As an article in Traditional Home Magazine featuring the garden of Peterborough resident Stanley Fry points out, New Hampshire is not the first place one would choose for a large and elegant garden, but as the author goes on to say, the garden is Fry’s “magnificent obsession.”

This month’s edition of Traditional Home displays photos and a story about Fry’s 13-acre garden on Pine Street and how it went from a property of “overgrown shrubs, impenetrable brambles and assorted debris” as the article mentions, to a collection of 40 groomed and connected gardens.

“I’ve been gardening my whole life,” Fry says. “As a kid, I gardened for my parents.”

Fry spends an average of 20 hours each week working on his garden, mostly in the early morning before his full time job. In addition, Fry hires full-time help with the garden year-round.

Keeping things looking interesting all year is one of Fry’s driving forces, and one of the philosophies that shapes the gardens. The other is trying to do things that match the time period of the 200-year old house on the property. For instance, one will not find any plants, such as plants with variegated (multi-colored) leaves, that were not around the area at the time period when the house was built.

“A large part of the garden is shrubbery,” he says. “When they are sheared into hedges, the snow on them is quite attractive. Those shapes are just softened by a large amount of snow on them.”

According to Fry, there are 15,000 shrubs on the property. Among the most popular are boxwood bushes known for their ability to be manicured. Some are very tightly pruned, Fry says, while others are given a more loose shape. Some are rectangular, surrounding benches, and others are serpentine, snaking their way through rows of other plants. There are 110 crab apple trees that turn orange this time of year, some of which are planted along the sides of walkways between gardens

Other garden elements accompany the plants, including four reflecting pools that were installed early in the process. Fry collects statuary, benches and antique urns to install in the garden.

Fry began clearing the land in 1990, and a few years later hired garden designer Gordon Hayward, who recently masterminded the restoration of the Cathedral of the Pines following the devastation from the 2008 ice storm.

Now consisting of about 40 miniature gardens that make up the whole, the pieces of the garden sometimes have themes. A lead statue of a boy attached to a fountain is in a segment where all shapes are circular.

The gardens closest to the house are more formal in nature, while those farther away are less structured, a recommendation of Hayward.

Fry’s favorite time of year in the garden is the summer, when the perennial flowers are in the fullest bloom, but takes pride in the property year-round. Fry’s garden is frequently featured in local garden tours, but the greatest joy of it for Fry is the process of planting.

“I find it relaxing,” Fry says of gardening. “You get a sense of accomplishment.”