Bankside

About

Our garden sits on a steeply sloping site and offers a lovely vista across the Mystic River. A 2016 house renovation left the landscape in a sorry state and ultimately started us on the path to becoming gardeners.

The site’s steepness offers challenges, as does the fact that we sit on a ledge that limits our soil depth to a foot or less in many places. Yet, by using a range of terracing techniques—including inexpensive DIY experiments—we have been able to create several different garden spaces.

The mid-level includes raised veggie beds, breakfast area, incipient flowering lawn, dining patio, potting shed, and barrels for harvesting rainwater. At the lower level are a reading nook, fenced veggie garden, garden shed, and composting area.

The slope beyond is a work in progress, as we toil each year to reclaim land from nasty invasive plants. The friend who helped us establish the garden relied heavily on non-native plants, which bring us joy. At the same time, our Master Gardener training taught us how important it is to support the food web. So, as we add plants, we prioritize New England natives and keystone plants. The site is relatively small, but there is a lot to see.

This garden’s estimated size is .3 acre.

This Garden Host reports the following Terrain Notes about the garden: The entire site is a slope. There are three flights of stone or concrete steps, most without handrails, connecting four tiers of the garden.

2026 Open Day Date: Sunday, June 28

Open Day Hours: 10–12, 12–2, 2–4