Nashville -- Fairbourne

Fairbourne, a Tudor style house was built in 1929. When the present owners moved into their new home, twenty-six years ago, no original gardens remained. The location on a corner lot left little privacy. The first project was the construction of a serpentine brick wall for privacy and a brick "dovecote" to house pool equipment and garden tools. These structures provided an ideal backdrop for the development of an extensive perennial garden. The perennial beds and climbing roses dominate in the spring. The ornamental flowering trees, bushes and espalier trees and shrubs (jasmine, plum trees, climbing hydrangea, crab apples and white wisteria) hold the eye during the summer. The variety and juxtaposition of pyramidal trees, round boxwood and burford holly, and a collection of ornamental maple trees kept aggressively pruned, create an "outdoor sculpture" in the fall and winter. The garden is on several levels and planted around several sides of the house, with stone steps and stepping stone paths leading from one "outdoor room" around a corner to another, mirroring the asymmetrical, unpredictable footprint of the house.

Persons associated with the property and garden include: Thomas H. Malone (former owner, 1906); Neina B. Bryan (former owner, 1925); Frank P. Bachman (former owner, 1930); Elizabeth B. Hardcastle (former owner, 1955); James Debow Casey (former owner, 1970); Carolyn S. Sartor (landscape architect, 1975); Carol Dixon (garden designer of perennial bed, 1975); and Ben Place (landscape architect, 1978).