Keeler Hill Farm, North Salem
At Keeler Hill Farm in North Salem, New York, a series of distinct garden spaces unfolds from the house into the surrounding farmland: a hedged garden room on axis with a columned pergola, a classic pool garden, shaded terrace and woodland gardens, and a mown meadow walk lined with a newly planted allée.
The gardens grow less formal as they move away from the house. Close in, clipped hedges, boxwood globes and dry-laid stone walls give the spaces structure, softened by generous mixed borders. Beyond the picket gate the garden gives way to open meadow, where a single mown path and young trees draw a long, simple line across the fields to the woods.
The Hedged Garden & Pergola
Tall clipped hedges enclose a long garden room of lawn, framed by deep mixed borders and boxwood globes. A gap between two hedge blocks frames a birdbath and a white gate beyond, and the whole axis is held from the columned pergola terrace at the house, a shaded place to dine looking straight down the garden.
The Pool Garden
A simple rectangular pool with weathered stone coping sits in open lawn, its corners marked by carved stone spheres. Hydrangeas, perennials and flowering shrubs fill the surrounding borders, with a clipped hedge on one side and a white picket fence and gate at the far end.
The Meadow Walk
Through the picket gate, a mown path runs straight across a hayfield meadow, past an old apple orchard and the barn, to a bench at the edge of the woods. Young trees planted in pairs along the path form a new allée that will grow to frame the walk, and looking back, the path leads the eye up to the house.
Terrace & Woodland Gardens
Near the house, curving lawn paths wind between dry-laid stone walls, clipped boxwood and shade borders of hydrangea, hosta, fern and butterbur beneath mature trees, with quiet places for a table and chairs along the way.