The Owls Head Maine Post Office
The quaint and colorful Owl’s Head Post Office sits on the village green in Owls Head, Maine. You would never know that a magical garden awaits you down the gravel path to the right.
Every year I attend a garden tour in Maine, and this year it was the Georges River Land Trust’s 27th annual “Gardens in the Watershed Tour“. Each year this tour highlights gardens in a different area of the Georges River watershed, and this year it featured six gardens in Rockland, Owls Head, and South Thomaston. My post Gardens in the Watershed Tour 2018: Part One shows photos of the first five gardens on the tour. To read it, click here. The gardens were beautiful as was the scenery viewed while traveling between properties in this undeveloped area of Maine.
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and cell number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
Plantings along the right side of the gravel entrance path. The unique green fencing echoes and complements the colors in the plants in front. This is not a coincidence—the whole garden integrates plants, objects, colors, and textures into a gorgeous tapestry.
Unlikely as it seems, the final and best garden on the Watershed tour surrounded the Owls Head Post Office in Owls Head, another beautiful and undeveloped area of Maine. You would never know that it is five minutes from Rockland and 15 minutes from Camden. Just as photos of a painting are not the same as seeing the painting itself, my pictures of this garden do not do justice to the subtlety of the artistry. However, they do capture its beauty and attention to detail. Enjoy:
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Plantings along the left side of the entrance path. The spiral staircase leads to the owner’s vacation home, which is above the post office. The building dates from the 1800s and has been used as a post office since 1931.
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I was admiring the unusual pink color of the allium when I discovered that all the alliums in this garden were spray-painted.
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At the back of the garden was a pond accessed by this dock-like deck on which sat another scenic and historic building. Even the canoe seems to have been chosen for its aesthetics.
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The crow on top watched us tour the garden.
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This is Doug Johnson, the owner and creator of this magical garden. Not surprisingly, he is an artist and an art teacher. He rents his vacation home on VRBO, and the inside is just as charming as the outside. You can see photos by clicking here.
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Carolyn
Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name, location, and phone number to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information. Please indicate if you will be shopping at the nursery or are mail order only.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
October 24, 2018 at 10:37 am
Wow! Those allimus look so silly! I do not plant bulbs here because the winters are too mild to sustain many after the first year. However, alliums have been a consideration because some types do not need much chill. Besides, I have no experience with them. Yours pictures make them even more compelling. however, those that I was considering are different types, such as ‘Chritophii’ and ‘Mount Everest’.
October 27, 2018 at 4:58 pm
All alliums are beautiful—you can’t go wrong.
October 27, 2018 at 4:42 pm
Those alliums certainly are eye-popping! I’m glad to explained that they are “paint enhanced”, because otherwise I’d have been searching in vain for those cultivars, lol
June 22, 2021 at 9:41 am
[…] drive to the small town of Owls Head, stopping occasionally to take in the views of the coast. The Owls Head Village Post Office is striking with its bright red widow’s walk and porthole window on the second floor. This […]