Litchfield -- The Patterson Garden

Curry Garden, 1939.

The Patterson Garden (also known as the Curry Garden or the Curtis Rose Hatheway House) in Litchfield, Connecticut surrounds an 1899 Colonial Revival house, both of which have undergone changes through the years. An earlier colonnade at the front of the house has been replaced by an allée comprised of twelve 30-foot tall Chanticleer pear trees, each under planted with four Green Pillow boxwood. The walkway to the front door is comprised of pea gravel edged in granite set, with a small granite set terrace and two antique urn container gardens filling the transition to the front steps. Behind the house a grass terrace is surrounded by a perennial border with a line of espaliered European pear trees and topiary yew pillars marking the transition to the lower lawn. Old trees and yew hedges provide shade and privacy for the long, rectilinear site. The primary color for blooms in this garden has been white, including white peonies, ancient hydrangeas, antique and shrub roses in white and pink, and the blooming pear trees in the spring.

Next to a carriage house at the bottom of the garden there is an herb and vegetable garden planted in eight raised beds and enclosed by a white picket fence with reproduction treillage at one end that is draped in honeysuckle. A circular rose bed in the lower lawn is anchored by a ten-foot iron trellis; nearby there is a hedge of ten hydrangeas thought to be about ninety years old.A shade garden featuring hostas also borders the driveway that runs along the side and back of the property, in an area too shady to grow roses.

The property has been owned by at least eight different families since the house was built in an undeveloped area in 1899. Gardening has been an avocation for six of those owners, all who were members of the Litchfield Garden Club.

Persons associated with the garden include Curtis Rose and Julia Hatheway, Elizabeth Pearsall Sparks Hatheway and families (former owners, 1899-1922); Grace H. Perry, Pearl L. Denison and Blanche Underwood (former owners, 1922-1925); Reverend E. Norman and Margaret W. Curry (former owners, 1925-1947); Richard F. and Marie H. Harker (former owners, 1947-1949); Paul F. and Nancy Coe Brogan (former owners, 1949-1961); C. Raymond and Carolyn Johnson (former owners, 1961-1984); Thomas W. Witherspoon, Jr. and Elaine Goss Witherspoon (former owners, 1984-2001).