How to Reimagine a Historic Landscape Design

In one Ask This Old House episode, the team reimagined a garden using a landscape plan dating back to 1914, drawn by Harold Hill Blossom—a protégé of Frederick Law Olmsted, the creator of Central Park. The goal was to reintroduce plants from Blossom’s original design and “re-create that layered feeling” with focal points visible both from inside the house and from the outdoor seating area. When reimagining your own historic landscape, look for original plans, historical society records, or even clues in old photographs that can guide your plant choices and layout.

Steps for reimagining a historic landscape design:

1. Wearing gardening gloves, identify weeds and begin clearing the area by pulling out weeds from the roots. Use a rake to clear larger areas of brush.
2. If there are plants which can be transplanted, use a border spade or transplant spade to dig down around the roots. Dig an outline around the root ball, position the blade under the root ball, and remove it from the ground. Place the plant on a tarp until you’re ready to replant it.
3. Leave any perennial plants that can be salvaged in their current location.
4. With the area clear and down to the soil, lay down stepping stones. Dig down a bit to ensure the stones lay flat on the soil and backfill as needed to prevent wobbling.
5. To create a makeshift trellis, put nails into a fence and tie a piece of string along the nails. Attach climbing vine plants along the string.
6. While still in pots, stage the plants, keeping those with similar needs together. Consider bloom sequences so that there is year-round interest throughout the entire design.
7. Remove plants from their plastic canisters by tapping them out from the bottom. Gently tease out the roots from the root ball using hands or a hand rake.
8. Dig holes twice as wide as the root ball, but not quite as deep. The top of the root ball should be even with the soil line. Place plants in the holes and backfill with soil and compost mix.
9. Use the same technique to transplant any salvaged plants.
10. If planting new bulbs, dig a hole using a hand trowel a few inches down. Place the bulb in the ground and backfill with soil.
11. When all the plants are in the ground, cover with two inches of mulch using a rake. Be sure not to cover up the stems with the mulch. This will suffocate the plant.
12. Water thoroughly until the plants are established.

Pro Tip: When staging plants, think about pairing species that bloom in complementary seasons. For example, in one This Old House project, the team paired sweet autumn clematis—which flowers white in September—with sedum, another fall bloomer, while incorporating spring-blooming peonies and hydrangeas to ensure color across multiple seasons. Climbing plants like clematis can be pinned up along an existing fence for vertical interest without the need for a standalone trellis structure.

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