Anticipating a time when a young family would be better served by a rural location, a forward-thinking client began looking for the perfect getaway spot. After a long search, they settled on an old horse farm. The property featured overgrown secret gardens, a gravity fed spring, crystal clear pond, miles of waking trails, a classic New England farmhouse, and an old horse barn complex.

Not ready to move but motivated to lay the ground work for the future, the client and design team began analyzing the property and working to create an ideal first phase of development. The final design for the first phase - installed in spring of 2016 - included small orchards featuring rare and heriloom cider varieties, pears, peaches, and plums, grape and kiwi trellis, pond improvements, rows of small fruits and berries, and a small nuttery. At the center of it all, an old horse ring, lying vacant for over a decade and yet still with little vegetative growth, was painstakingly transformed into a pseudo-labrynth, with sweeping beds of herbaceous perennials to help pollinate and attract beneficial insects.

By the third growing season, grapes were bursting off the vine, blackberry and goumi were ready by the pint full, and some of the first fruits had set in the young orchards. After much care from a veteran gardener, the perennial labrynth had become well-established and a once barren landscape had become a pollinator haven.

Within a couple years the family decided to move and Phase 2 began with the renovation and addition to the old farmhouse. Landscape development is ongoing with hopes of additional gardens and plantings in spring of 2026.