkey”.

The garden is definitely a nod to my parents.  They loved coming over to see my flowers, especially since they worked so hard to remove the weeds and vines.  Hope you enjoy my Hidden Garden. 🌺

10 West 10th Street

Blossoms of Glen Cove Lagoon

Gardener:  Beverly Neal 

JITNEY STOP

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” - Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust, the French Novelist, could have written these words around the time my little home was built in 1900! The cottage, now located at 10 W. 10th Street, was originally built elsewhere and moved to this location prior to 1925, per the Ocean City Maps located in our Museum.  Before it became a residential area, Glen Cove Lagoon was originally where the coal barges docked to deliver their coal.

Beverly’s love of the sea and gardening was passed down through generations of gardeners looking to create a sanctuary for their soul. She purchased the house forty years ago, and began building the garden. Yet, everything almost came to an end with Hurricane Sandy. The house flooded with about 15 inches of water throughout; the garden drowned under 43 inches of sea water! Once the house was repaired, work on the garden started, but this time with birds in mind. In New Jersey, habitat loss is one of the biggest factors in a declining bird population. Beverly’s garden includes a freshwater pond, bird house, and bird feeder. It has high grasses and shrubs for them to hide in, as well as a colorful variety of flowers. Two red Crepe Myrtles flank each side of the home. What stands out the most are the morning glories which climb up the posts to frame the porch. Sitting on the porch, listening to the birds, surrounded by the garden’s beauty, fills our hearts with joy and gratitude. 🌺

THE  GREEN  ROUTE

408-10  Central Avenue

PermaLifeStyle Garden

Gardener:  Helen Plourde- McSweeny 

JITNEY STOP

 

Welcome to the PermaLifeStyle Garden, co-created by Helen (my hands, my feet, my mind and my spirit), yard “waste”, a little red wagon, a broom, shovel, and even weather events including all aspects of Nature that abound on a barrier island city.   Ironically, everything in the PermaLifeStyle garden is impermanent, continuously shifting like the tides and the seasons.  The focus of this garden is to build earth, grow ground, create soil; which is nutrient dense, and water-retentive with curvy-sloped beds and paths that both:  1.) hold, slow and redirect water away from the house and,  2.) keep it out of the street.  Water is a valuable resource and can be a blessing.

This transformation spawned about 20 years ago during an outrageous deluge while protecting my mother in her newly-renovated granny pad on the ground floor of our home.  What started as beaver-like mounds of detritus and debris is now an urban oasis; growing food, flowers, and medicines for people (both year-round and seasonally) and for urban wildlife (both transient and permanent residents).  I am excited to share this garden’s present beauty, evolution, and the rest of the story with you!   Look for my peace pole! 🌺

122 Ocean Avenue

Madelyn's Courtyard

Gardener:  Sandy Simpson 

 

Walk down the sidewalk along the front entrance to our awning-clad Dutch Colonial, past the more formal landscaping on the street side of the yard, and you will enter a surprise backyard garden.  For a more ‘lofty’ presentation of colorful summer flowers, Sandy's mom, Madelyn started using flower pots many years ago.  The number of pots has gradually increased, and now totals over 50!  Pinks, peaches, yellows, purples, and whites flourish on impatiens, petunias, hibiscus, begonias, phlox, and hopefully roses!

The home was built in 1927-1928, tax records say 1928.  Then in 1940,  Sandy's grandparents purchased it as their summer house, and they added the garage, with an upstairs bedroom, closet, and bath as a guest room. You are welcome to tour the guest quarters and take a photo from the upstairs porch garden today. 

The backyard used to be all grass.  The original sidewalk path is still there but it was filled in with more concrete, fortunately, not totally!  Vowing to maintain the year-round home on the deep Ocean Avenue lot is the Gardener's priority, preserving the legacy of both her grandparents and Madelyn, who was their daughter-in-law.

Today, you are welcome to sit in the shade of the trees in a courtyard setting, nestled between the front house and the garage guest quarters.  Relax with tea and treats before you continue on your way, and just enjoy being in the midst of God's colorful creativity!

On your way back her sidewalk to the front, take a few pictures of her next-door neighbor’s bottle garden and peace sign framing either side of 124 Ocean Avenue. 🌺

22 Ocean Road

Sage Whale Cottage

Gardener:  Gail Thompson 

 

Gail is not certain about when the house was built, but there is an old “hang-on-the-wall toilet” in the powder room stamped 1925.  Toilets have long been used to date homes.  Therefore, one can assume it was built some time during the later part of the 1920’s.

When Gail first saw the house more than 30 years ago, it was love at first sight.  Her very first thought was, “this house needs window boxes”!  The yard was a blank canvas and no planting beds existed.  Over the years she has created planting beds and added many plants.  Too many plants is never enough!  I follow “no rules, but one:,” “plant what you love and love what you plant.”

Please enjoy the plant-filled window boxes, rose-covered arbors and cottage beds.  Look for the concrete whale in the garden.  At the end of the winding path you will find old fashioned Four O’ Clocks.  The seeds were gathered from Gail’s mother’s garden.  Also from her Mother’s garden are the Irises which are past their bloom for this season.  The only constant in the garden is change.  Gail sincerely hopes you enjoy her creation. 🌺

105 East Atlantic Blvd

Sandy Haven Homestead

Gardener: Amy Havens

GREEN ROUTE "BEST IN SHOW"

Built in 1929.  It has been the shore home of the Sandberg and Havens families since 1958.  In 2006, grand-daughter Amy Havens moved in year around to teach pottery at Atlantic City High School.  Since then, it has also become the home of over 250 different plant species, and numerous bird and insect visitors.

