NORTHPORT — When Jordana and Ross Martin, two Brooklyn, New York creatives, bought their eight-acre beachfront property in Northport in 2016, they effectively had a blank canvas to express their love of heritage trees and Maine granite.
Today, highlights of the sprawling beachfront property include a garden, Japanese-style gardens, terraces and granite steps and ornate stonework. The public is invited to attend, rain or shine, Saturday, Aug. 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Martin's Midcoast Maine Retreat at 132 Bayside Road.
Belfast Garden Club's Open Garden Days 2023 concludes with a visit to Martin's Gardens, a nine-week celebration of one of the region's most engaging and creative gardens. Admission is $5.
Founder and Chairman of Ross Martin National Marketing Agency; Jordana founded and runs a textile industry business. The couple, who have spent their summers in the area for 15 years, planted about 20 apple, crab and pear trees on their property on Bayside Road.
"Our decision to purchase this particular property was less about the house and more about the mature fruit trees," said Jordana Martin. "Your distinctive shapes and symbols inspire us time and time again."
Soon, 16 more fruit trees – including cherries, peaches, plums and primroses – were planted on the plain leading to the sea. In 2019, they hired Yarmouth landscape architect Joshua Tompkins to help create a vision for the site. Jordana prepared the following supplements herself.
Since the plague kept Martins in Maine year-round, he maintained a large garden with raised beds and a generous arrangement of white flowers—peonies, poppies, dahlias, and more.
In 2022, the couple created their circular Japanese garden with walls, seats, Japanese cards and various cones. Jordana, who says "every stone is a sculpture built by time," traveled the state to source granite and worked with Winters & Brick & Stonework in Hampden to bring his designs to life.
This spring, the Martins planted a natural color garden that includes catfish, saffron and indigo trees, and more.
For more information about Belfast Garden Club and its programmes, visit belfastgardenclub.org. Proceeds from Gardening Open Days support club school programs, camp scholarships, library donations and public gardens in Belfast.
