Garden Tour: A Soothing Oasis Filled with Thoughtful Details
This elegant and calming garden is personalised with gifts and items collected over the years
Jeannette Fristoe and Larry Blake have personalised their garden as not only a dreamy place to sit and relax with a book, but also an ideal spot for hosting outdoor gatherings. They repurposed the decking from an already-filled-in pool, built a fieldstone wall to divide the garden and planted an array of beautiful plants. Their landscape is also one-size-fits-all-ages, with a playful treehouse for their nephews and grandchildren.
‘This white-shingled house with lots of gables and angles emphasised by a deep roof overhang is the bungalow-style home we always admired,’ Fristoe says. The home is built on a wooded plot, which gives it what she describes as ‘a cool and classical appearance. We both love the lawn and prefer the landscaping to be very casual and relaxed.’ The home is on America’s National Register of Historic Places.
The couple kept the large mailbox near the front door, loving its charm.
Fristoe bought the metal birdbath in the back garden at Sandy Scott’s Antiques in Bel Air. Her sister found the metal flowers at a shop in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and gave them to her as a gift.
The back door area provides a typical sampling of the plants around the home. It has a window box with a sweet potato vine and a pink impatiens. The vine travelling up the stair rail is English ivy. The large bush is an oak leaf hydrangea, and the large leaves of an elephant ear (Colocasia) can be seen by the door, next to a tree peony.
Wooden shoes repurposed as planters hang by the back door. Fristoe found them at garden sales over the years. She planted small pots of ivy in each shoe, lining them up to resemble a window box.
‘We use the small terrace for summer suppers and casual entertaining,’ Fristoe says.
‘Our favourite part of the back garden is the fieldstone wall my husband built to give a friendly divide to the open space,’ Fristoe says. ‘It provides a beautiful backdrop to the spring bulbs and summer blooms.’
The front of the rock wall is full of daffodils in the springtime. Behind the wall are roses and self-seeding cleome. The old iron kettle is home to a pink geranium.
The grapevine wraps around to the front of the garage. Also on the garage in an old iron container is a white black-eyed Susan vine with a sweet potato vine.
‘I was inspired to plant the grapevine after a visit to the Bordeaux region in France, where old stone houses and barns are graced with grapevines that warm the cold facade of the stone,’ Fristoe says.
‘I was inspired to plant the grapevine after a visit to the Bordeaux region in France, where old stone houses and barns are graced with grapevines that warm the cold facade of the stone,’ Fristoe says.
Bamboo lines the property and creates a natural division between the couple’s garden and their neighbour’s. Blake built the pyramid-shaped trellises, the birdhouses and the dovecote that grace the garden.
This sewing machine stand has a large iron furnace grate on top, making it a perfect table for potting plants. It was a gift from the couple’s neighbour.
In this section of the garden, blue hydrangeas border the lawn. The tray table is a car-boot sale find from a trip to Vermont.
Brommö chairs, Ikea.
Brommö chairs, Ikea.
The fence between the driveway and garden is made of old wood from the deck of the swimming pool, which was filled in before the couple moved into the house. With the help of a friend, Blake designed and built the arbour and gate out of the redwood. A New Dawn rose climbs the fence and arbour, along with English ivy, which stays green year-round.
The stone wall that defines the flower beds was made from the remnants of old buildings on Fristoe’s family farm. The flower beds are filled with perennials, starting in spring with hellebores, Solomon’s seal and flowering bulbs. The tall plant in front of the fence is monkshood, which blooms in the autumn with regal blue spires.
The stone wall that defines the flower beds was made from the remnants of old buildings on Fristoe’s family farm. The flower beds are filled with perennials, starting in spring with hellebores, Solomon’s seal and flowering bulbs. The tall plant in front of the fence is monkshood, which blooms in the autumn with regal blue spires.
In the back garden is a treehouse Blake built from bits and pieces left over from renovating the house. ‘Our neighbour, Rick, shipped the spiral staircase to us from his in-laws’ summerhouse in New England,’ Fristoe says.
Check out ways to create a lush, jungle-style garden
Check out ways to create a lush, jungle-style garden
TELL US…
What did you like most about this garden? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
What did you like most about this garden? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
Who lives here Jeannette Fristoe and Larry Blake
Location Bel Air, Maryland, USA
Size 2,300 sq ft (214 sq m)
Year built 1923
When Jeannette Fristoe and Larry Blake moved into their home, the most dramatic change they made was cutting down several large trees to give the garden more sunshine and air circulation, which benefited both the grass and the sun-loving plants. They also removed numerous overgrown cherry laurels and rhododendrons and replaced them with hydrangeas and English boxwood.
Get tips on how to create a welcoming front garden