A Suite of Garden Rooms
Lou Ann and David Brower
612 Shady Lawn Road
Developed over more than forty years, the Brower garden is still a work in progress. An originally bare and unpromising site - only 2/3 of an acre, though surrounded by borrowed woodland - has been redesigned over the years and turned into what the owners think of as a “book of gardens” or a succession of “garden rooms,” separated by symbolic thresholds - a fence, a bridge, steps, a paving stone.
The entrance area bordering the road features native plants and a gem of a waterfall-fed, rock-lined pool. Beyond it, the sunny front yard is framed by ashlar stone-bordered beds. To the right of the house, the former driveway is now a Japanese Maple allée, featuring a variety of specimens underplanted with hellebores and cephalotaxus. Passing through an elegant (and deer-proof) wooden fence and gate, one descends steeply down to the “Anniversary Garden” immediately behind the house. Once a driveway turnaround, then a children’s playground, it is now the topmost and most recent of a series of rock-walled, lushly planted terraces and celebrates a recent wedding anniversary. A pool on the terrace is fed by a gently dripping rock fountain and overloo
ked by birdhouses perched on the deck above. Further terraces lead down a steep hillside into an increasingly natural woodland originally dubbed “the jungle,” but now gradually tamed with paths, carefully chosen rocks and artful plantings. Though tiny blooming bulbs and other spring beauties abound, the emphasis is primarily on native ferns, woody plants and mosses. The overall effect is of gradations and shades of green rather than brilliant floral masses, a spectrum that can be enjoyed in any season or weather.
A potting shed/studio - more like a “folly” - halfway down the slope punctuates the greenery and offers from its balcony an additional series of viewpoints. At the bottom of the slope, a stream-fed retention pond is only part of the nature-friendly watering system: from the upper level gravity leads water from two large tanks (200 and 600 gallons, respectively) and a 250-gallon cistern under the workshop deck. The owners’ deep love and respect for plants and nature is, finally, evinced by the fact that for the past five years the Browers’ garden has been a Certified Wildlife Habitat - a refuge and nurturing home for all creatures.
