Trade Secrets 2014: Debby and Barton Jones

 When Debby and Barton Jones bought their classic Greek Revival 1836 house 14 years ago, a freak tornado had destroyed the tall spruce trees covering a small shade garden behind the house. The owners, doing almost all the work themselves, have cleared the overgrown brush to make a gently meandering garden on a sloping incline, with beds that follow the remains of old tree stumps. What Debby chose to plant in the new “sun” garden was largely determined by what would grow or not grow around the stumps. Today, randomly traversed by winding paths and stone steps, many carpeted with creeping thyme, the beds are filled with roses, clematis, old-fashioned perennials, and hundreds of spring bulbs. Other features of the property are old stone walls lined with peonies, daffodils and narcissi, a formal crab apple allée, two nepeta allées, a potager garden that in spring is planted with tulips, and a small vegetable garden across the road.

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