LINCOLNVILLE — Lincolnville artist Ken Cleaves will speak about his Schleppinghurst Garden as well as his unique art currently on display at Lincolnville Library, on Wednesday, May 15 at 6:30 p.m., at Lincolnville Community Library, 208 Main Street, Lincolnville.

Cleaves’s presentation will include a video tour of the garden and a discussion of his forty-year process to create the garden’s Japanese-inspired character. Cleaves built his extensive land and hardscape garden on the several acres surrounding the house he built on his 30 acre woodland.

Shleppinghurst Garden features wandering paths, ledges Cleaves has exposed, his own stone walls, a spring fed pond edged with Japanese style stonework, and an amphitheater-shaped quarry. Cleaves uses mostly native shrubs and trees to quietly enhance the natural landscape with tranquil beauty and symmetry. Featured in the Summer 2019 issue of Maine Homes Magazine, Schleppinghurst Garden is described as, “An expansive, serene haven emerg[ing] from decades of taming a stony forest.”

Among Cleaves’ artwork on display in Lincolnville Library are wooden, whimsical creatures. Cleaves crafted these using cedar shakes left over from his decorative shingling which adorns the exterior and interior walls of his house and outbuildings.