Elsie Reford used the stream as the basic design feature in the gardens. She built stone walls to contain it and to stabilize the sharp slope. On the north side of Page’s Brook (named after a pioneer family) she positioned rough fieldstones and created a garden, which she baptized "The High Bank". Today, this garden is home to hundreds of perennials such as the Martagon lilies (Lilium martagon var. album and L. martagon var. cattaniae) and several varieties of astilbes.
Of note in the central bed, what she dubbed the "Mound Garden", is the Boyd Willow (Salix x boydii). This diminutive willow, first discovered in the mountains of Scotland, was planted by Elsie Reford in the 1930s. The carpet of saxifrage (Saxifraga rosea) and the mass of double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis 'Flore Pleno') bear witness to the age of the plantings, now more than 90 years old.