Stoney Ground

About

In 2015 Nan Sinton built a new farmhouse and barn in historic Russells Mills Village. The potential of the mixed woods and open field (once used as a goat pasture) intrigued landscape designer Sinton and her Midwest-based colleague David Michener. This was not rich farmland but stoney dry slopes sequestering an unexpected river bluf. Stones from the site were used to restore and improve walls, a long pergola was built, and multiple hedges planted to articulate the distinct areas and act as counterpoints to the venerable junipers, oaks and hickories. A network of paths and views traversing sun and shade integrates the house and pergola to the raised-bed vegetable and cutting garden, the armillary lawn, the dry-soils shrub collection, and a glade of uncommon magnolias and tender Asian shrubs. A 100’ long “pollinator border” that explodes from high-summer to frost visually connects a private courtyard of Mediterranean-inspired planting to the woodland entrance. A stroll along the woodland paths that are shaded by oaks and hollies reveals the resurgence of native shrubs and groundcovers augmented with specimens of unusual Asian perennials, shrubs and small trees. Below the rock bluff, a future ‘river foot path’ will thread through the native woods for bird-watching along the Paskamansett river and its rapids.

This garden’s estimated size is 3 acres.

2025 Open Day: Saturday, June 21 

Hours: 10-3