Kimmel Studio Architects and McHale Landscaping collaborate on an impressive and challenging task: restoring the terraced gardens at Cloverfields. Planting nearly 700 boxwoods in December of 2020, the team transforms the barren winter space into an architectural and historical feat brimming with green. With research gathered from archaeological discoveries, ground-penetrating radar, and period writings, the Cloverfields restoration team establishes a garden that no one knew existed just below the surface.

Design of the eighteenth-century gardens by Kimmel Studio Architects.

History Meets Horticulture: A Landscaping Perspective

Chris Joseph • McHale Landscaping

Chris Joseph of McHale Landscaping discusses his inspiration in restoring the terraced gardens at Cloverfields:

[We’ve got] six hundred and ninety-two greenmount boxwoods going in the ground over the next day and a half. It’s a pretty impressive project. You know, it’s amazing to be a part of -- seeing the level of detail these guys are taking with the restoration of this property and being able to be a part of pulling that detail of the interior, outside of the gardens and really focusing on all of the little minutiae is a lot of fun. Especially when you kind of extrapolate that across a broad scale like a project of this magnitude.

A project of this magnitude comes with specific challenges. According to Chris, the team must juggle environmental and design concerns while also preserving historical accuracy:

There’s some unique challenges to working with a garden this size and trying to be as conscious of the historical accuracy as possible, but also trying to work around the parameters of species and varieties and cultivars that are going to work well in this climate as well. You know, it may not be 100% historically accurate, but still trying to make that effect happen is a very unique challenge.

A panoramic view of the Cloverfields house and the gardens that framed it during the eighteenth century.

To tackle this challenge, the restoration team approaches the garden from numerous angles. The interdisciplinary research spans architectural, archaeological, horticultural, and historical fields. Chris talks about the unique collaboration between McHale Landscaping, Lynbrook Carpentry, and Kimmel Studio Architects:

Typically [McHale Landscaping] does high-end residential, but it’s a lot of fun being involved with a project that’s more of a museum quality. This really is a historic recreation, something that was here, and it’s well within our wheelhouse to be able to turn something like this around. Partnering up with Lynbrook on this and them bringing us in is a match made in heaven as far as I’m concerned. The work they do is architecturally certainly on par with what we like to do outside. So working with Devin and Brian has been great, you know, I have a working relationship with Brian going back a few years now, and so being able to be out here and have conversations with him about their expectations and his knowledge of the project has been indispensable.

Gathering Inspiration for the Gardens: A Historical Perspective

Brian Hjemvik • Kimmel Studio Architects

Brian Hjemvik, Landscape Architect at Kimmel Studio, discusses the role of ground penetration radar and archaeological discoveries in the garden’s recreation:

We spent a lot of time organizing these spaces although they were already here for us, which is unique and special about this project. Being that, through ground penetration radar and archaeology, we had a lot of evidence as to where these gardens were here at Cloverfields. So, although we were tightening up the geometry and making this all work for today’s gardens, we have a lot of evidence to go from, so that was exciting and unique about this project.

Another perspective of the Cloverfields gardens.

Kimmel Studio studies journals and letters from the period to inform the garden’s design, developing a prime recreation of 18th Century craftsman and gentry gardens:

Looking at case studies of the gardens -- how they would’ve been laid out, [reading] journals and letters that had been sent in the period which also explained how they were done and things that people in the craftsman gardens and gentry gardens were doing at the time. These letters were describing the gardens, and we would take those ideas and we would draw those interpretatively, and come up with what we thought was the best representation for today’s gardens.

An aerial view of the Cloverfields’ site.

According to the historical writings, “sugar cone” holly was used in the original garden to provide a sculptural element on a vertical plane. The team plants Dee Runk boxwoods, which are tall and conical, as well as hollies to recreate this vertical geometry:

The boxwoods and the hollies that are already in the ground, which are representative of the ‘sugar cone’ holly that was also very much described in these letters and these writings was that the way that these hollies were pruned very sculptural which instantly adds that vertical element to the gardens. So as you’re arriving today, and being able to see that, and the ‘Dee Runk’ boxwoods, the boxwoods that are standing very proud in the garden which mark that geometry and help describe the garden that way.

the ‘dee runk’ boxwoods provide a vertical element to the gardens. photo by devin kimmel.

