BELFAST — Carol Harrell believes a man named Steve Moody is to thank for “the pretty views on Belfast’s city streets.” To prove her point, she and adjacent neighbor David Perry will open their Moody-designed gardens on Saturday, Aug. 2 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., as part of the Belfast Garden Club’s Open Garden Days. Admission to both gardens – -one at 11 Condon St. and the other at 30 Northport Avenue — costs $5. The event will be held rain or shine.
“Our gardens are, in essence, Steve’s gardens,” Harrell asserts. “We’re caretakers to one degree or another.” When Harrell and her husband Ron purchased their home in 2007 from Beverly Eustace, a former Belfast Garden Club member and Open Garden host, Steve had already been working on the garden for twenty years. He’d started as a college student, pruning and mowing, and gradually began designing beds, selecting plantings, creating walks and patios and doing what his degree prepared him to do: landscape architecture.
The Harrell and Perry yards connect at the back corners, providing easy access for visitors. These homeowners are excited to display two examples of what one person is accomplishing in the beautification of a city. “Steve’s work is on display throughout Belfast,” Harrell says. “His expertise is invaluable, his professionalism superb. No wonder we call him ‘St. Stephen’!”
The Belfast Garden Club’s Open Garden Days are a major fundraiser for the nonprofit, raising funds for the Club’s civic and educational programs in Waldo County. The next, and final, Open Garden of the season will be on Aug. 16, when Frogmore Flower Farm in Brooks opens its gates to visitors.
