United States of America -- Vermont -- Windham -- Westminster West
Scope and Contents:
Hayward Garden includes 63 digital images and a folder that includes worksheets, photocopies of articles and additional images including a pamphlet about a musical program created for and perfomed in the garden in 2014 as a the Yellow Barn summer program.
General:
The owners describe their one and one-half acre ornamental garden as a new garden in an old place, with its 200 year-old colonial farmhouse and attached barn, low stone walls, and old farm building foundations that have been repurposed as distinctive garden rooms within surrounding meadows and woods. They purchased the property in 1983 and spent about one year clearing the land of scrap metal and other debris, brambles and weed trees, a rotting barn, dead trees, and an old Nash Metropolitan automobile. The garden style is English, with a rectilinear format from south to north softened by lush growth in season and more evident in the long Vermont winter. The design began by drawing a straight line from the front door of the house to a 75-year-old apple tree. There is a crab apple orchard along that main axis that can be seen from the house. Brick and pea stone gravel walks, 90-foot long mixed borders, and an herb garden laid out in formal parterres are either parallel or perpendicular to the central axis of the garden. The 14 garden rooms are delineated by clipped hedges of varying heights, many of yew but also other plant materials for variation. There are four places to sit within the garden: a gazebo at the far end reached through a tunnel of pleached copper beech, an outdoor dining room on pavers under tall trees, a bench slightly above and overlooking their spring garden, and another bench next to a shed near the herb garden.
Creating a garden in harmony with the rural location was important to the owners, who subsequently purchased 19 adjacent acres and preserved the meadows and woods with the Vermont Land Trust. To instill harmony in the diverse garden rooms the owners adhere to three themes: hedges for structure, black locust posts and terra cotta containers for materials, and burgundy and other reds for the color that recurs throughout the garden rooms. Since the entire garden is unified it is possible to add variations without muddling the design. Honoring the long gone dairy farms they have turned the foundations of a milking parlor into a garden room that has low, drought tolerant plants growing among the stone flooring and three rusted milk cans. The cracked cement foundation of a former silo was turned into a pond with a fountain built into a stone wellhead and a statue of Buddha on the shore.
Gordon Hayward has written many articles for Horticulture, Taunton's Fine Gardening, and regional magazines using his own garden to teach design aesthetics and their practical application. Topics include the effective placement of planted and unplanted containers and other garden ornaments, how to build a small fountain, the importance of proportions to design, how to set vertical posts, and tips on outdoor seating and dining rooms. Good design is illustrated by reshaping lawns to complement planted borders or trees, through consistent choices of decorative materials, through applying the principles of theme and variation when choosing what to put in the garden, and through planning for the winter garden with berries and crab apples for birds and good "bones" that become evident in winter.
Persons associated with the garden include: Gordon Hayward (owner, garden designer, and gardener, 1983- ), Mary Hayward (owner, garden designer, and gardener, 1983- ), Ephraim and Lydia Johnson Ranney, and their descendants in the Buxton and Reed families (former owners, circa 1790-1983); Helen O'Donnell (gardener, 2008-2015).
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Topic:
Gardens -- Vermont -- Westminster West Search this
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
United States of America -- Vermont -- Windham -- Westminster West
Date:
2010 Oct.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
United States of America -- Virginia -- Albemarle County -- Greenwood
Scope and Contents:
This file contains 35 digital images and 1 folder.
General:
Tiverton, a 466.67-acre property in Greenwood, Virginia, dates to the early 1800s when it was part of extensive farmland owned by James Marshall Bowen and his wife Frances Starke Bowen. After changing hands multiple times, Marie Owsley purchased the farm in October 1900, tore down the existing house, and built a mansion that was completed in 1906. At that time there also were various barns, silos, and outbuildings, and a greenhouse built circa 1896.
There are photographs taken in 1912 that show a traditional, colonial style "falling" garden consisting of three terraces on the east side of the house that connected to a series of formal garden rooms to the south, however it is not known whether Marie Owsley commissioned those gardens, or if they were already there.
In 1935 a fire damaged the house interior. Then-owner Mariska Owsley hired architect Carl Max Lindner to restore the house and commissioned Virginia landscape architect Charles F. Gillette to redesign the tired, old garden. Gillette reconfigured the three terraces into two, built brick retaining walls, each topped with a brickwork balustrade, and a wide brick stair with a demilune landing to link the two levels.
Gillette's upper terrace had a central brick path flanked by Magnolia grandiflora trees planted in 1936. The landing's half-moon shape is echoed in the lower terrace by the curved form of the brick terrace at the eastern end of this level, and in the arcs at the east-west ends of the central pool. The drama of this space is in its simplicity: a horizontal plane comprised of a lawn, a centrally placed pool, and a brick patio at the far end. Axial paths to the north and south lead to formal garden rooms
When Coran Capshaw purchased the property in 2008, the Gillette garden was overgrown, and the brick walls were crumbling. He and his wife Parke recognized the importance of Gillette's designs, and fortunately had the original blueprints. In 2013 they commissioned the nationally recognized Gillette expert, landscape architect Rachel Lilly, to restore the Gillette gardens and create additional garden spaces.
Working with architect Adams Sutphin, Lilly rebuilt the leaking pool and crumbling brick walls. They used three different bricks to recreate the original Gillette look. Lilly simplified Gillette's more complex planting schemes to reduce maintenance. The mixed borders in the lower terrace are now planted with a row of boxwoods (Buxus sempervirens) fronted by a hedge of Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). The parterre rose gardens in Gillette's formal garden rooms are now axial brick paths running through lawn and edged with single pink Knock Out® roses. Shrubs add interest in the corners of these spaces.
Lilly also designed additional gardens, including a butterfly border and an enclosed vegetable garden with seven raised beds and custom hoop covers. To take advantage of the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, she designed a terrace on the west side of the house near the kitchen. Enclosed by low-growing boxwoods, it is paved with blue stone laid in a diamond pattern, and has a 70-inch-wide cast stone "Lagoon" planter from the English company Haddonstone in the central brick roundel.
To the south is a swimming pool complex designed by Lilly and architect Adams Sutphin. It features a covered pool house with kitchen, a fireplace, arbor, spa area and panoramic mountain views.
To the south is a swimming pool complex designed by Lilly and architect Adams Sutphin. It features a covered pool house with kitchen, a fireplace, arbor, spa area and panoramic mountain views.
Persons associated with this property include: Colonel James M. Bowen (former owner, 1850); Carl Max Lindner (architect, 1935-1936); Charles Gillette (landscape architect, 1935-1945); Andrew Sutphin (architect, 2008-2016); Rachel "Rusty" Lilly (landscape designer, 2013—2016); Maggie Stemman Thompson (head gardener, 2015– ); Edward Pelton (metalwork for gate repair and other ongoing projects); Jim Smith (technical and historic consultant for greenhouse restoration, 2013-2016).
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
