Atlantic Heights Gardens

For over a decade gardeners in the Atlantic Heights neighborhood in Portsmouth, NH have been opening their pocket gardens and backyards to the public, the tradition continues on Saturday, July 9^th from 9:30-1:00. “It’s a great opportunity to show off our historic neighborhood when it is at its blooming best.” explained Stephanie Krenn, co-chair of the Atlantic Heights Area Neighborhood Association and garden club organizer, “We expect to meet a few city officials as well as lots of people from all over the Seacoast at this relaxed and affordable tour”.

Visitors will see established perennial gardens with impressive stone work and water features, imaginative gardens with small spots for quiet retreat, well-tended vegetable gardens with owners committed to eating locally, and brand new gardens just beginning to bloom and bear fruit.  The tour starts at Big Rock Park where visitors have the opportunity to pick up a map showing open gardens, make a donation toward future community gardening projects, and purchase bottled water.

The Atlantic Heights community has many public spaces featured on the tour including, a community vegetable garden, numerous adopt-a-spots maintained by the garden club, a sustainable landscape restoration in progress in Hislop Park, and garden boxes in Big Rock Park where any neighbor can snip herbs or cut flowers for their own tables. Thanks to the investment of Community Development Block Grant funds, Atlantic Heights is a greener, prouder neighborhood with ongoing streetscape improvements and refurbished parks and public green spaces, including Hanscom Park, a World War II memorial park that was recently adopted and pruned by Piscataqua Landscaping.

This annual tour is intended to promote a sense of community among neighbors and to showcase the efforts of individual gardeners who, despite busy lives, enjoy digging in the dirt and cultivating growth and renewal.  The Atlantic Heights garden club is a study in leading by example, every year as plants are shared and gardening tips are exchanged, this small community grows a little closer together.

Atlantic Heights can be reached by taking exit 7 off I-95 and turning onto Market Street Extension toward Woodbury Avenue then taking the first right after the traffic light.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDRESS

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More information regarding the event can be found by calling Lynne Langley at 430-9537 or Stephanie Krenn 433-2246.

The Trellis by Philip Case Cohen courtesty of TheDailyPortsmouth.com

Saturday, July 10th, 9:30 am-12:30 pm

Come see what is growing in the tiny back yards of Atlantic Heights, the historic Portsmouth neighborhood with little houses and a big sense of community listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The pocket gardens lovingly tended by hard-working neighbors reflect the varied interests and talents of their owners. Discover gardens filled with vigorous vegetables, lush perennials or appealing arrangements of vivid annuals. In others see intricate stonework or even an artful display of sculptures created by the owner.

There will be over a dozen gardens and public spaces which are in easy walking distance. The Atlantic Heights Garden Club maintains plantings in Hanscom Park and several adopt-a-spots which have been established on bits undeveloped city-owned land. We have established a thriving herb garden in Big Rock Park where neighbors can snip fresh herbs for a favorite recipe as well as a modest cutting garden for flowers. Our community vegetable gardens with individual plots reminiscent of victory gardens are also included on the tour.

The tour starts in Big Rock Park with a welcome desk and programs listing the open gardens. Donations are gratefully accepted to continue the garden club’s community plantings. Our next projects are adding native blueberry plants to the park landscape and creating a rain garden with native plants to filter some the water that flows into the Piscataqua from the neighborhood.

Atlantic Heights can be reached by taking exit 7 off I-95 and turning onto Market Street Extension toward Woodbury Avenue then taking the first right after the traffic light.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDRESS

View Larger Map