Yard of the Week: Whimsical Walled Garden for Play and Discovery
A landscape designer found on Houzz turns a backyard ruin into a secret garden for a family with a young daughter
This garden in the Massachusetts countryside isn’t what landscape designer Amy Martin would say is a typical project for her firm. For one, the stone walls of a crumbling barn in the homeowners’ backyard play a major role in the design. And, although the whole family can enjoy the garden, they asked Martin to tailor it especially for their 8-year-old daughter.
“They know that she is a very imaginative and creative, artistic child. They wanted to nurture that,” Martin says. “Instead of doing it in a structured way, they’re giving her this place where she can nurture those aspects of herself in a natural way.”
“They know that she is a very imaginative and creative, artistic child. They wanted to nurture that,” Martin says. “Instead of doing it in a structured way, they’re giving her this place where she can nurture those aspects of herself in a natural way.”
After: The completed garden, seen here from the same view, now entices visitors to discover what lies beyond the new arbor and entry gate. Though the garden sits in the backyard’s open lawn, the fence, the rustic stone walls and the rambling plants screen much of its interior from view. “I think they had the idea of it being a secret garden,” Martin says. “You can’t really see what’s inside all that easily.”
When it came to encapsulating the feel of the walled garden, “the word whimsical was the main idea, and cottage garden, fairy garden, that kind of thing,” Martin says. Romantic garden seating, hidden nooks and plants in playful shapes and colors (many of which attract butterflies and bees) help to achieve the vision. “It’s a place for them to be up close and immersed in nature. … Such a big goal for all of this was to help [the kids] get outside and connect with nature and find some peace,” Martin says.
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When it came to encapsulating the feel of the walled garden, “the word whimsical was the main idea, and cottage garden, fairy garden, that kind of thing,” Martin says. Romantic garden seating, hidden nooks and plants in playful shapes and colors (many of which attract butterflies and bees) help to achieve the vision. “It’s a place for them to be up close and immersed in nature. … Such a big goal for all of this was to help [the kids] get outside and connect with nature and find some peace,” Martin says.
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Past the entry gate, a path of dry-laid New England flagstone (chosen to complement the existing stone walls) cuts straight through the space to create an axis that aligns with the house and contrasts with the garden’s soft, overgrown feel. A freestanding fountain awaits you at the end of the path, its gentle trickling sound pulling you farther into the space.
Small garden rooms just off the path invite meandering and lingering along the way. “We made it so that there were little areas [where the daughter] could do different things, even just laying in the grass,” Martin says.
Meadow-rue (Thalictrum rochebrunianum) plants dot the garden, their purple plumed flowers, shown here, forming a bit of a flowery crown above the garden space. “It’s a very whimsical plant. It gives a sense of a veil that you look through,” Martin says. “It does a lot to contribute to the right feeling.”
Small garden rooms just off the path invite meandering and lingering along the way. “We made it so that there were little areas [where the daughter] could do different things, even just laying in the grass,” Martin says.
Meadow-rue (Thalictrum rochebrunianum) plants dot the garden, their purple plumed flowers, shown here, forming a bit of a flowery crown above the garden space. “It’s a very whimsical plant. It gives a sense of a veil that you look through,” Martin says. “It does a lot to contribute to the right feeling.”
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From overhead, you can see how the garden space is one large rectangle, with the single path running from front to back. The entry gate is at the bottom of this photo.
Various garden rooms, including two small lawns and two paved patios, sit off the path, surrounded by plantings that make each space feel secluded and immersed in the flowers, shrubs and trees that surround it.
The stone walls in this view are the barn’s original walls, which Martin’s team repaired during the landscape project. The fencing was installed as part of the new design.
Various garden rooms, including two small lawns and two paved patios, sit off the path, surrounded by plantings that make each space feel secluded and immersed in the flowers, shrubs and trees that surround it.
The stone walls in this view are the barn’s original walls, which Martin’s team repaired during the landscape project. The fencing was installed as part of the new design.
The first garden room one encounters is a little grass area and bench to the right of the main path. Visitors can sit on the bench, facing the main path and overall garden, or they can turn opposite and admire the birdhouse and its winged visitors. The grass area can be used as a path and connects to the flagstone walkway farther into the garden. “That’s meant to be walked through like a little journey,” Martin says.
