Southport -- Harborside Gardens

This ¾ acre coastal garden was established by owners Ellen and John Levinson in 2013 after they built their white Greek Revival home within a historic district in 2010. The property reflects the owner's expertise in landscape design, as Ellen Levinson, an interior designer and certified landscape design consultant, is credited with most of the gardens' design. The gardens feature natural and formal elements, with environmental rejuvenation being a motivating factor in the gardens' design and plant choice. The plants included in the gardens are all considered minimal maintenance plants such as knockout brand roses, perennials, and native plants like goldenrod and wetland grasses are embraced by the owners.

This property is defined by five primary areas. The entry garden sits behind a long white picket fence and is framed by cherry, maple, hawthorn trees, and two identical boxwood knot gardens. Lavender and lamb's ear surrounds the entry gate to the property. In the center of the knot gardens are marble urns filled with seasonal flowers and plants. The pool terrace has two planting beds; on one side, white-flowering climbing hydrangea and blue/lavender clematis cover the garage wall, and the water side of the terrace is kept low, allowing a view of the water. This bed features lady's mantle, lavender, dark purple salvia, and multi-colored succulents. The pool terrace's retaining wall is a backdrop to a long, curving perennial bed along the lawn level. The property features an herb and vegetable garden that sits directly off the kitchen, with an antique brick path outlining the center element, a large rosemary bush. Within the eight beds of the vegetable garden grows basil, chives, oregano, sage, mint, and thyme. The native pollinator garden spans the space between the boathouse and the dock. It is anchored with red chokeberry and miniature clethra. In a jigsaw-like fashion, white, blue, and yellow perennials grow in between swaths of the grass pathway leading from the open lawn to the boathouse. The garden beds near the picket fence offer a sneak peek of the property to those passing by. They feature a bed of peonies and pink crabapple, variegated weigela, and noninvasive barberry and ligularia. Within a shadier bed grows dark green, white, red, and yellow weigelia, Japanese painted fern, hostas, and golden creeping jenny.

Persons associated with the garden include: Ellen Levinson (owner and landscape designer, 2013- ); John Levinson (owner, 2013 – present) Kathleen Haas, Wm. Kenny Associates (designer of pollinator area, 2019); John Toates Architecture and Design (architect, 2013); Nicholas Orban, All in One Lawn Care (gardener, 2013-present).