The formally arranged original garden encircles a concrete ring installed by Harold Sandberg.  Two hydrangeas and a rose survived that were planted by his wife, intrepid gardener Gladys.  Daylilies and hostas originate from the Ohio garden of their daughter, Karen Havens.  Her husband, sculptor James Havens, made the steel and stainless dancer.  The flagstones and numerous perennials and fruit trees have been added by the current gardener in recent decades.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Amy and her chef boyfriend Micheal Daly, have steadily expanded the food-growing potential of their budding Sandy Haven Homestead.  First adding the wooden longboat bed, built from dumpster scraps, then innumerable grow bags and steel raised beds tucked into every available sunny spot.  Permaculture design principles, learned on YouTube, guide their experiments in organic gardening, as they learn to start seeds, store water, build soil, compost, worm-farm, and manage diverse harvests, as well as diverse pests.  This year, they are growing 40 varieties of heirloom tomatoes on the concrete backyard!

The curb strip was recently depaved for peach and apple trees, underplanted with perennial herbs and flowers, and cover-cropped with alfalfa.  Porches house shady tropicals, while heat-loving watermelons, sweet potatoes, luffa, cotton, sunflowers, and tulsi grow on the private, upstairs deck.  It’s an ever-growing labor of love.

We host occasional plant and pottery sales here, and you can follow Amy on instagram @amyshavens, and her amateurly awkward YouTube channel @oceanhavens

123 East Atlantic Blvd

My Happy Place

Gardener: Judith Schalk

 

Our house is a 104-year old Colonial Revival that my grandparents, Gertrude and John K. Allen bought in 1952.  The Allens were the second owners and it has been in the family ever since and will continue to be passed down in our family.  I have wonderful memories of spending summers at the Shore with my grandparents in this house.

The front gardens are covered with Sedum, in lieu of a fence. All of the gardens are Perennials that come up year after year.  By August, the Lilacs and Lilies have since bloomed in their lavender and orange colors.  There are Lavender plants in the beds along with other perennials.  The back gardens have the same perennials as the front thus coordinating the formal gardens.  My mother planted much of it.  I was a member of a Gardening Club for years and planted mint.  I love mint in my ice tea and its also a plant that I bring in all year long to ward off silverfish and it works, too!

I have several statues in my garden…..”Harvey”, the pooka and “Freddy Fox”.  They both have meaning.  I love that movie “Harvey” with James Stewart, so I acquired “Harvey” for my garden.  The fox has meaning too. We owned a property in Berwyn, Pa. that had a stream with woods and a bridge in the backyard.  Sometimes a red fox would sit on the bridge and sun himself, so I bought “Freddy” in OC, to sit on that property.  Eventually, “Freddy” made it back to OC and now he sits here!

The bench belonged to my parents.  My husband and I used to sit out back in an area that we called “Meditation Corner” (a sign is still hanging on the fence) and talk, read scripture, and pray before he was called to his Heavenly Home with cancer.  That was our “special place”!  I have never been happier in this place I call home and feel truly blessed.  It is my “happy place”! 🌺

843A  1st  STREET

Miss Rosie's Gardens

Gardener: Dawn Buckley

 

My family has enjoyed owning this lower level paradise since 2010.  When we bought the house, which was built in the early 1900s, Miss Rosie's garden was merely three tattered shrubs in front of the porch.  The grass was sparse at best and had given way to the many pets that walked the island.  To say the least, it was not attractive.  Therefore my immediate priority was getting the garden underway.
As a young mother of four children at the time,  I have to be honest, gardening was not my ‘first love’, but I loved flowers and had a vision for what could be.  This was a dream come true, owning a second home near the ocean.  I knew that the only thing that would do this sweet home justice, would be to have nothing but flowers surrounding her.
On a tight budget, we started with a perennial garden of Rose trees, oakleaf hydrangea, with a mix of evolving perennials, roses and daylilies. Through the years the garden has evolved to now include lavender, different phases and colors of more hydrangea, and occasionally my husband’s favorite, hibiscus.  There have been some wins and some losses in creative gardening, but always full blooms of color along the way.  Look for the gully of water made with seaglass.
Over the years, I’ve also had a fall garden. As summer fades and blooms give way to a toasty brown, I’ve added kale and shades of lavender. The fading colors are a natural complement to one of my favorite gardens for Miss Rosie.
The house is endearingly named “Miss Rosie” as a nod to Rosemary Beach in Florida, which we had initially fallen in love with in our second-home search.  Our ‘Florida’ ended up being Ocean City, and along with my dearly loved Electra bicycle, “Rosie”, her name made perfect sense.  Miss Rosie was renovated around 2017.  Along with modern updates, we were sure to keep all of her original moldings, hardwood floors, her antique kitchen hutch and clawfoot tub in the original bath.
This is my first year, submitting to the garden tour.  Our first grand-daughter was born a bit early, therefore I didn’t get to plant some of the lilies that I wanted to.  If you’re watching the garden in the next year, keep an eye out for new cone flowers peeking through the hydrangea and surprise lilies sprinkled around the garden.
Something extra sweet to know about Miss Rosie, we grew to love her more and more and as her garden grew.  It's like her soul once again came to life.  Over the years, Miss Rosie has shown a special love for jewelry.  So if you’re ever visiting, be sure to protect your earrings.  Miss Rosie has a love for things that sparkle, especially the many earrings that have mysteriously disappeared over the years.  She usually returns them the following summer as they reappear in an obvious spot on the hardwood floor, or perhaps as you open the door to the bedroom and there the earring lays.  Always be aware, even in the garden, if Miss Rosie likes your earrings, she always finds a way to borrow them.🌺

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