The owners of a McLean property purchased an adjacent lot on which to build an upscale, barn-like retreat for the wife’s use. Pondering what else to do with the one-acre site, they hired McHale Landscape Design to help formulate and carry out their vision while the building was under construction.

“We suggested a greenhouse and a sustainable garden for the family,” says McHale president Phil Kelly, who spearheaded the project. The clients embraced the idea, and a collaborative effort between the McHale team and Alabama-based Gothic Arch Greenhouses ensued. The result is an elegant, glassed-in structure sited at an angle from the wife’s “she shack.”

Using the retreat and greenhouse as reference points, McHale constructed an extensive, terraced vegetable garden close by, complete with quadrants separated by pathways. “The client challenged us to make a kitchen garden that’s super-functional yet enjoyable to look at,” Kelly says.

EXPERT INSIGHTS
Advice from landscape designer Phil Kelly

• Planting vegetable and herb beds in the ground is aesthetically pleasing, but raised beds are easier to work with; they facilitate moisture and nutrient control.
• When siting a greenhouse, study the sun’s pattern—in summer as well as in winter.
• My preferred plantings are perennials that attract butterflies, such as summer phlox and caryopteris.

Landscape Design, Installation & Maintenance: McHale Landscape Design, Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Photo: Erin B. Bogan