A small lawn surrounded by flowering perennials and shrubs sits on the other side of the flagstone path just across from the garden bench. “It’s really meant to be a place where you can lay on the grass and be surrounded by flowers,” Martin says, adding that she designed it to accommodate the daughter’s request to have a place to play and gather with friends. (These photos show the photographer’s daughter enjoying the garden.)
Allium (Allium ‘Millenium‘ and A. giganteum), coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘Butterfly Kisses’) and other showy, pollinator-attracting flowers surround the lawn. The flowers will grow to be more substantial and will provide more subtle screening between rooms.
When choosing plants for the space, Martin was conscious of the fact that kids, in addition to parents, would be frequent garden visitors. She opted for fun, playful plants that grow to heights where kids can enjoy and admire them. “They can just be right up close and in them,” Martin says. She included lots of interesting textures and plants — like Azurri Blue Satin rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) — that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
Make Your Garden a Haven for Backyard Birds
Allium (Allium ‘Millenium‘ and A. giganteum), coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘Butterfly Kisses’) and other showy, pollinator-attracting flowers surround the lawn. The flowers will grow to be more substantial and will provide more subtle screening between rooms.
When choosing plants for the space, Martin was conscious of the fact that kids, in addition to parents, would be frequent garden visitors. She opted for fun, playful plants that grow to heights where kids can enjoy and admire them. “They can just be right up close and in them,” Martin says. She included lots of interesting textures and plants — like Azurri Blue Satin rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) — that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
Make Your Garden a Haven for Backyard Birds
Back on the main path, visitors then progress to a small flagstone patio on the right, which features a small bistro table surrounded by globe-shaped boxwood hedges, adding more playful elements and year-round structure to the design. Martin envisioned that this seating area would be a space for the daughter to sit and write — a feature she requested — or gather with friends for tea.
Martin gave the space more structure and formality than the garden rooms we explored earlier. “Everything else is wild and a cottage garden. It’s the one formal space. You need to have some order and formality to offset the loosey-goosey fun stuff,” she says.
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Martin gave the space more structure and formality than the garden rooms we explored earlier. “Everything else is wild and a cottage garden. It’s the one formal space. You need to have some order and formality to offset the loosey-goosey fun stuff,” she says.
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Another small patio for seating lies across the main path. “That’s where you really start to be enveloped in the garden,” the designer says. An existing Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and clematis (Clematis viticella ’Polish Spirit’) grow on the walls behind and around a decorative bench made from tree branches (from Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York). Pink-flowering kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Satomi’) anchors the corner.
As time goes by, the plants will continue to mature and fill in, further enveloping the paved seating areas, seen here from above.
A freestanding fountain anchors the garden’s back wall and is where the main path ends. “We chose it because it was so whimsical,” Martin says. It can be seen and heard from both patios.
The fountain is wired to a switch that’s on the post of the front arbor gate. When you enter the garden, you can flip the switch to turn on and enjoy the fountain during your garden journey.
The fountain is wired to a switch that’s on the post of the front arbor gate. When you enter the garden, you can flip the switch to turn on and enjoy the fountain during your garden journey.
The fountain, like many areas in the garden, is surrounded by plants that are appealing to look at and touch, including these velvety sage-green lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’). “That’s a really good one for a kid’s garden,” Martin says.
Here, we also see more purple allium (Allium ‘Millenium’), its globe-shaped flowers sprinkled throughout the garden. Ferns connect the garden’s boundary to the woodland just beyond the walls, blending what’s designed and what’s natural.
Here, we also see more purple allium (Allium ‘Millenium’), its globe-shaped flowers sprinkled throughout the garden. Ferns connect the garden’s boundary to the woodland just beyond the walls, blending what’s designed and what’s natural.
Yard of the Week
Who lives here: A couple and their school-age son and daughter
Location: Duxbury, Massachusetts
Size: 50 feet (15 meters) wide and 80 feet (24.2 meters) long; garden sits on a 3-acre property
Designer: Amy Martin Landscape Design
Contractor: Toomey Landscape
Before: The ruins of an old barn sat in the family’s backyard, just steps away from the back door and patio. In addition to creating a backyard escape, the homeowners wanted to incorporate the stone walls into the new garden.
Martin collaborated with one of the homeowners (who had found her on Houzz) and her daughter, to devise a garden that would invite people of all ages, especially children, to get outside and play. “I wanted this to have meaning for them. I want this to be partially their creation,” Martin says.
Before design work began, the team repaired and stabilized the walls. They graded and excavated that part of the site to make it flatter and more usable. Additionally, they brought in fresh soil for the new plantings that would fill the space.