Poke Gardens

Poke Gardens is situated on 9 acres just outside Marshall, Virginia. The gardens began almost 30 years ago with a small vegetable garden at the bottom of a hill below a shady house in the woods. The sloping site seemed to suggest a series of terraces falling to the east and south and the gardens evolved through the years with that idea in mind. The kitchen garden is just above the main property gates and supplies the house all summer.

The garden gates at a tool shed just across the drive from the vegetable garden lead to the main garden which is a series of “rooms” loosely defined by color. First is a hydrangea hill with over 40 varieties then a double shady border leaning toward blues silvers and yellows. There are steps up to a pavilion with a garden of deep shade plants. The end of the “Blue Garden” is now dominated by a mature contorted Mulberry ‘Unryu’- “Dragon in the Clouds”. at the end of the gravel path is another pavilion overlooking the valley toward the Bull Run Mountains or looking across the lower garden toward the pool terrace and house.

The winding path is broken by grass lawns steps and bridges crossing a water feature that spills from the pump house into a tank then into a winding stream. The first area is built of hedges of old peony varieties (some from my grandmother’s garden) on one side and mixed pink leaning perennials on the other. The next terrace with a square lawn is planted primarily for the high summer garden. The water course that runs through the gardens, over bridges, and boardwalks and through woods finally reaches a pond garden.

The path continues back up the hill passing the Sylvan Theatre, up rustic steps to a circular fern garden with an obelisk folly in its center. The existing woods of hickory, chestnut, oak, and tulip poplar are planted deeply with azaleas in drifts of white and pink with deeper more jewel like colors at the far end of the woods.

It is a garden to wander and explore, to find places to sit in the shade and discover the interior views and those borrowed from the beautiful Piedmont of Virginia.

This garden’s estimated size is 5 acres.

Open Days 2024:  Sunday, October 6
Hours: Three Sessions: 10–12, 12–2, 2–4