Alexandria -- Robert Bentley Adams Urban Garden

The brick federal townhouse was built in1805 and underwent many different owners who used the house in different ways before the current owners purchased the property on a small city lot in 1983. As it stood the house needed restoration and redesigning. The owner is an architect whose practice included historic restoration, and he worked on their "blank canvas" in a gentrifying neighborhood for the next 18 years. The property included off-street parking for two cars, outdoor play space for children and some plants that could be salvaged. Privet hedges were trimmed into crenelated forms, a magnolia was espaliered on a south-facing brick wall. The backyard was divided by crepe myrtle into a room with a lawn and flower borders and a play area behind boxwood. By adding a stucco wing that bisects the side and rear gardens the rear garden became visible to indoor living space. A two-story enclosed porch was rebuilt that faces a small side patio garden. The historic townhouse abuts the brick sidewalk so the front garden is in container urns with ground cover planted under a street tree. The utilitarian parking pod was redesigned in a bell jar shape and paved with cobblestones salvaged from a street repaving project. A wooden fence replicates an historic Rhode Island fence pattern and separates the parking space from the sidewalk. Osmanthus, liriope and a holly hedge were planted. The side patio garden is paved with a stone rose compass with boxwood and a little gem magnolia in a raised field stone planter. Antique iron railings on the enclosed porch came from a colonial revival style embassy in Washington, DC. In the rear garden there is field stone hardscaping and a sunken terrace paved in Virginia bluestone. A fountain once housed goldfish. A larger terrace directly behind the addition is paved with fieldstone. The rear garden perimeter has 6-foot walls of reclaimed brick that replaced the privet hedges, and pleached hornbeam in fieldstone planters for a natural but defined edge. Daylilies bloom in mid-June followed by a seasonal planting that includes begonias, white cosmos, and blue geraniums. The borders have topiary boxwood. Evergreens planted in the corners include magnolia, holly and boxwood left unclipped. The far rear garden that was the play area, at a higher elevation due to the addition, now has a paved terrace with outdoor seating and antique streetlamps and is reached by steps. A folly wall fragment made of reclaimed brick has a stucco arch that frames a bronze herm by sculptor Michael Curtis. The back property line is fenced and planted with holly, magnolia and cryptomeria that coordinates with neighboring gardens. Persons associated with the garden's design: Robert Bentley Adams, AIA (garden designer), Michael Curtis (sculptor).