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Down a garden path with Constance

Designing a Stroll Garden

Constance McAlpin’s country garden near Franklin, Indiana is tied together with one amazing hardscape element…a system of brick and paver pathways. The brickwork starts at the porch and criss-crosses through the garden making it easy for her visitors to stroll the garden. Here’s the story of her heritage house and garden.

A pathway beside Constance’s east-facing gardens

Constance’s garden is surrounded by lush green boxwood hedges, accented by ironwork arches and gazebos and is the jewel set in the all-American farm property where she and her husband live and work. Her two influences were a wonderful nursery with lush garden beds of Hosta connected by winding pathways…rows and rows of Iris..and so many other beautiful perennials….it was paradise and I was in love!

 

Pink mums of fall are enclosed by boxwood hedges

“The second influence is a couple who, once a year, open their gorgeous gardens to the public  for charity and the first time I went, I was in total disbelief about the size and beauty of the gardens. From then on…I wanted more and more and bigger and bigger. I will never be as good or have as much, but I give it my best shot,” Constance says.

 

The McAlpin Heritage Home in Indiana

The Homestead

She says, “My husband’s family members were the original owners of this property all the way back to the beginning when the land was deeded to them from the US Government in 1856. I’ve been married since 1973 to ‘my farmer,’ Glenn, retired from the US Postal Service.”

“We are still actively farming our land.  My husband and I bought our old farmhouse and the surrounding land in the fall of 1990.”

“Our house required a total gutting and restoration, inside and out…some people said it was worthy of being demolished, but we wanted to save it because it was built by my husbands ancestors. We also added on an addition doubling the size of our house.”

 

A view of the back porch looking up from the south garden arbor

Constance explains how she became crazy for Flea Market junkola in the garden,…like many of us, it began with her house.  She tells us, “So, when we moved to this old two story farm house, we started going to auctions, all the time…and antique shops to buy antique furniture to fill our house. We had a lot of rooms to fill.”

“But, now if I want something else furniture wise in the house, then something has to go. I eventually decided to start looking for things for the garden and the focus shifted to Flea Markets!”

 

Round and orb-like objects are a garden theme here

As a bonus, Constance has a daughter, Jennifer, with her own Antique shop.  She lives just down the road in another house on the farm and works for an online estate sales company. She gets first dibs on some amazing finds for her Mom.

The Garden

Vibrant hot color of the summer Daylilies and Crocosmia

“There were no gardens at first, only weeds and huge dying maple trees. We have planted many, many trees, and cut down several of them as well.  The only blooming things were one old fashioned Lilac, two Mock Oranges, a Redbud tree and a ton of orange roadside Lilies.  I got to work creating garden beds and filling them with plants then moving them.  Each time, I was getting rid of just a little more grass so I wouldn’t have to mow it!”

 

Constance’s daylily patch

“My husband never knows if the landscape is going to be changed from day to day. I keep telling him that is how it is with gardeners…always changing, as long as there’s room to grow and if we can maintain it all.”

 

Vertical trellises and garden art are the garden’s gems

 

Striking color combination

Learning about perennials!

Constance says, “I realized that I enjoyed gardening when my Mom brought me some flowers for around my house.  I do remember saying, but these plants are just green …there are no flowers. She said these perennials, like Buttercups, Sweet Williams, and others that I have forgotten, will bloom in due time. I was a bit deflated that I did not have instant flowers after that first day of planting. That was my first introduction to perennials.”

Bricks set all around the lantana pot. Clever

I was hooked after that….and gradually it became an obsession and now there is nothing else I would rather do, except maybe shopping for flea market finds for the garden!

As of now, we were the house in the country on the historic home tour in September 2014 when approximately 700 people toured our house and gardens.  Last summer 2015 we also hosted two garden clubs. I would like to do more things like this.

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A winding brick path leads you into the garden

Division of labor

Constance is the one who plants the flowers, maintains and weeds, and mows the grass. She can drive a tractor and unload grain from the fields into the grain bins.

Her husband, Glenn, is very talented and can do anything, she says, and canmake anything needed. “He rebuilt the porches and copied the missing gable fretwork on our house from the old photo we have.”

 

Porches and arbors are another unifying element in the garden

Constance says, “We created the front porch just from looking at that same picture. He made the porch posts from mahogany on his lathe to match the picture, and we even installed bead board ceilings to be true to the period. He has also built custom lattice walls, arbors, and the pergola. I am his assistant and also do a lot of the painting. He also welds and has reproduced two arched arbors that I needed to complete a set of six.

 

Brick paths transition to more casual steping stones

Constance splurged on the brickwork, proving that having that it’s wise to have an expert come in to do the work. She says, “Over the past 25 years, we have built three porches, removed the rotting makeshift front porch and replaced it with the authentic version and then adding two others where none existed before. We have a very talented brick mason who does all our brick work for us, 200 linear feet of brick walkways and an indoor fireplace.”

 

Annual Cardinal climber….hummingbird magnet!