The team expands its perspective on the geometrical design by examining the garden from the second floor drawing room:

And even viewing from the drawing room from in the building a lot of this is viewed from the second floor of the building, so a lot of that geometry was coming through from that angle, which is really interesting.

Parterres and Perennials: An Architectural Perspective

Devin Kimmel • Kimmel Studio Architects

Devin Kimmel, Principal Architect and Landscape Architect at Kimmel Studio, plays with center points, focal points, and space using a variety of plants. The upright boxwoods and holly trees give height to the garden, whereas the low hedges and perennials create patterns within each parterre:

The boxwoods that are going in are instantly changing the parterres because it’s the middle of December and it’s not green out here, but now it is with all these boxwoods. The thought is, each parterre is a different type of pattern, and some have low hedges that will then contain perennials. And we’ve used upright boxwoods throughout to give height to the garden, to create center points and focal points. And then up on the main entry-level to the garden, we have holly trees which will create focals and spaces and different garden rooms.

Nearly 700 boxwoods bring some structure and color to the gardens in the winter. Photo by matt culp.

Frost lays on the ground of the historic gardens. Photo by Devin Kimmel.

The geometry of the gardens shines before being planted with shrubs and perennials.

The boxwoods are wrapped in burlap to protect them from heavy snow. Photo by Devin Kimmel.

Devin elaborates on the axial relationships between the garden rooms and how the boxwoods reinforce these architectural elements:

The gardens have these axial relationships: the cross-axis through the front entry court, and then each garden itself has a different series of axes and garden rooms within it. Boxwoods make up sort of the architectural elements of the garden.

This aerial image shows the axes and garden rooms within each garden. Photo by Matt Culp.

The architects at Kimmel Studio create bloom diagrams for the seasonal bulbs and perennials, charting a master plan of color and beauty throughout the year:

Right now in our office, we’re diagramming out the bulbs that will be planted out here, the seasonal bulbs. So we have a whole series of colored bulbs that will go in, bloom at different times, and then we’re laying out how those patterns and how they’ll work together. So as you go down to the garden in the spring, you’ll have warm colors, cold colors, how those all lay out. Each garden parterre will have a series of bulbs in it, densely planted and then after that the perennials will come up and they’ll have their flower. So, we’ve drawn diagrams of the bloom times, the different bloom times for each garden, and what you’ll see in each garden.

a color study of the perennials. rendering by kimmel studio architects.

Devin and his team carefully choose period-specific plants or similar hybrids to establish a sense of historical accuracy as well as beauty:

All of these plants relate to history and would’ve been available in the period 1784 or we’ve got a hybrid that works better or isn’t invasive. We’re not doing any invasive plants, so we’ve eliminated those from the list. The garden is an interpretation of what would’ve been planted here or could’ve been planted here in the period.

The recreated garden therefore reflects what the Hemsley’s would have experienced and enjoyed in their time at Cloverfields:

You could see the Hemsley’s in 1784 flowing out of this house into this garden and spending a lot of time here and bringing furniture out, and this would’ve been a big part of their life. Being able to reestablish it this many years later is really a special thing.

Devin also discusses the significance of ground penetrating radar in the garden’s discovery:

There are many people that have been in this house that really didn’t know that this garden was even here until we dove in with the ground penetrating radar and found it. Then we did some archaeology, and with those things that it revealed we can recreate it, so it’s here again.

Finishing the Foliage

The collaboration between Kimmel Studio Architects, Lynbrook of Annapolis, and McHale Landscaping results in over 600 boxwoods, 70,000 bulbs, and 6,000 perennials taking root in the terraced garden, with roses and fruit trees to come. The exemplary restoration of the Cloverfields house now expands beyond its walls, making the former Hemsley home a must-see in every season.

A glimpse of what the gardens will look like once everything is planted. Design and rendering by Kimmel Studio Architects.

By: Devin S. Kimmel, of Kimmel Studio Architects

For: Cloverfields Preservation Foundation

Videos By: Joe Stephens, StratDV Video Production

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Recreating a 1784 Terraced Garden: Historical Landscaping at Cloverfields