Landscape Design
Inspiring Gardens
A Gorgeous Farmhouse Garden on Cape Ann Comes Into Bloom
Tour a Massachusetts landscape designer’s private yard, crafted over two decades for year-round beauty and interest
Stepping into the private garden of landscape designer Hilarie Holdsworth is a feast for the senses any time of year. In spring, bulbs emerge and fern fronds unfurl beneath the branches of fruit trees covered in snow-white petals. In summer, colorful floral borders buzz with bees and butterflies, while edible beds offer fruit for the sampling. Fall welcomes the rich colors of changing leaves and ripening seedpods. Winter’s bareness exposes the formal structure of evergreen shrubs and carefully laid out brick pathways.
Take a tour of this ever-changing landscape and discover how the designer transformed a once overgrown and neglected plot of land into a garden that strikes a balance between formal structure and carefree wildness.
Take a tour of this ever-changing landscape and discover how the designer transformed a once overgrown and neglected plot of land into a garden that strikes a balance between formal structure and carefree wildness.
Starting the Garden
When Hilarie and her husband, Eric, purchased this plot of land on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, over 20 years ago, there was little more to the site than native deciduous trees and a tangle of invasive bittersweet and honeysuckle vines. The site’s natural wildness drew the couple, as did the privacy offered by 3½ acres bordered by conservation land.
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When Hilarie and her husband, Eric, purchased this plot of land on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, over 20 years ago, there was little more to the site than native deciduous trees and a tangle of invasive bittersweet and honeysuckle vines. The site’s natural wildness drew the couple, as did the privacy offered by 3½ acres bordered by conservation land.
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Adding a house was the couple’s first priority since the land, once part of a pig farm, came without existing structures. Instead of building a new structure from scratch, the Holdsworths “rescued” an 18th-century barn that was slated to be demolished in Maine.
They had it deconstructed beam by beam, transported to Cape Ann and reconstructed (with some reimagination) into the couple’s home. “All the beams and queen posts were preserved, as well as tongue-and-groove barn board, which we repurposed in the interior,” Hilarie says. The reconstructed barn-home features a mostly open floor plan.
They had it deconstructed beam by beam, transported to Cape Ann and reconstructed (with some reimagination) into the couple’s home. “All the beams and queen posts were preserved, as well as tongue-and-groove barn board, which we repurposed in the interior,” Hilarie says. The reconstructed barn-home features a mostly open floor plan.
Over the next two decades, Hilarie turned her attention to the vast garden, carving out space for floral beds, a seating terrace, a parterre and a fenced edible garden. In larger areas, she created a lawn, woodland garden and shade garden.
Hilarie, who at the time of purchasing the land was not a professional landscape designer, started with the perennial beds closest to the house and worked outward. “I started my garden in a way that I would never recommend to my clients: one idea at a time, one area at a time and one herculean task at a time,” she says.
The landscape has continued to grow and evolve ever since. “Since those early days, I’ve learned the value of an overall concept or design that creates an integrated flow of spaces,” she says.
How to Get Started on a Landscape Redesign
Hilarie, who at the time of purchasing the land was not a professional landscape designer, started with the perennial beds closest to the house and worked outward. “I started my garden in a way that I would never recommend to my clients: one idea at a time, one area at a time and one herculean task at a time,” she says.
The landscape has continued to grow and evolve ever since. “Since those early days, I’ve learned the value of an overall concept or design that creates an integrated flow of spaces,” she says.
How to Get Started on a Landscape Redesign
Patio and Parterre
Design spontaneity led to many instances of magic in the Cape Ann garden. This was the case with a free-form patio just off the back of the farmhouse, which features a paving pattern as intricate as a Moroccan rug. “The brick and river stone terrace happened very organically,” Hilarie says. “I had no particular pattern in mind when I began, just the overall shape.”
She used reclaimed brick from her in-laws’ property, river stones and a number of found objects as part of the patio floor. “It’s very graphic when viewed from the porch above,” the designer says.
Design spontaneity led to many instances of magic in the Cape Ann garden. This was the case with a free-form patio just off the back of the farmhouse, which features a paving pattern as intricate as a Moroccan rug. “The brick and river stone terrace happened very organically,” Hilarie says. “I had no particular pattern in mind when I began, just the overall shape.”
She used reclaimed brick from her in-laws’ property, river stones and a number of found objects as part of the patio floor. “It’s very graphic when viewed from the porch above,” the designer says.
The patio leads out to a parterre that Hilarie says was designed as a formal herb garden but has morphed into more decorative and drought-tolerant perennials. In spring, as shown here, self-sowing forget-me-nots (Myosotis sp.) form a blue froth beneath two types of evergreen boxwoods (Buxus ‘Green Velvet’ and B. sempervirens ‘Graham Blandy’).
Kitchen Garden
A pair of dwarf crabapple trees (Malus sargentii ‘Tina’), shown here in spring, flank the entrance to the edible and cutting garden. A combination of 3-foot-tall wooden pickets and 6-foot-tall double-set wire cable helps protect crops from nibbling deer. “This is not typically high enough to keep deer out, but they don’t seem to like the two wires,” Hilarie says.
A pair of dwarf crabapple trees (Malus sargentii ‘Tina’), shown here in spring, flank the entrance to the edible and cutting garden. A combination of 3-foot-tall wooden pickets and 6-foot-tall double-set wire cable helps protect crops from nibbling deer. “This is not typically high enough to keep deer out, but they don’t seem to like the two wires,” Hilarie says.
Spring. The kitchen garden’s symmetrical layout can be appreciated when viewed from an upstairs window. The front beds are planted with peonies and other cutting flowers. Three wooden raised beds along the back of the garden — shown here in early spring before planting — produce basketloads of basil, tomatoes, lettuces, sugar snap peas, rosemary, leeks, blueberries, strawberries and more.
