Old House, New Garden

We began our practice designing landscapes for historic homes, and we remain the leading expert in New England for traditional landscapes. (For Michael's books on the subject, see here.) With historic houses, the key to garden design is letting the house speak for itself. Often you'll find old structures buried behind large, overgrown plantings, completely hiding their charm. Foundation plantings for historic structures should include, as here, appropriately sized and scaled plant material that will never grow to obscure the house. Color is important too: we selected a soft muted palette match the house trim, a key element which serves to link house and landscape together.

As one Victorian landscape manual put it: "If you are proud of your house, pray, let it be seen!"

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