Although one side of this corner property faces a lovely country road on Long Island’s fabled North Shore, the other side fronts a six-lane roadway. To screen the house visually from the road and to minimize the traffic noise, we planted fast-growing Leyland cypress trees, creating both a tall evergreen hedge along the highway and a dark-green backdrop for a dramatic open lawn. We reworked the property's existing overgrown allée of mature Norway spruce trees to become a focal point of the new garden. Its undergrowth was cleared and its perimeter was replanted with a variety of woodland plants like Solomon’s seal. We deliberately left the middle part open to create an enchanted mini-forest which is now part of a needled path connecting the other outdoor rooms of the garden.
Photos: Emily Gilbert