The Private Gardens of Litchfield County

Over the weekend of June 24, two private Litchfield County, Conn., gardens were opened to view for the first time — former House & Garden editor David Feld’s Falls Village, Conn., garden was open to tour through a program by May Castleberry at Scoville Memorial Library in Salisbury, Conn., while the Sharon, Conn., property of legal scholar Henry Monaghan and his wife Nancy Hengen was the setting for to the Chore Service summer gala.

David Feld and Kurt Purdy

When David Feld and his husband Kurt Purdy bought their Falls Village home from Nancy McCabe, a garden designer whose clients have included American artist Jasper Johns, they inherited a cottage-style garden brimming with shaggy, imperfect charm — which is just how Feld likes it. June lavender and peonies give way to simply midsummer zinnias in a cutting garden lined with early 19th century tiles from McCabe’s hometown of Macon, Ga. At the entrance way is large cloud of Aphrodite calycanthus, and a sunken garden is home to medlar and quince trees — the later of which Purdy uses to make jam.

Henry Monaghan and Nancy Hengen

Chore Service held its summer gala in Sharon, celebrating 31 years as the crucial nonprofit serving the area's aging community by providing assistance to elderly, disabled, or immobile residents. By providing volunteer workers to help with grocery shopping and household cleaning the work of Chore Service allows these residents to live safely in their own homes. The gardens of Monaghan and Hengen were abloom with purple alliums and lilies and the grounds contained multiple water features surrounded by antique urns, Siberian irises and a crimson Japanese maple.

David Feld's garden. Photo by Alexander Wilburn

Nancy Hengen's garden. Photo by Alexander Wilburn

David Feld's garden. Photo by Alexander Wilburn