Two local gardens, Stoney Ground and Gulf Road Homestead, will be open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 24 during Open Days programs sponsored by the Garden Conservancy.

Stoney Ground is a former goat pasture with a ground cover of poison ivy and a path through oak woods to a winding stream. The possibilities intrigued garden designer Nan Sinton and her colleague David Michener. 

In 2015, Stinton built a new farmhouse and barn in Russells Mills Village and the new garden began. Today restored stone walls and a long border planted for pollinators connect a private courtyard of Mediterranean-inspired planting to the woods.

The Gulf Road Homestead is a historic New Bedford home, once slated for demolition, that was moved and reconstructed with attention to historic detail in open meadows bordered by woods near Apponagansett Bay. The owner brought in landscapers to enliven the open spaces and create a place to relax and separate from the outside world, according to information provided by the conservancy.

Sinton and Michener devised a “ramble,” planting trees to blend the backdrop of the woods with and around the existing lawns so that the sculptures are rediscovered from new perspectives. Hidden in plain sight, a modern labyrinth of hornbeam trees was installed as two-foot tall saplings.

For more information about these gardens and how to register, visit https://www.gardenconservancy.org/open-days/open-days-schedule/bristol-county-ma-open-day-2.

Also on that day, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., garden designer Sinton will host a program, Shaping Space, about how landscapes can evolve. For more information about this program, visit www.gardenconservancy.org/open-days/open-days-schedule/digging-deeper-shaping-space.