The goal of the garden was to stimulate interest in conservation. The garden club eagerly seized on the property's large ferns and winding brook, and began laying out walkways. The work of maintaining, identifying, planting, and labeling is still carried out by volunteers from nearby Mount Desert Island communiites and garden clubs. The National Park supplies labels and signs, maintains the water system and sponsors a college student who works full-time in the summer. A striped maple grows in the mixed woods.
Visitors view the marsh from a wood plank walkway.
Bluish-green bog rosemary. Fireweed in the meadow, an area of continual change, which is mowed yearly to prevent return to forest. A jack pine in the mixed woods. Scotch lovage in the seaside garden. A self-guiding brochure is available for 25 cents, which goes directly to support the garden.