How This Landscape Design Made a Home as Fun as a Playground

The evolution of Elizabeth Birdsall’s Charlottesville, Virginia, homestead—a heavily wooded lot saddled between two small rivers—unfolded over more than a decade. After a few gradual updates, she enlisted her friend Anna Boeschenstein of Grounded Landscape Architecture & Design for a project that would transform the sprawling property into a gathering place for extended family. Boeschenstein’s design, dubbed Turkey Saddle for its topography and surplus of gobbling wildlife, created a versatile outdoor space that accommodates children at play and elderly visitors in need of stable ground.