Country Gardens
Garden for an old Farmstead
I had the pleasure of working on this garden for well over twenty years. To begin, when the barn was converted to a residence in the early l980's, remains from the old farm yard included beautiful buff colored walls. A new stone walk with center circle had been added by others during the conversion (photo top left).
An old millstone, converted to a fountain, was added to the center of the circle. A deck at the living level above was redesigned and connected with steps to the walled courtyard below. Hawthorn trees and a gate enclosed the remaining open spaces. Planting was low maintenance, mainly grasses and evergreen groundcovers.
As the client’s interests and available time changed the garden was redesigned to include greater plant diversity with perennials, shrubs, roses and bulbs. The remaining lawn panel was converted to a gravel garden. The owner, a knowledgeable plants woman, continues to add rare and unusual plants to the borders.
Working Farm | Converted Barn | Large Country Garden| Plant Collector's Garden | Steep Hillside Garden |
top row: farm yard before and redesigned deck; row 2: the first garden at left, current garden at right as seen from deck; row 3: the main border with millstone, new steps connecting garden to deck; row 4: summer borderand new front door; row 5: new gravel garden;