Inside a Chesapeake Bay Garden

A corner of the vegetable garden on Chip and Sally Akridge’s sprawling estate near Oxford, Maryland.

A path to the European-inspired stumpery garden.

The stumpery garden is filled with upended tree stumps, their exposed roots gnarled around cascades of ferns, hellebore, and primrose.

The estate’s pool pergola.

A water view from the main house.

Chip and Sally Akridge.

Bliss, one of the Akridges’ Labs, keeps watch.

The main house.

Paths link green spaces.

The Akridges at work in the kitchen garden.

The lush cutting garden.

A winding, well-tended path leads to the stumpery.

Under Sally’s direction, the beds are now filled with hostas, bearded iris, roses, tree peonies, and ornamental onions.

Chives in the garden.

Ornamental onions.

The Akridges have returned two-thirds of the commercial agricultural acreage they’ve acquired back into wildlife habitat.

“We like to honor those who were here before us, because we are just the custodians for a while.”—Sally Akridge

Starting uphill and sloping toward the water, twenty-nine raised beds sprout strawberries, rhubarb, sweet peas, carrots, collards, okra, heirloom tomatoes, potatoes, and Chip’s favorite—popping corn.

A half-mile straight entrance drive is tightly flanked in spring by a sea of daffodils originally planted by a 1885—1928 mistress of the house who was also the founder of the local garden club.

The estate grew as the Akridges acquired surrounding agricultural parcels that had been destined for high-density residential development.

A turn-of-the-century resident of the property designed the 80′ x 50′ English-style formal garden, complete with redbrick enclosure.