68 Meadow Avenue, Westerly RI

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Mary’s Garden*

This garden is the centerpiece of a rolling backyard, which slopes downwards towards the Weekapaug Harbor. The seasonal owners designed the backyard and garden for their personal family summertime enjoyment and use, not as a showpiece.

For the last forty years, the backyards had hosted its share of summertime badminton, volleyball, flashlight tag and touch football games played by the family’s three sons, spouses, and grandchildren.

The original garden was focused around old-fashioned hollyhocks, the epitome of cottage garden plants, remembrances from grandparents’ gardens. It was later enlarged to include both a thriving vegetable and cutting garden, and the environmentally conscious owners were one of the first to utilize a compost tumbler. More recently, the garden has evolved into a collection of perennial, annuals, and, of course, the obligatory herbs and heirloom tomatoes necessary for a Rhode Island summer.

*If the name or view seems familiar, you might be a fan of the late E. Joseph Fontaine, a noted New England impressionist who painted the same garden as “Mary’s Hollyhocks” and “Hollyhocks by the Sea” in the mid 80s.