When Philip Zhao and Tingshu Hu moved to their suburban home in northern Massachusetts nearly 20 years ago, it took them 2 hours to mow the 1-acre lawn. This wasn’t how they wanted to spend their time outdoors. So they set a goal of reducing their lawn by half, which they hoped would cut down on water usage and lawn treatments. Now they tend a couple of large vegetable plots, countless flower and shrub borders, three ponds, two greenhouses and even a flock of chickens. Tingshu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Philip, a computer engineer, have planned and executed every project themselves. Along the way, they’ve experimented with new plants, faced challenges and built some pretty innovative garden structures. All of these factors led us to select them as Garden Gate’s 2023 Reader Garden Award Winners. I was lucky enough to meet them in their garden earlier this year and am excited to show you all they’ve accomplished.
The beautiful border along the front path above holds a diverse mix of shrubs, perennials and annuals, and plant lover Tingshu has carefully planned it to display color in all four seasons. In spring, visitors are greeted with bulbs and spring-flowering shrubs. Summer perennials include false indigo, geum, salvia and gloriosa daisy. In
