Three Landscapes Featuring a Pool

The fieldstone terrace surrounding this pool is planted with thyme, potentilla, and veronica, softening the edges and enhancing the scene’s natural, timeworn feel

A planted walkway linking the house to the pool features pickerelweed, blue flag iris, bullrush, asters, and native grasses, supporting pollinators while reinforcing the pool’s chemical-free, regenerative system.

Driven by existing ledge and topography, this organically shaped pool reads like a natural swimming hole.

Carved by Nature

Set into existing ledge and framed by native plantings, this Gloucester, Massachusetts, swimming pool feels less designed than discovered. The sinuous, amoeba-shaped basin—nearly fifty feet long at its fullest stretch—was dictated almost entirely by what the land offered up: a wet meadow of alders and blueberries, and a dramatic outcropping that now serves as a jumping rock. “The topography and existing ledge drove a lot of our decisions,” says landscape designer Hilarie Holdsworth, who ultimately shifted from the planned rubber-lined pool to gunite in order to celebrate the exposed stone.

A regeneration zone edged in peastone and planted with pickerelweed, native blue flag iris, bulrush, and asters filters the water naturally, eliminating the need for chemicals. Plants that thrive in or near water blur the pool’s edges, while fieldstone slabs form a terrace that appears to have settled there over decades. Grasses, clethra, hydrangeas, and creeping thyme knit into crevices, softening every seam. Even in winter, Holdsworth notes, the view reads not as a closed pool but “like a quiet pond,” alive with texture, wildlife, and seasonal beauty.

Project Team
Landscape design: Hilarie Holdsworth Design
Photography: Caryn B. Davis

Layered plantings soften the stonework, with astilbe and lady’s mantle in the foreground, dogwoods providing scale, boxwoods offering year-round structure, and hydrangeas bringing long-season blooms

An eleven-by-sixteen-foot plunge pool suits the family’s needs while preserving lawn space; radiant-heated coping and steps extend the soaking season.

Designed to feel original to the house, the screened porch continues the Greek Revival–inspired colonnade and features beadboard ceilings, skylights, and radiant floor heat for year-round comfort.

What began as a disjointed backyard is now a series of outdoor rooms, unified by stone terraces and carefully managed grade changes that guide movement from house to pool and lawn.

Built to Flow

What was once a fractured backyard in Wellesley, Massachusetts, now unfolds as a sequence of outdoor rooms unified by material, movement, and purpose. “The space was very divided,” says Scott Cornish of a Blade of Grass, the company that reimagined the steep site by defining zones for gathering, swimming, and relaxing, then knitting them together so the journey feels natural. Stone terraces step down toward a compact plunge pool, sized to preserve a generous lawn.

Plantings play a quiet but essential role. Dogwoods anchor key views, while hydrangeas, spirea, roses, and drifts of astilbe and lady’s mantle soften walls and stairs. Boxwood hedges provide structure through the colder months. “You get year-round color from the boxwood,” Cornish says, “and seasonal interest from the perennials and flowering shrubs.”

A roofed screened porch by New England Design & Construction extends the home’s Greek Revival bones. “We went off what existed and let the architecture lead,” says company CEO David Supple, pointing to the continued colonnade and beadboard ceiling. Radiant heat beneath the flooring and snow-melt systems at steps and pool coping stretch the season well beyond summer.

Project Team
Landscape design: a Blade of Grass
Architecture and builder: New England Design & Construction
Photography: Michael J. Lee

Positioned just off the home’s primary sight lines, the negative-edge pool delivers drama without competing with views of the Concord River.

Generous lounge seating between the house and pool creates a relaxed gathering zone where adults can socialize comfortably while keeping an easy eye on kids in the water.

A poolside kitchen and fire table mirror the home’s distinctive modern lines, creating a relaxed seating zone oriented toward views of the river beyond.

Boulder groupings and layered plantings introduce a Japanese-viewing-garden sensibility on the way to the backyard, establishing structure and rhythm.

Higher Ground

Perched high above the Concord River, this Carlisle, Massachusetts, property was always about the view. The challenge for landscape architect Peter White of ZEN Associates was introducing a pool and gathering spaces without letting them compete with that long, serene sweep of water below.

Working within a conservation buffer zone, White placed the pool off to the side of the home’s primary sightlines, allowing the river to remain the star. Pushed to the edge of a natural slope, the pool becomes a negative-edge feature, its water quietly spilling away while preserving generous space between house and pool for lounging, socializing, and sun.

An outdoor kitchen and fire table help define active zones, while layered plantings—both native and ornamental—soften transitions and ensure year-round interest. Low-growing junipers, blueberries, and barberry maintain views near the pool, and ferns, mountain laurel, viburnums, and red maples add depth beyond.

Material choices echo the home’s architecture: full-depth New England fieldstone walls and pale French limestone paving visually extend the interior outdoors, creating a cohesive, multigenerational landscape designed to draw family back again and again.

Project Team
Landscape design: ZEN Associates
Photography: Greg Premru