As viewed from the bedroom balcony, an ancient kettle hole has
been modified for contemporary use into a series of three descending
garden terraces.
Both the house and the garden were carefully sited between trees
on the slope and those in the kettle hole basin.
Entering the garden from the front can be equally inviting in
the spring when the glade appears a welcoming green carpet
or in the summer when the kettle hole becomes a cool oasis
or in autumn when falling leaves reveal more subtle distinctions
in the landscape.
The selective removal of vegetation within the kettle hole allows
for the expression of the sun passing over it.
The existing red maple emerging from the deck creates a leafy
ceiling over it and helps to integrate this space with its woodland
context.
The thyme garden was designed to be a useful terraced space, edged
with a broad, low cedar bench.
The subtle relation between the existing forest and the new garden
is expressed as trees appear to be entering the lawn over the rectangular
stone edging that borders it. The kettle hole basin has been transformed
into a place where garden and woodland meet.
The Kettle Hole Garden has received an Honor Award for residential
design from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and has been
published in several periodicals and books, including the book,
Landscape Architecture by Stephen Moorehead (1997).