“My husband built all the wood arbors, pergolas, custom lattice work and porches from the foundation up and also the ironwork including arbors and other decor. My husband is  extremely talented!””

 

Constance’s simple blue chandelier

Constance says, “Here is the chandelier that my husband built for our gazebo recently. It doesn’t light at the moment….I told my husband to put his thinking cap on and see if he could make that happen!”

 

Further into the garden are woodsy stone paths

 

Impressive grinding stone path

Here is our grinding stone path that leads to our gazebo. It is new this year. My husband laid Jamestown blue stone steps leading to these and also another set of steps are getting ready to be made to step down to the gazebo.”

“These three steps lead down to the 14 antique grinding stones collected during the spring and summer months this year at the Johnson County Antique Market and other places.”

 

Dragonflies, real and artsy

Constance was lucky enough to photograph this beautiful dragonfly, top, and has two other displays of garden art dragonflies, as well!

Pathway weaving along beside the south garden

 

An elegant pocket garden with pink verbena

 

A shady porch garden

 

The sunlight was just right

“This maple tree has gotten so much bigger since we purchased this property in 1990. Love its branch formation.”

 

Winter wonderland

 

Constance says, “My gardens are always a work in progress and will probably never be as good as I desire them to be. That is how it is with gardeners…always changing, ever expanding, never finished”

Sue Langley

Sue Langley, a passionate gardener and photographer lives and gardens with her husband and Corgi, Maggie on 7 acres just south of Yosemite, Zone 7 at 3000 feet. She manages the Flea Market Gardening Facebook page and website.

View Comments

  • Jeanne Sammons says:

    I am so happy that Constance is sharing her gardens/projects here on FMG. So enjoyed walking these brick paths here on my computer this morning ... beautiful, beautiful gardens. Love how she combines 'garden art' throughout. An amazing transformation over the past 25 years ... gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Thanks for sharing, Constance & Sue.

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Jeanne...you are the sweetest. We love all your compliments!! And Sue did a fabulous job with our story....and all the photos! We are over the moon excited to be included on the awesome Flea Market Gardening page!

  • Sue Jordan says:

    Just lovely - EVEN the winter garden. I so enjoyed wandering the pathways....

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Thank you so much Sue!

  • Violet Buss says:

    Your gardens are what I'm working towards with mine. I have a long ways to go to make them as beautiful as yours, but maybe someday I'll get there.

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Thank you Violet....just keep plugging away and you will get there. I am happy with mine, but never quite satisfied and always changing or adding and wishing they could be better.

  • Your gardens are Beautiful!! Love all the landscaping and architectural details, especially for the winter and fall scenes. So, my question to you is how do you keep all the paths in the garden from being overrun with flowers? Mine seem to expand so much ever year, that I am constantly pulling or digging up what I don't want to spread and spend more time than I have on that.

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Thank you for all your nice comments Carol. Our hardscape pathways are not too difficult to keep clean, just have to remove or cut back a few plants beside the edges from time to time. I like a little spill over as it looks more established and natural. But the round stepping stone paths...now that's a different story, and like you, I am always battling the volunteers and spreaders that threaten to take over those pathways!

      • Well, it looks like you are winning the battle. Was secretly hoping you had some secret wonderful system for this!!) It is beautiful Thanks!

  • What a beautiful setting and gardens! Thanks for the inspiring ideas. I have a section of yard that needs work and your woodsy stone path is full of great ideas for that area. I'm already drawing plans. LOL Thanks again for sharing.

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Thank you for your lovely comments Linda. I am so honored to be an inspiration for your new area. Have fun with the designing and planting!

  • just beautiful - you have to have more than 24 hours in your day!

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Thank you CC. A lot of times there are not enough daylight hours in the day for the work that needs to be done!

  • Becky Norris says:

    Such gorgeous gardens, You can see that you clearly love plants. You have such beautiful art ideas throughout your entire garden ad the brick paths tie it all together so well. What are the great grass like plants in the tall column planters in the grinding stone area? I would love adding some of these to my garden. I am completely envious of your beautiful blooms. I hope you will share again soon.

    • Constance McAlpin says:

      Thank you so much for all your nice comments Becky. Those plants you are referring to are Fiber Optic Grass...it is hardy in zones 8-11, so here in Indiana we consider it an annual. We did move these planters to our front porch for the winter and they have kept some of their green color better than I thought they would. I plan on adding some in new areas myself this year and I think you will be happy with them!

  • Your property is stunning.All your garden art does look like the jewlery in the garden.Everything looks so fresh and well kept up.Just beautiful,all your hard work shows.

  • Constance McAlpin says:

    Thank you so much Cindee...I really appreciate all your nice comments!

  • Jessie Sam says:

    I so enjoy your garden tour on my comptuer Constance . Ilove the brick and rock path. I have moved and i an replanting my flowers. Your garden is just gorgeous and thank Sue fir sharing!! It is wondeful that you have a hubsand to help you!

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