THE GARDEN FEELS LIKE AN EXTENSION OF THE HOUSE DRAWING YOU OUTSIDE TO EXPLORE ALONG ITS NETWORK OF PATHS

Outside in

Even while Larry was still planning his energy-efficient home, he was thinking about how the surrounding garden would both flatter the house’s design and direct the eye out over the views of the surrounding farmland and then on to the mountains beyond.

Every element in the garden is intended to complement the architecture of the house so that both house and garden had a similar feel. For a garden that primarily uses grasses and wildflowers, there is a lot of formal structure.

Sentinel towers of Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’ are repeated throughout the garden, used as vertical punctuation marks to the many ornamental grasses that add depth, volume and texture to the garden. When you view the garden from a distance, you notice how they create a recurring pattern and provide a sense of rhythm, but while you’re inside the garden they add an air of mystery, obscuring some views until you turn a corner, and encouraging you to explore further.

The garden feels like an extension of the house – just as Larry hoped it would – always trying to draw you outside to explore along its network of paths that offer a multitude of different ways to navigate your way around the garden.

Clockwise from top leftA low planting of Sesleria autumnalis cuts across the gravel pathway leading to the house. On the right, taller Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ is punctuated by tall columns of Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’ and boxwood cones. The metal plant-supports, or tuteurs, topped by stainless steel gazing balls are another recurring theme throughout the garden. The path to the pool terrace takes you past tall Rudbeckia laciniata on one side and the vigorous grass Elymus arenarius ‘Blue Dune’, which required the use of a root barrier to stop it from spreading, on the other planted alongside the tall purple-flowering Vernonia fasciculata. The living room of Larry’s energy-efficient home features a wide expanse of glass that provides stunning views over out over the Solidago meadow, and creates the feeling that house and garden work as one. Low-growing Hakonechloa macra ‘Alboaurea’ and Liriope spicata form waves of green around apple trees that were rescued from a local orchard, and the repeating columns of Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’. In the foreground, the rising spikes of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’ echo the gold and green of the hakonechloa and liriope foliage.