A thoughtful landscape design inspires a secluded outdoor refuge at a new home on a busy street
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
*Landscape Contractor Association 2024 Grand Award for Landscape Design Build
Location: Chevy Chase, Maryland
Property Type: Newly built home in an established neighborhood
Primary Challenges: Side yard exposed to busy Connecticut Avenue, steeply sloped front yard with only minimal builder landscaping
Signature Features: Expanded screened porch, terraced front yard garden with retaining wall, raised kitchen garden beds, curving gravel garden path
Services: Landscape architecture, construction, and ongoing garden care.
On evenings warm or cool, Meredith Moore’s family gathers on the screened porch behind their Chevy Chase home. Ceiling fans turn quietly overhead stirring up fragrant garden air. Perhaps a fire glows in stone fireplace.
Just outside the porch, a kitchen garden with raised beds of tomatoes and basil, fills the air with the scent of summer, and you can hear the soft crunch underfoot of pea gravel paths bordered with lush plantings.
It’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago the property felt unfinished and exposed to the noise of the street.
When Meredith and her husband Joe first moved into their newly built home, the house itself was beautiful—but the outdoor environment had yet to take shape. Builder-installed shrubs and a few scattered trees left the property feeling stark, especially compared with the mature gardens of neighboring homes.
The Moores arrived just months before the COVID shutdown. Like many families, they began to see how meaningful an outdoor living space could be. Their previous home had included a peaceful yard, a deck, and a screened porch. They hoped to recreate that sense of refuge here—but the property presented several challenges.
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What they eventually created with Surrounds Landscape Architecture & Construction is something quite different from what they first imagined: a garden sanctuary that feels calm and private despite its location near one of the area’s busiest streets.
“When you get back there,” Meredith says, “it feels like a different world.”
Quieting the Noise of the Street
From the start, one of the Moore family’s biggest concerns was privacy.
The side of their home faces Connecticut Avenue, a heavily traveled connection between Washington DC and the near Maryland suburbs. Without thoughtful landscape design, the yard would have felt exposed to all of that unwanted activity.
Their priorities were clear:
- screen the road with trees and planting layers
- introduce fencing to create a sense of enclosure
- reshape the front yard so it felt welcoming and structured
Another challenge was the slope of the front yard, which dropped sharply toward the street.
Landscape architect Chad Talton responded with a design that built up and leveled portions of the yard using a low retaining wall and carefully layered planting beds. The effect creates a gentle terrace that anchors the home to the landscape and softens the transition to the street.
The new garden also preserves several mature trees already on the property, including a native dogwood that graces the front corner of the yard.
The result blends comfortably with the surrounding neighborhood, where many homes feature long-established gardens.
“Homes in our neighborhood have these beautiful older gardens that have been there for forty years, and the landscaping helped our new house feel like it belonged.”
Design Insight: Making the Most of an Awkwardly Shaped Lot
Although the Moore property is reasonably sized, its shape presented design challenges.
The home stretches across the lot in a long rectangular footprint, leaving limited depth in the side and back yards. Rather than treating the landscape as one open area, the design divides it into a sequence of connected outdoor rooms.
Layered plantings, paths, and garden walls guide the eye across the property while creating smaller spaces that feel intimate and purposeful.
From the garden gate, a pea gravel path curves behind the house, winding past raised vegetable beds before arriving at the screened porch. The gentle curve of the path slows movement through the space, encouraging visitors to notice the garden as they walk.
Simple materials play an important role as well. The choice of pea gravel for walking paths allows rainwater to percolate naturally into the soil while creating a pleasing texture underfoot—both practical and visually appealing.
A Porch That Became the Heart of the Home
The front landscaping creates definition and curb appeal, and sets the home perfectly in the classic style of the neighborhood. But for the Moores, the most beloved feature of the landscape lies behind this visually appealing and welcoming home.
The original home included a modest screened porch. Working with Surrounds, the Moores expanded the structure dramatically—creating a generous outdoor living space that now functions as a central gathering place for the family.
“It’s literally become another room in our house.”
At first, Meredith wondered if the porch might feel too large for the property. But as she realized later, the design concept turned out to be exactly right.
The porch now hosts everything from casual dinners to lively gatherings with friends and neighbors. Ceiling fans and comfortable seating make the space inviting throughout much of the year.
Joe Moore has even adopted it as his preferred workspace.
“He works out there nine months out of the year,” Meredith says.
Despite its generous size, the porch remains largely hidden from the street. Visitors approaching the house have no idea that such a spacious garden retreat exists just beyond the front door.
The Garden That Keeps Growing
Beyond the porch, the landscape includes features that encourage everyday outdoor living.
Meredith’s favorite addition is the row of cedar boxed vegetable beds tucked along the fence line.
“They’re my favorite thing ever that I’ve had in my life.”
Each season the beds produce tomatoes, zucchini, beans, herbs, and flowers. The family now cooks regularly with ingredients from the garden and freezes homemade pesto to enjoy throughout the year.
Nearby, a pergola above the grilling area adds structure and partial shade above the space. String lights glow softly in the evening, creating a relaxed atmosphere for cooking and conversation.
Friends are often surprised when they first discover the backyard.
“People have no idea what’s back there when they walk up to the house.”
The landscape transforms what was once an exposed yard into a private retreat that feels worlds away from the nearby intersection.
A Garden That Evolves Over Time
Since the project was completed, the Moores have continued with Surrounds for ongoing landscape care.
For them, maintenance was always part of the plan. Gardens mature slowly, and they wanted a team that understood the design and could help guide the landscape as it evolved.
Their Surrounds garden manager now collaborates with them on seasonal adjustments—moving plants that thrive better in different conditions, refining planting combinations, and helping the garden grow more beautiful each year.
“It’s very much a collaboration,” Meredith says. “Gardens take time.”
The next chapter of the landscape is already underway. An aging cherry tree will soon be removed, making room for additional raised garden beds and expanded planting areas.
A Gathering Place Where Memories Are Made
Looking back, Meredith says the garden has transformed how their family experiences their home.
The porch and garden have hosted celebrations, quiet evenings, and deeply meaningful family moments.
“When you see everyone wanting to come to your house, having the space to do that means a lot.”
For homeowners considering a landscape project, Meredith offers simple advice:
Find a designer whose aesthetic aligns with your own—and trust their vision.
“Go bigger than you think. Let the landscape architect do their thing. They see the whole picture.”
Today, even though the house sits near one of the busiest streets in Chevy Chase, the Moore family enjoys something that once seemed unlikely: a peaceful garden refuge where daily life unfolds outdoors.
As Meredith puts it:
“It’s our little pocket of tranquility.”
