Outside

On any given day, you might find owner Charlie Seilheimer, Hitchcock-like in silhouette but leaner, better-looking and sporting round Harry Potter glasses, hatching plans for keeping the squirrels from eating the lead statues on the terrace near the house: “I’m going to put something on that’s going to make their lips burn.” His wife, Mary Lou, her brown-eyed gaze at once sharp and warm, might be nearby weeding or shaking seeds from a spent perennial. Or maybe she’s up on a pergola, tending one of the several rose varieties that grow there, occasionally pausing to drink in the landscape from the spot where she feels “on top of the world.”

But none of this was there in 1995, when the couple moved to Mount Sharon. Nor would it be, for a few more years, because Mary Lou dug in her heels. “Charlie,” she said to her husband, “we’re not going to talk about the garden until I have the curtains in the living room.” She was acting on the lesson of 29 years before, when they had moved into their previous home in Warrenton and torn down the living room curtains, intending to replace them. But first the gazebo got built. Pools installed. Landscaping done. Meanwhile, the seven windows languished, curtainless.

So, in 1998, after final touches were made to the house, the couple turned their attention toward the garden. In 2004, the Seilheimers opened it for the first time as a stop on the Dolley Madison tour for Historic Garden Week. This year, Mount Sharon graces the cover of the Historic Garden Week guidebook. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with some vision, ample resources, the right people and great love for a landscape.