Following a major renovation, the owners of a 20-plus-acre parcel in Clarksville, Maryland, enlisted J&G Landscape Design to reimagine their lackluster front garden to better reflect the look of their elegant home. The team did such a fine job that, four years later, J&G principal Jeff Potter was called back to overhaul the dated backyard.

Existing conditions were less than optimal. “The 1980s, kidney-shaped pool, brick patio and circular spa were old and tired,” he recalls. “They didn’t fit the architecture of the home. And everything was boxed in by fencing, with no sight lines of the beautiful property.”

Potter and his team retrofitted and enlarged the existing pool into a clean-lined rectangle and equipped it with a shallow sun shelf complete with bubblers. An expansive travertine terrace grounds the pool area and joins a covered patio completed during the renovation. An outdoor kitchen with a built-in grill makes al fresco entertaining a breeze. 

Topiary and colorful beds brimming with boxwood and hydrangea—the wife’s favorite shrubs—soften the hardscape. “We kept the plant palette fairly simple because the space carries itself,” says Potter. 

Terrace seating overlooks a verdant lawn planted with Steeplechase arborvitae; a gentle slope extends to bucolic farmland. With the fence now gone, notes the designer, “you can appreciate and experience longer views of rolling hills opening up to a larger landscape.” 

Award: Heritage, Outdoor Living Area. Landscape Architecture & Contracting: Jeff Potter, PLA, ASLA, CPH; Matt Purdy, PLA, ASLA; Paul Jester, PLA, ASLA, LEED GA, J&G Landscape Design, Inc., Spencerville, Maryland. Pool: Keith Robbins, Pires Construction, Gaithersburg, Maryland. Masonry: J&G Landscape Design, Inc., and Matt Cocozzella, Stoneworks, Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland.