A Garden in the Woods

Today we’re visiting the garden of Cindi Jacobs, whose family just sold their home.

This is our home in Quechee, Vermont. With a nostalgic heart and bittersweet feelings, we had to sell sell our place after 19 years. My husband and I, along with our now two young adult children, spent many weekends and summers in our woodsy spot. The garden was created with the mindset of minimal maintenance and watering provided by Mother Nature.

The pots are filled with hearty plants—ivy (Hedera helix, Zones 5–10, depending on the variety), ornamental peppers (Capsicum annuum, annual), marigolds (Tagetes erecta, annual), and annual grasses (Pennisetum glaucum, annual)—that feel at home against a split rail fence.

At the entrance of the driveway, I planted a small beach rose (Rosa rugosa, Zones 3–9) shrub, which is now the backdrop of this bed with perennials in the front.

Cranesbill (Geranium) in front, yellow-flowering ligularia (Ligularia dentata, Zones 4–8) in the rear. The gardens are mostly shade with lots of rock. Since we have no grass, segregating each area with different “flooring” helped. Here we used gravel, bricks, stone, black mulch for the path, and brown mulch inside the beds.

In the window boxes, I repeated the containers’ themes of marigolds, ivy, and peppers, and then I added coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides, annual) and ornamental cabbage (Brassica oleracea, annual).

I built this firepit and laid the patio many years ago—and ended up seeing a massage therapist after being unable to turn my head. Bluestone is heavier than it looks even when you are rolling it!

Finally, a grouping of winter planters by the front door. I used a few small evergreens for anchors and then added pieces of cut branches/foliage to fill in for color and texture, as I feel winter doesn’t have to be all white.

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