In the 1970s Alice Lane and her family donated 100 acres called Onatru Farm to the Town of Lewisboro. The property includes the farmhouse, several barns, woodland (now trails), pastureland (now athletic fields), and several gardens – Alice’s formal garden, the Community Gardens, the newly created meadow, and the Alice Friendship Garden. A working farm since the early 20th century, the barns were home to cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens; the fields grew hay, apples, potatoes, corn, grapes and vegetables.
One of the Poor family’s very special places was the rock garden. Located north of the driveway near the front pasture wall, it boasted a small natural pool in the midst of a rock outcropping, the same stone shelf that underlies a lot of our town. Neglected for decades with no one living on Onatru Farm, the bushes and weeds took over the few iris and prickly pears that remained. But resurrection of the rock garden came with the Lewisboro Garden Club’s efforts to restore the area to a place where visitors could sit, rest and contemplate. After months of dedicated hard work, the Alice Poor Friendship Garden was created. The stone bench was donated by Poor grandchildren so that others might enjoy the space they once did. And to quote from the grandchildren… “The rock garden was a place to catch tadpoles, enjoy buttercups and violets (never picked!), and a secret retreat for each of us – a place to find solitude and comfort.”
The Lewisboro Garden Club and Lewisboro Park & Recreation hope that visitors to the Friendship Garden will find that same solitude, comfort and peace.
The Bench
Caryopteris - Dark Knight
The Bench
Spring
Flowers at last
Work begins
Rocks?
