Celebrating her centennial year, the homeowner-gardener has tended and refined this jewel-box courtyard garden for more than four decades. When she moved to Stonington in 1980, she engaged landscape designer Juanita Flagg to transform what had been a simple backyard into a richly layered garden that reflects a lifelong appreciation of art, design, and plants. Though modest in size, the garden is remarkable for its sense of abundance. A patterned brick path leads visitors through a sequence of carefully composed plantings where foliage is as important as flowers. Spires, fans, mounds, and feathery textures are repeated and contrasted throughout the garden, creating rhythm and movement. Chartreuse foliage lights the beds in the late afternoon, while seasonal flowers provide accents of color without overwhelming the composition. The garden’s most distinctive feature is a Manhattan Euonymus topiary brought from the owner’s former home in Rye, New York. Now reaching nearly ten feet in height, its sculptural pom-poms require regular clipping throughout the growing season. Lavender thrives in the raised stone-edged bed, where good drainage fosters a warm microclimate. Containers play an important role in the garden’s character. Groupings of barrels and pots planted with herbs, vegetables, annuals, and flowering plants are moved and rearranged as needed, lending the space a sense of flexibility and continual renewal. Today, this intimate garden demonstrates how thoughtful design, careful stewardship, and decades of gardening can transform a compact urban space into a place of beauty and delight. - contributed by Anna Bell McLanahan