Coming Home To Roost

Amy Arrowsmith remembers visiting her grandparents’ house out in the country not far from Chattanooga when she was a child. It was a place where cows and horses grazed; chickens scratched; roses, peonies, and camellias bloomed; and cousins lost themselves in the innumerable games of imagination that being young on a farm inspires. 

Chickens still scratch, camellias and peonies blossom, and the home again opens its doors to family and friends. Only now, Amy and her family live in that farmhouse, continuing her grandparents’ close-to-the-land traditions.

Amy Arrowsmith (with her son Teddy) on the same lawn where she walked with her grandmother (next slide).

Three-year-old Amy and her grandmother, Isabel Temple Smartt, set out to explore the dairy and gardens during one of Amy's frequent visits. 

It’s hard to imagine a more dramatic backdrop for a pool than the distant cliffs of Lookout Mountain, not far from Rock City. Framed by crepe myrtles and Southern magnolias, the pool was added to occupy the kids during the summer and also to provide a great spot for entertaining. Bordering the pool with trees, shrubs, and flowers better integrates it into the garden.

“Troy thought we needed something pretty to look out on,” Amy says of the beautiful boxwood garden outside their master bedroom. “He put in formal boxwood parterres and then enclosed them with a simple picket fence. This mixing of formal and informal is signature Troy.” To make the boxwood design, Rhone used stakes and strings to map out the pattern before planting and added the picket fence at the end.

The vegetable garden consists of high and low raised beds divided by mulched paths with a rustic fountain in the center. Amy plants mainstream vegetables and herbs that are easy to grow—tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, rosemary, basil, sweet potatoes—as well as zinnias for cut flowers. Having the chicken coop close to the garden cuts down on trips from the house.

Blue-green eggs come from Araucana chickens. 

The family’s amassed nearly 30 hens.

Sons Teddy and John test the limits of gravity.

Buff Orpingtons are Amy’s prettiest chickens.

Daylilies and other stalwart perennials bloom around the pool.

Squash blossoms are both showy and edible.

A mounted fan of old garden tools decorates the garage.

Amy waters her purple coneflowers near the pool.