A Glimpse of The Garden—

Hedges Frame A Gardener’s Efforts

By Nancy K. Crevier

“A Glimpse Of The Garden” is a miniseries focusing on the heart of a gardener’s work — a special spot, an extraordinary plant, a place of respite, or a place that evokes a heartfelt memory. What is down the garden path of your friends and neighbors? What is down your garden path?

Maura Fletcher credits the former owners of her 1765 house with having installed many of the gardens and the terraced landscape that surround the home, but she has indulged her passion for plants by adding yet more gardens in the ten years she and her family have called the antique property home.

“I’ve always dabbled in gardening,” said Ms Fletcher. “I joke that I made all of my gardening mistakes at our first house. I learned a lot, and there were a lot of established gardens here when we moved in that I have built on and borrowed from since then. Gardening is my little therapy. I love weeding in the early morning, or if the kids are outside,” she said.

With border gardens sweeping around the house, yards and pool, and flower gardens that tumble down the sloping property, she has plenty of weeds to pull while she peacefully reflects, she said.

“There are so many parts of my garden that I love, it’s hard to pick out just one or two favorites,” Ms Fletcher said. Some plants, such as the coppery-leafed rose bush her children gave her one Mother’s Day, or the Japanese maple that was a gift from the 2007 NHS Girls’ Lacrosse team that she coaches, have great sentimental value.

“I do like the little garden I put in between the house and garage. I like English gardens, so I styled it after one,” she said. Perfectly shaped boxwoods mark the stone walkway and a centered water fountain adds a refreshing touch to the site.

“I like things very symmetrical, although that doesn’t always work out. And I like this garden because I can enjoy it from my kitchen window,” Ms Fletcher said.

Her love of hedges is evident throughout the property, where hedges of boxwood provide neat borders and divide large spaces into ones that are more intimate. A giant euonymus hedge shades a stone retaining wall along the backside of the house, with bright yellow lilies and pale violet irises blooming in a row at the foot of the hedge.

A stone pathway wanders down to the lower level of the yard, flanked on either side by drifts of greenery splashed with the colors of yellow day lilies and yarrow, pink dianthus and phlox, white daisy buds, the lavender hue of the wild geranium, and the misty peach blossoms of spirea.

“I have to give a shout out to landscaper Larry Whippie,” said Ms Fletcher. “He is the one who really helped me lay out the terraced garden, and any questions I have, I always go to him,” she said.

She has utilized plants of various textures and shades of green in planning the garden on the hillside, she said.

“I’ve also put in lots of tall grasses. They remind me of the beaches around Long Island, where I grew up. They make me feel like I’m near the water, even though I’m not,” said Ms Fletcher.

It was Mr Whippie, she said, who moved the gazebo from the upper side lawn to the lower level, and it was he who moved a large conifer into place near the pool, surrounding it with more of her beloved boxwood, grasses, sage, daisies, and a rose bush to create a pleasing garden in the corner of the pool patio.

The gardens offer her peace in the midst of busy days, said Ms Fletcher. “I love to be out here, just dawdling in the yard.”

That is what is down the garden path at Maura Fletcher’s.