When Elle Décor magazine published this exquisitely restored 1840s eyebrow colonial, I received acknowledgement as the garden’s creator. Inspired by how seamlessly the owner, a noted designer, made the house historically accurate but feel contemporary as well – this became my goal for the garden.

   Using a limited plant palette of hornbeam, boxwood, arborvitae and linden for the garden’s bones, I created green walls for privacy and to divide the long narrow property into rooms. I surrounded the front garden with a double layer of hornbeam and boxwood hedges and used billowy hydrangeas and Dutchman’s pipe (twining up either side of the front porch) to create a homey charm, keeping with the house’s village setting.

   Behind the house I began transitioning to a more contemporary feel. A curving hornbeam hedge and Goshen stone walls create space for parking on one side, while on the other are intimate areas for drinks and dining surrounded by mixed plantings. The last, furthest area, behind hornbeam and a boxwood ‘cloud’ hedge, features a black summerhouse and reflecting pool defined by a line of pleached lindens. Boxwood balls scattered across the pea stone completes the transition from a billowy village garden to a sleek modernist space.