What’s in Your Pocket?
Stone steps from the mahogany arch lead down into the gardens at Barbara Renner’s historic Portsmouth home.
The Portsmouth Pocket Garden Tour returns.
A pocket garden can be as small as removing a paver or two from your patio and filling the space with herbs, tucking some welcoming perennials into a spot next to the front steps, or lining an alleyway with shade-loving plants. When working with a small space, choosing the right plants is key. If they can do doubleduty by pleasing the senses and providing food and habitat for birds, butterflies and pollinators, it is a win-win situation.
Once a year, homeowners in Portsmouth share their gardens during the Pocket Garden Tour. The following gardeners have participated over the years and tell of the transformation their yards have undergone on the journey from weedy neglect to urban oases.
A secret garden with water view
Lifelong gardener Barbara Renner grew up in England. “We always had a patch of ground,” she says, “so I have gardened since I was a little girl.” She and her husband moved to their double house overlooking the South Mill Pond in 1984. (“It was built in 1799 by two brothers who lived in it, side by side,” she says.) Along with restoring the house, the Renners threw themselves into designing a functional backyard.
“There was not much of a garden there when we bought it,” she says. Sadly, her husband passed in 1991, and Barbara found her garden to be a haven. “I didn’t think I would survive,” she says, “but the garden has been my therapy.”
Local blacksmith Peter Happney created both the iron pergola and the stone steps’ railings.
Now, a mahogany arch defines the transition from house to gardens. Rotted wooden steps leading down a 16-foot drop to the yard were replaced with stone; local blacksmith Peter Happney fashioned a sweeping, wrought-iron railing for it. A brick-paved ellipse was added to make a spot for outdoor dining, and many stone-edged, raised beds were constructed to give Barbara plenty of room for perennials, shrubs and her favorite David Austin roses. A wide, iron pergola—also crafted by Happney—is near the edge of the pond, and covered with both chocolate- and pink-flowering akebia vines where the mourning doves often nest.
“I’m very fond of vines and things that trail,” says Barbara, who also has several wooden trellises covered with clematis and grows annual vines, including passiflora ‘Kew Gardens’ and hyacinth bean.
The brick-paved ellipse is an ideal spot for outdoor dining at Renner’s home.
When an old tree died, she filled that spot with an octagonal glass house called an orangerie. “It came as a kit made by the Amish, and the two wonderful carpenters who had worked on the house put it up in a day!” she says.
“I grow a few plants in it, but since it is not heated, I mostly use it as a pleasant spot to sit.”
Along the fence next to the street, she planted trees and shrubs including a Japanese umbrella pine, American dogwoods, witch hazels, hydrangeas, heptacodium and a weeping willow.
“The willow was just a twig that came in a vase of flowers. It developed a bird’s nest of roots, so I lifted a stone flag, dug to China and planted it,” she says. “Now it is an immense tree that is gorgeous in summer. It forms a room underneath where I have a table and chairs. I call it the Willow Café!”
The driveway and the front gardens at Jeffrey Reaume and Rachel Marotta-Reaume’s home
The dense plantings and position of the house block the gardens from view and none of this can be seen from the street.
“People are always surprised when they see the garden,” she says. “They have no idea all this is tucked away back here.”
Her garden is an ongoing project and labor of love. This summer, she is planning to add some more raised beds and a few new rose bushes. “It occupies my mind and my heart,” she says. “It is not just a hobby but a passion.”
From hollow to haven
Jeffrey Reaume and Rachel Marotta-Reaume had lived for 10 years in a second-floor apartment, cultivating gardens around the building, when the house behind them came up for sale.
Excited to finally have a home of their own, they had their work cut out for them. The side yard of the one-fifth-acre, double-lot was depressed below street level and had been employed as a dog run with deep piles of brush around the border. “The lot had loads of potential … and challenges,” Marotta-Reaume says. First order of business was to take down a huge Norway maple at the front corner of the house that was domineering the yard, and the chain link fence had to go. The couple already had many plants growing in nursery beds, and moved most along the driveway and out front. The rest stayed in containers that first year, and were moved around the yard as the couple studied sun and wind exposure and planned what to do next.
Jeffrey Reaume working in his pocket garden“When a garden scout for the Pocket Garden Tour came to our door to say we’d been recommended to the committee, all we could think was, ‘Can’t you see the ‘yard’ below?’ It was still a clay-based hollow,” Reaume says.
“They convinced us the driveway and front gardens were worthy by themselves as a starter. We were so pleased—and terrified—we shot into gear.”
The couple had to fast-forward their garden design plans. The brush piles were removed, and three dump-truck loads of loam were brought in to level the yard. “Then we went shopping for shrubs and small trees, roses, flowers, more herbs and some vegetables,” Reaume says. “Our ambitious, hole-digging friend Albert Kelly helped place plants and created two dry wells to draw water down through the clay.” The couple laid out the border contours and paths, paving with large chunks of bark. Lawn areas were kept to a minimum. “Then it rained!”
Reaume laughs. “On the morning of the tour, we were out bailing water from holes we’d intended to pop the last couple of plants into. It was glorious!
We’ve been [part of] the tour twice since then, giving people an opportunity to see the garden take form and mature.”
