When Elizabeth Woodard walks along the moss-covered trails that wind through her Goldsboro backyard, she feels rooted. Her great-grandmother tamed these woods when she and her husband moved to town in 1931 and transformed the city’s golf course clubhouse into their home.

Elizabeth’s mother trampled these paths as a child, running from her own house at the other end of the property to her grandmother’s kitchen.

And after school each day, Elizabeth and her best friend climbed these trees that stood watch over Girl Scout campouts and neighborhood Easter egg hunts.

Today, almost 100 years after her great-grandmother turned that city block of woods into a network of paths and secret gardens, Elizabeth and her husband, Kevin, have restored the grounds to honor her vision — with a modern twist.

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Elizabeth steps out of the couple’s first-floor primary bedroom into an outdoor living room. The open-air space stretches all the way across the back of their house.

Posey Rose, their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, scampers behind her and hops onto a plush chair by the fireplace. “We spend almost all our time out here,” she says. “Last night, we had 30 people over here to watch a game. The neighborhood kids were running around with Nerf guns. I love to see them having fun.”

Kevin and Elizabeth first considered moving into her great-grandparents’ house about the time their two boys, then 10 and 12, were getting really good at soccer. “We had another home down the street, but it had a very small backyard,” Kevin says. The family’s three-acre lot could be a budding soccer player’s Wembley Stadium!

The Woodards designed a home that complements the surrounding landscape that Elizabeth explored as a child. photograph by Charles Harris

But there was a problem: Elizabeth’s great-grandparents had passed away more than 15 years earlier, and the old house seemed beyond repair. “We thought about trying to renovate, but the interior was choppy,” Kevin says. “It made more sense to rebuild.”

In most new builds, the house comes first and the landscaping comes later. For the Woodards, the existing garden informed almost everything about the home’s architecture.

First, they built their new Cape Cod-style house — to allow the hydrangeas to stand out against gray-shingled siding — on the same footprint as the old clubhouse. That way, they could keep the 100-year-old serpentine brick wall that wrapped around the woods’ edges.

The open design of the living room gives way to sweeping views of the landscaped gardens. photograph by Charles Harris

Next, they designed an open-concept floor plan anchored by the gardens. Sliding glass doors form the back wall of the house, so the family room flows seamlessly onto the patio. That’s Elizabeth’s favorite part: “When I walk in the front door of the house, I can see straight through. It’s just like walking into the garden.”

That wasn’t always the case. When construction was completed on the family’s new home, those sliding glass doors opened to trees — lots and lots of them. “There were 10 overgrown trails with brick pavers all the way back through the woods, and if you walked around, you’d come upon a fountain or a little sitting area,” Elizabeth says. “It was always kind of a surprise.”

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“Garden Visitors Welcome,” reads the antique tin sign propped against the fountain just beyond the backyard patio. The couple unearthed the sign as they began the process of uncovering what her great-grandmother called her “garden rooms,” scattered throughout the property. One “room” contained little bunny sculptures; another an Italian statue; another a gigantic mirror outfitted with antique glass.

“Every year, she and her full-time gardener, Milford, planted hundreds of bulbs,” Elizabeth says. “She truly just loved beauty, and her garden was an expression of that. So many people tell me they used to come tour these gardens on weekends, as if it was a community park.” As president of the American Camellia Society, Elizabeth’s great-grandfather had access to rare varieties like the variegated Marquise D’Exeter — a delicate white flower with a blush-pink stripe.

Only as Elizabeth and Kevin were thumbing through old photos to hash out a landscaping plan did they realize that one of those garden rooms was a stone’s throw away from the back door. “We saw the photo and said, ‘There’s a fountain right there!’” Kevin says. After Elizabeth’s great-grandfather died, there was too much upkeep, so the fountain had been covered up.

With the old photo as their guide, the Woodards found the fountain’s base, carefully rebricked and painted it, and surrounded it with rose bushes and lush zoysia grass — the perfect carpet for barefoot living.

“I love an English garden: boxwoods, ivy, brick,” Elizabeth says. “To me, a garden is not just flowers. To me, a garden is moss on cobbled stones. When it’s rainy in a garden, it’s mysterious and green, and you can hear the music.”

Elizabeth is the fourth generation to know that song by heart. This is home, and these are her roots. “I love to get out here and put my hands in the same earth my family did,” she says. “It’s comforting to me; it’s where I feel at peace.”