Winter. A soft dusting of snow shows off the formal layout of the edible garden beds and evergreen hedges, adding interest even in the quiet season of the garden.
Garden House and Woodland Garden
Hilarie positioned an Asian-inspired garden house across the lawn to provide a destination within the larger woodland garden. The garden house sits partially concealed by deciduous trees, amid a sea of primarily native ferns including hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula), ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris), Himalyan maidenhair fern (Adiantum venustum), northern maidenhair fern (A. pedatum) and lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina).
Find more plants native to your region
Hilarie positioned an Asian-inspired garden house across the lawn to provide a destination within the larger woodland garden. The garden house sits partially concealed by deciduous trees, amid a sea of primarily native ferns including hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula), ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris), Himalyan maidenhair fern (Adiantum venustum), northern maidenhair fern (A. pedatum) and lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina).
Find more plants native to your region
From spring to fall, Hilarie furnishes the 10-by-14-foot garden house with a futon, decorative pillows and throws. She and Eric sometimes use it as a sleeping porch on warm summer nights. Screened walls keep mosquitoes at bay. In winter, Hilarie brings the cushions indoors.
“The idea was to read a book or the newspaper [in the garden house] on a Sunday afternoon,” she says, “but that tends to fall away in favor of weeding.”
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“The idea was to read a book or the newspaper [in the garden house] on a Sunday afternoon,” she says, “but that tends to fall away in favor of weeding.”
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Spheres of various sizes and materials placed throughout the landscape provide, as Hilarie describes, “a whimsical connection through the various gardens.” Here, stone spheres balanced on natural boulders act as garden sculpture in a bed planted with hellebores (Helleborus orientalis), forget-me-nots and sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum).
Shade Garden and Water Feature
“My shade garden is ‘wilder’ than other areas of the property and is meant to convey a tapestry of shade-loving plants that blend a cultivated look with more of a naturalistic style,” Hilarie says. This flagstone path leads through a shady glade, past broad-leaved hosta, ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and dogwood (Cornus sp.).
“My shade garden is ‘wilder’ than other areas of the property and is meant to convey a tapestry of shade-loving plants that blend a cultivated look with more of a naturalistic style,” Hilarie says. This flagstone path leads through a shady glade, past broad-leaved hosta, ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and dogwood (Cornus sp.).
A recirculating water feature provides a focal point — and the soothing sound of water — for a small seating area. Behind, shade-loving plants like hostas and ferns thrive in the dappled light beneath a honeysuckle-topped arbor.
A close-up of the water feature shows off the contrast between the bright chartreuse foliage of golden Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’) and the darkness of the pool of water.
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Shop for outdoor fountains on Houzz
Hilarie used a variety of native plants in the shade garden, including Jack in the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) and pink turtlehead (Chelone lyonii), both shown here, as well as foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), baneberry (Actaea sp.), Canadian wild ginger (Asarum canadense), creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera) and a variety of native trees.
How to Design a Beautiful Shade Garden
How to Design a Beautiful Shade Garden
Seasonal Change
Beds evolve and different plants draw the spotlight as the garden passes from season to season. “I like to design my clients’ gardens, and my own, in a way that provides a series of events,” she says. That way, there’s at least one thing blooming and beautiful to look at from spring to late fall.
Here, frost accentuates the forms of clipped boxwood and late-flowering showy stonecrop (Hylotelephium spectabile) in the autumn garden.
Beds evolve and different plants draw the spotlight as the garden passes from season to season. “I like to design my clients’ gardens, and my own, in a way that provides a series of events,” she says. That way, there’s at least one thing blooming and beautiful to look at from spring to late fall.
Here, frost accentuates the forms of clipped boxwood and late-flowering showy stonecrop (Hylotelephium spectabile) in the autumn garden.
Water and Maintenance
Soaker hoses set on timers water beds in sunnier areas of the garden, but Hilarie has held off on installing drip irrigation throughout the broader areas of planting, reporting that the size of these areas makes it fairly impractical. Instead, she hand-waters when necessary but usually restricts giving supplemental water to larger beds up until the hottest months of summer. Lawns receive no supplemental irrigation.
The edible and ornamental beds require frequent care in the form of seasonal replanting, shaping boxwood hedges, weeding, harvesting and deadheading. More naturalistic areas of the garden, dominated by ferns and native plants, need little care.
Soaker hoses set on timers water beds in sunnier areas of the garden, but Hilarie has held off on installing drip irrigation throughout the broader areas of planting, reporting that the size of these areas makes it fairly impractical. Instead, she hand-waters when necessary but usually restricts giving supplemental water to larger beds up until the hottest months of summer. Lawns receive no supplemental irrigation.
The edible and ornamental beds require frequent care in the form of seasonal replanting, shaping boxwood hedges, weeding, harvesting and deadheading. More naturalistic areas of the garden, dominated by ferns and native plants, need little care.
“I really enjoy entertaining,” Hilarie says of her garden. “When I’m on my own, I find it difficult to relax and just absorb it; I’m more likely to dive in and deadhead, weed or plant. I actually see this as a wonderful way to actively enjoy the garden.”
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More on Houzz
Tour other inspiring gardens
Browse thousands of photos of landscapes
Work with a landscape architect near you
Shop for outdoor products
Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: Hilarie Holdsworth; her husband, Eric; and their three cats, Booger, Finnegan and Fergus
Location: Cape Ann, Massachusetts, about 30 miles northeast of Boston
Size: 3½ acres (1.4 hectares)