duke farms trip

On a rainy Sunday morning, I figured I'd head out to Duke Farms which has been on my  list of places to explore for a long time.  Sadly, I got there too late. The gardens for which the Duke Farms are famous were shut down a year ago.  The system of formal and grand gardens were comparable to the New York Botanical Gardens and designed by heiress Doris Duke herself as a tribute to her father who passed when she was 12 years old.

 

You can see one of the main grand garden buildings from the visitor center but sadly it's slowly decaying.  The visitor center rep explained that the gardens were shut down by the trustees as they had such a huge carbon footprint and and Ms Duke's estate was left to environmental causes. They could not see their way around maintaining such an un-environmentally friendly structure so they shut it down.

 

I was disappointed to say the least. I really had my heart and camera set on taking some great pics of flora but it was not meant to be.  There is more information at the tribute site to the gardens at http://savedukegardens.org  There are also a lot of pictures taken by the community before the gardens were shut down here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/savedukegardens/

 

I managed to get a few pictures of the grounds during the nature walk I took.  They still offer that, thank goodness.

 

Set "Duke Farms" by sean808080 (sean 808080)

Doris Duke Estate. Gardens were retired from service last year. More info at savedukegardens.org

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