A Fondness for Ferns

Ferns are tougher than most gardeners realize. Just ask Lyndall Heyer. She has filled her woodland garden in snowy Stowe, Vermont, with a tapestry of hardy ferns that fill her zone 3 garden with grace and texture. Ferns are, after all, the epitome of elegance and simplicity. Perhaps that is why the great Victorian gardener Gertrude Jekyll dreamed of a garden devoted to ferns that would one day be a “restful delight of cool and beautiful foliage.”

Lyndall’s garden of restful delight is tucked into a north-facing hillside surrounded by shade-tree-covered peaks. Over the years she has carved