A four-acre oceanfront property on the east side of Mount Desert Island, reimagined around native coastal plantings, carefully sited granite terraces, and the light and weather of Frenchman Bay.
The brief
The owners - a young family returning to the Maine coast after years in New York - asked for a landscape that felt like it had always been there. The existing property was a patchwork of lawn, builder-spec foundation plantings, and a failing deck that had never quite made peace with the grade. Every view wanted editing. The shoreline wanted protecting. And the family wanted to feel the ocean from every room.
Reading the site
Mount Desert's east-facing shoreline is a particular kind of place - morning sun, afternoon fog, wind off the water six months of the year, and soil that varies from decomposed granite to pocket loam within fifteen feet. Our first month was pure observation: where does water move after a storm, which native plants had already established themselves, which sightlines from inside the house were worth protecting, and which could open up.
Design decisions
The master plan centered on three moves: a sequence of three granite terraces stepping down to the shoreline, a native coastal meadow reclaiming the lawn between house and ledge, and a restoration of the existing sugar maple avenue that had been thinned by decades of salt and wind. Hardscape was kept deliberately quiet - Deer Isle granite, dry-laid where it could be, mortar-set where loads demanded - to let the native plantings lead.
Build & install
Eighteen weeks from first excavator bucket to final mulch. Our in-house carpentry crew (Tim and Keith) hand-fitted every terrace stone. Our landscape team (Phil leading, Daniel coordinating, Archer operating) installed more than 3,200 individual plants across 42 species. Sustainability-first: no synthetic fertilizers, no imported topsoil, all planting stock grown within 100 miles.
Stewardship
A landscape of this complexity isn't finished when the last plant is in. We're now three seasons into a stewardship contract: seasonal pruning, perennial division as the meadow matures, and an annual review with the owners where we adjust based on what's thriving and what's asking for change.