At the back of the yard is a more secluded grotto area under the canopy of a 50-plus-year-old apple tree, perfect for shade-loving plants. “We dwell in the sunny spots during the cool days of spring and fall, and in the deep shade during the summer,” Marotta-Reaume says.
Their gardens are broken into vignettes with the areas defined by shrubs as well as hedges of roses and boxwood. A profuse bed of flowers flows along the street and is backed by a tall, mixed hedge that still allows views into the gardens.
“Our goal is to provide a beautiful space for friends, neighbors and passers-by to enjoy as well as pique their interest in gardening,” she says.
Many small trees and bushes frame out the spaces, including Tollymore spruce, Kousa dogwood, Japanese maple, weeping cherry, holly, spirea and lots of hydrangeas. “We are especially fond of the climbing hydrangea that we brought with us from next door when it was only 8 feet high,” Reaume says. “Now, it covers one and a half sides of our back kitchen and holds its flowers most of the summer.”
The backyard of Jeffrey Reaume and Rachel Marotta-Reaume’s home is much more secluded.
The most comment-catching plant is a dappled willow (Salix integra) grafted onto an upright willow-tree trunk. “It requires several prunings a year, but its slightly shaggy, pom-pom tree look in varying shades of cream and green is a nice foil and anchor,” he says.
A cycle of perennial and annual flowers parade through the seasons. “We limit the color palette to mostly blue, pink and white pastels, adding yellows midsummer when black-eyed Susans and ligularia roll in,” Marotta-Reaume says.
The couple also grow many herbs and interplant vegetables, including tomatoes in iron cages, squashes, kale, beets, beans and radishes.
A plant collector’s paradise
At 411 Middle Street is a grand Victorian home close to downtown Portsmouth that has been converted into affordable units. Owners Bob Vaccaro and Dan Rawling have formed an intentional community of like-minded individuals interested in planet-friendly living. The backyard serves many functions and fulfills the needs of the tenants and their guests—a lot to ask from an in-town property.
Bob Vaccaro and Dan Rowling have planted a variety of interesting trees that offer year-round interest.
Over the years, Vaccaro and Rawling have planted a veritable arboretum of interesting trees that form the bones of the garden and give it year-round interest. Rawling, an architect and landscape designer, has taken full advantage of the opportunity to try out new, fun plants.
“In the spirit of Victorian gardeners who were big plant collectors, I let the exotics play out to my heart’s content,” he says.
The garden has become his laboratory, giving him a chance to become familiar with new plants before using them in his clients’ gardens.
The front of the house is close to a busy street. “The front yard was too exposed so we never used it,” Rawling says. To provide a sense of enclosure, he planted Serbian Spruce, Japanese maples, weeping mulberries, spring-blooming ‘Forest Pansy’ redbuds, Persian parrotia and fragrant Chinese witch hazel. “Once it was planted, it became a nice place to sit and watch the city go by,” he says. “It is rare to be out there and not have interactions with neighbors and passers-by.”
Helical pergolas support climbing plants, such as roses, clematis and honeysuckle—and the laundry.
The backyard is very private and can’t be seen from the street. An allée of Korean stewartia edged in dwarf evergreens leads from the back porch to a circular, center lawn area with room for activities ranging from croquet to yoga. Two helical pergolas—based on a classic design—support climbing roses, clematis and honeysuckle as well as serve as the fanciest clotheslines ever! The big backyard is divided into spaces for barbeques and outdoor dining; sitting and relaxing; or holding small parties. A productive vegetable garden with nine raised beds is planted and tended by the tenants. Winding, grass paths lead from one area to the next. “We wanted the garden to be a respite from the city, with spaces for everybody to go to,” Rawling says. “Using exotics and pushing the limits of our planting zone gives the garden a Southern feel, so it seems like you stepped out into someplace else, like a vacation.”
The gardens at 411 Middle Street have been part of the Pocket Garden Tour many times and are always a favorite with visitors. Every year, Rawling and Vaccaro host an after-party for the tour committee, volunteers and participating homeowners.
About 100 people turn out to celebrate the successful completion of another tour.
2022 Pocket Garden Tour
This year’s Pocket Garden Tour will be held 4–7 p.m. June 24 and 10 a.m.–4 p.m. June 25. Eleven private gardens in the Goodwin Park neighborhood along with the gardens at the John Paul Jones House and Rundlett-May Historic Home will be featured. Tickets will be sold at various local retailers and online at portsmouthnhtickets.com. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 day-of at the information table at the John Paul Jones House. Parking and public restrooms can be found at the Foundry Place Garage. More information is available on Facebook at PortsmouthPocketGardenTour. The tour is in its 33rd year, and it’s a fundraiser for South Church Unitarian Universalist Church of Portsmouth. Be sure to attend and get some ideas for what to put in your pocket!
RESOURCES
Peter Happney • (603) 436-4859
peterhappney.com
Rolling Green Nursery • (603) 436-2732
rollinggreennursery.com
Snug Harbor Farm • (207) 967-2414
snugharborfarm.com
Stratham Circle Nursery • (603) 778-3711
strathamcirclenursery.com
Wentworth Greenhouses • (603) 743-4919
wentworthgreenhouses.com
