Mill Pond Garden is the smallest (three-quarter acre) public garden in the American Public Garden Association.
A National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat with a healthy abundant population of insects, birds, reptiles, fish, and small mammals, including notably Eagles, Ospreys, Crows, Blue heron, Green heron, Cormorants, Swans, White Herons, Wood Ducks, Mallards, Snow Geese, Canada Geese, five species of Turtles, four species of Snakes, five species of Frogs, a bat colony box, Wood Duck box, Owl box, nesting boxes for many other birds, all the common known year-round and migratory garden birds, Hummingbirds, Rabbits and several other small and several medium-sized mammals, abundant butterflies including the endangered Battus philenor, Monarchs, several kinds of Painted Ladies, Hummingbird Moths, Sulfurs, Tiger Swallowtails, five species of bees and Bumblebees, and many other wonderful insects and pollinators.
A Sentinel Garden of the USDA, an official reporting station for pests and diseases of plants.
A participant in University of Ohio research on Phlox paniculata in the study of mildew resistance.
Has introduced six named cultivars of Azaleas, one cultivar of Viburnum awabuki, and two cultivars of disease proof Phlox paniculata.
Is maintained by five part-time employees and four volunteers including a Plant Scientist, and a Horticulturist.
Has fifteen Garden Open Days a year as well as available for bus and group tours, by appointment.
Has a walk-through 40,000 light “Garden of Lights Show” open a few nights in November, December, and January.
Has one of the largest and most varied spring bulb displays in Southern Delaware.
Possesses features including a Gazebo, decks, a pier, frontage on Red Mill Pond, five fountains, a frog pond, a stream with three waterfalls, a Koi pond and a Gnome House for children.
Hosts a mature native canopy and a mostly native pollinator garden.
MPG treasures significant plant collections of Allium, Hellebores, Hydrangea, Clematis, Chamaecyparis, Ilex, Rhododendron, Salix, Lilium, Viburnum, Hibiscus, Acer palmatum, Camellia, Lonicera, Euonymus, Colocasia, ferns, spring-flowering bulbs, and ephemerals. Woody plants are labeled with discrete aluminum tag plant labels. The Garden emphasizes plants that do well in the region and benefit wildlife, a holistic garden.
Uses Integrated Pest Management and very few chemicals very rarely; rather, choosing toughest varieties of plants and giving them ideal locations for prospering. Notice we use dense (nature-like) planting and ground covers in preference to mulching, to suppress weeds. It works! Our garter snakes and frogs eat the slugs and voles and moles. The Damselflies eat the mosquitos.
Mill Pond Garden is incorporated in Delaware and is a registered IRS non-profit public garden. The garden had over 3,500 visitors in 2021.
Since the garden is located in a cul-de-sac residential neighborhood, please do not block driveways, or park on grassy edges, or blocking mailboxes. Please park on the street not blocking any traffic or driveways. Most convenient is to park head-in on the turn-around circle.
For your safety and the well-being of the plantings, in the garden, please stay on walks and paths. Thank You!
Reviews well: Visitors say Spring here is the best they’ve seen anywhere. And Fall, by design is one of the most spectacularly colorful you may see anywhere. Routinely, visitors tell staff that Mill Pond Garden is more appealing to them than the big public gardens.
A national reviewer of gardens, Matt Hollis of California, visited and reviewed Mill Pond Garden. His review and excellent photos are in this link to his blog on Mill Pond Garden at Garden Grader: http://www.gradinggardens.com/home/2018/7/21/mill-pond-garden .
GOOGLE gives Mill Pond Garden a Five Star Rating.
Mill Pond Garden has ticketed admission to the public on Open Days. Tickets may be purchased .on the website. Invitations to Open Days are by email to subscribers. One may subscribe free on the website with an email address and name sign-up. A ticket admits one car and all its occupants.
MPG has over 1,800 subscribing households in the region. The subscribership grows by about fifteen per week or more.
The garden has a budget of about thirty-seven thousand dollars per year and is supported twenty-five percent by visitation fees and class fees, twenty-five percent by product sales, and fifty percent by the generous, tax-deductible donations, and the help of benefactors, subscribers, volunteers, and neighbors.
