Moore Farms Botanical Gardens, SC

The beautiful gardens were founded in 2002 by Darla Moore in Lake City, SC on her family’s ancestral farmland. The gardens’ map shows various points of interests: fire tower, spring house, main pond, swimming pond, fishing pond, topiaries, mosaic aqueducts, a vegetable garden etc. Some were closed when we visited the plant sale on 5/21/2022. The gardens are open to the public during scheduled event otherwise by appointment only. We walked around admiring colorful flowers lining walkways, beautiful water features, an immaculate vegetable garden, even saw a snake. It is obvious that the gardens are a point of pride and maintained with great care. I very much enjoyed my time there and highly recommend visiting.

I was curious to learn about the owner so I researched a bit. Darla Moore grew up in Lake City, SC. She attended the University of South Carolina where she received a degree in political science. She then pursued an MBA at George Washington university and became a successful investment banker and philanthropist serving on the board of many organizations. Today, she lives in her hometown on her ancestral land. Since 1998, she has donated millions of dollars to various South Carolina institutions, the highest to the University of South Carolina’s business school named after her. Other sizable donations were made to Clemson’s school of Education, the McNair center for Aerospace Innovation and Research at the University of South Carolina, Clafflin University.

References Moore Farms Web Site, Darla Moore – Wikipedia