Blank Slate to Masterpiece

Confined at home for two weeks during the early days of the pandemic, the Hahns made good use of that time by building this circular stone patio. “Steve was the heavy lifter,” says Trim, “and I was the creator.”

Growing up in England, Trim Hahn was surrounded by gardens. “There is a long heritage of horticulture in my family,” she says. One of her ancestors was botanist William Curtis. In 1787, he founded Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, which is still being published today. Her mother and grandmother were both artists and skilled gardeners. “My grandmother was a botanical painter, and my mother used flowers in her still-life artwork,” she says. “There were always big bouquets of flowers in the house.”

New French doors open from the kitchen to the brick patio, allowing an open view of the southern hills as the seasons change.

One of Trim’s many talents is floral design, and she was often called upon to provide arrangements and bouquets for local functions. Many of the flowers came from the extensive gardens she cultivated around their rural country home. In 2000, with an eye toward future downsizing, Trim and her husband, Steve, purchased a circa-1850 brick farmhouse on a small in-town lot. “Our lives were shifting to town more and more; we often made two trips a day from our other house,” Steve explains. “Right now, everything is within a five-minute walk or a five-minute drive.”

They rented out the brick house for 15 years before they were able to move there in 2018. “After we completed the renovations, we decided to try out the house to see if we liked it,” says Trim. “We loved our other house, but it was clear right away that being in town was the right decision.”

A hidden garden
The landscape was a completely blank slate. “We have been pecking away at it,” Trim says. The Hahns regularly return to England to visit friends and tour local gardens, so she is constantly gathering ideas to bring back to her New Hampshire garden. Kew Gardens, right across the river from Trim’s childhood home, is always a must-see.

The path from the driveway to the front door is paved with flat basalt slabs. “They are smooth but still have good traction,” says Trim. River rocks fill the gaps between stones. Balls of ‘Winter Gem’ boxwood line each side of the walkway, with evergreen donkey-tail spurge
(Euphorbia myrsinites) between them. “I saw it in an Italianate garden in Dorset and love the chartreuse flowers and the way it moves over the path,” says Trim. A ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maple is positioned at the left side of the doorway. “It was the first thing I planted here,” she says.

From the sunny brick patio, which replaced an old greenhouse, great views to the south can be enjoyed.

To enter the garden behind the house, pass through an arbor planted with honeysuckle and a super-hardy, pink ‘William Baffin’ rose. On the slope to the left is the spring garden, planted with hellebores, bulbs and two redbuds. “I saw a hillside of it at Kew and knew that was what I wanted to do here,” she says.

A deep border runs the length of the property, filled with a mix of perennials, annuals and shrubs. Influenced by her mother’s and grandmother’s gardens, she says she is not disciplined but more intuitive. “A garden needs rhythm — left to right and front to back. Planting in large clumps is calmer to the eye rather than scattering things about and repetition helps to establish a rhythm,” she explains.
“I like color — the more bright and cheerful the better!” Golden-green ‘Sun King’ aralia, ‘Limelight’ 4 o’clocks, ‘Sum and Substance’ hostas, ‘Limelight’ Mexican sage and ‘Golden Spirit’ smokebush blend in well with their neighbors. “I love chartreuse in the garden,” says Trim. “It is a great neutral.” Poppies, peonies, zinnias, bee balm, crocosmia, snapdragons, asters, dahlias, sea holly, helenium and daylilies add pops of color and offer plenty of cut flowers for the house all season long.

A tale of two patios
Where an aging, discolored greenhouse once stood off the back door, now there is a brick patio. “The greenhouse was ghastly,” says Trim. “The plastic glazing was so yellowed you couldn’t see through it. It had to go.” They made good use of the foundation, though, paving it with two grindstones encircled with bricks. Many large potted plants, including a banana tree, spend the summer here, and there is a small vegetable bed to one side.

Sheared balls of ‘Winter Gem’ boxwood look good in all seasons. Trim has found it to be the most reliably hardy variety in this location

During the early days of the Covid pandemic, the Hahns were on one of the last flights out of England, and when they returned home, had to self-isolate for two weeks. “We needed a project! We had a load of stone dust dumped off and some bricks delivered and got to work on another patio,” Trim says. This one is across the yard, near the left end of the border. Again, it is circular brick centered around an old grindstone. Perfectly sized for four Adirondack chairs and a small table, it is still referred to as the Covid patio! “Steve loves to sit here and read the paper in the mornings where it’s shaded,” Trim says.

From this private hilltop location, they look out over the rooftops and road toward distant hills and in spring can see the river. “The dam creates white noise, so we don’t hear the cars,” she says. “We love the views from the patio by the house and watch the reflections of the sun setting in the west over the town and hills beyond. The light at the end of the day is magical as it reflects on the hills.”

RESOURCES

Bunker Farm • 802-387-0223
thebunkerfarm.com

Edgewater Farm • 603-298-5764
edgewaterfarm.com

Walker Farm • 802-254-2051
walkerfarm.com