Terry and Reg Soares have planted years of experience and moments of experimentation in the surrounding landscape of their Falmouth home.

Steps away from the bustle of Soares Flower Garden Nursery in East Falmouth, a different kind of landscape quietly unfolds. At home on the adjacent property, Terry and Reg Soares have created a personal retreat that feels like a living sanctuary, both expansive and intimate, layered with textures, colors, and pathways that invite discovery.

What makes the garden remarkable isn’t only the abundance of plant life, but the way each space tells a story. “I wanted places where you can pause,” Terry says. “Each area should feel like it has its own personality, its own moment.”

Rooted in Falmouth’s past, the Soares property has a history of cultivation. Once a strawberry farm, the land was an undeveloped triangle when the couple purchased it in 1987. A decade later, they opened the nursery to complement their thriving landscape business, but even before then, the house and gardens were inseparable from their lives.

Terry’s own path to horticulture began in Virginia, where she worked at a nursery before studying with Reg, then a part-time horticulture instructor. Their shared love of plants became both a career and a life. Over the years, the landscape has been their canvas, evolving with family needs, new additions, and a design sensibility that balances utility with a natural poetry.