832 Pinehurst Drive

The home of Polly van de Velde and Allan Chrisman is approached through woodland studded with birdhouses. An unusual dry stream bed winds behind the house to a shaded, enclosed back garden featuring rare specimen broadleafed evergreens offering infinite variations on the dominant theme of green. A delightful orangerie and a bronze fountain, together with a collection of elegant wrought-iron trellises, grilles, and gates give these gardens a distinct European flavor.

 

Polly’s Garden: Exotic Evergreens

Owner Polly Van de Velde and gardener Jonathan Nyberg (pictured, right) of Meadowsweet Gardens have worked together for the past seven years.  Polly’s directing intelligence and refined sense of style inform the entire design, combined with an intense desire to help local wildlife.  The result is an unusual combination of the planned garden and the natural garden that points a way to a gardening future when we must look closer at how our gardens are affecting the planet.  Polly Van de Velde’s entire property has been designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.  This will be the first time the garden has been open to the public.

The gardens around the house are primarily broadleaf evergreens, many unusual for this area, such as Cinnamonium chekiangensis (camphor tree) and a hedge of Lindera aggregata (Japanese evergreen spicebush), which is gorgeous every day of the year. An Amdega orangerie adds a European elegance to the back yard.  Surrounding the central zone of unusual plants is a carefully crafted woodland border.  Existing native plants have been retained that fit the garden and feed the wildlife.  The dominant plant is Viburnum rafinesquianum (downy arrowwood viburnum), which is the most common understory plant in this area because it can tolerate dry shade.

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