Greenwich -- Lavery Garden

The approximately two acre sloping property has a 1930's Tudor style house with a dovecote on the roof, natural rock formations, whimsical boxwood topiaries, a koi pond and a 24-square foot potager within owner-designed deer fencing: low stone walls topped with pierced wood panels. Beginning work in 1983 the current owners had to clear away rampant ivy and weeds to discover the rock ledges, three existing connecting pools, neglected shrubbery and gravel paths. Some of the benches placed around the property were built from stones found there. There is an expansive lawn between the house and street and many mature trees although some have been lost to storms in recent years. Antique stone containers are filled with seasonal flowers and tropical plants including bananas and hibiscus are grown in containers so they can be cut back and overwintered in the garage. The gardens have been grown organically for more than thirty years.

Within the fenced potager the owner grows vegetables, herbs, perennial flowers and roses with annual marigolds around the perimeter to discourage pests. Large clover-shaped and basket-shaped topiary boxwood are featured on the front side of the house, under planted with catmint, giant allium, daffodils, carpet roses and sedum. There are lantana standards in the pool garden and near the covered porch there is a white garden with David Austin rose standards, hydrangea, white bearded iris, and Casablanca lilies. Deer resistant scilla, vinca minor, fern and trillium are grown as understory in the woodland garden and combination plantings and sprays are used to discourage deer from the unfenced gardens around the house.

Persons associated with the garden include Ophelia Bercume (former owner, prior to 1929); the Edgar Company (former owners, 1929-1932); Albert C. Edgar (former owner, 1932-1936); Ethel Leddy (former owner, 1936-1944); Edwin H. and Patricia R. Somers (former owners, 1944-1948); Harriet Petersen (former owner, 1948-1951); Constance J. Romanos (former owner, 1951-1953); O. Waring and Susan Mellick (former owners, 1961-1983); Herbert T. Johnson (architect, circa 1932); Cora Burnham, Sanctuary Garden Design (landscape designer, 2009 and 2013).