Private Edens by Staub Jack;

Author:Staub, Jack;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Box-edged beds and rooms are one of the classic features of the Anglo gardening tradition.

Self-seeders are encouraged in this garden, softening the exquisite hardscape with their capricious presence.

Northern Exposure

Canaan, New York

It is as if Moby Dick had elected to break with startling immensity through the placid ocean’s surface of the lawn, his pale hump glistening. To wit: a granite rock ledge four hundred fifty feet long and forty feet tall mirroring the length of the entrance drive and nearly dwarfing the house in the distance. Surely there are other gardens on this one hundred eighty acres surrounding an 1813 clapboard home in New York State, but none that make such a large statement. Now scrubbed of debris, mulched with peastone, and gorgeously planted with alpines, one is forced to admit that one has really never seen anything like it.

The owners of this unique garden feature, who formerly worked at jobs in public relations and advertising in Manhattan, were simply looking for a weekend getaway. To that end, they chose this property, originally just six unkempt acres, “because of the house, which had old-age charm, the right room configuration, four fireplaces, and it was affordable. The fact that the property was overgrown and scruffy didn’t concern us, because we had no interest in gardening!” The master of this Eden, who was born and raised in London proper, further elaborates that, “although I attended boarding schools in beautiful parts of the South East [of England], I managed to avoid deriving any inspiration from my environment at all.”

In the beginning, he continues, “we weren’t looking to surround ourselves with any vision of Eden, but rather to enhance our weekend experience. First we wanted to clean up the area around the house and make the approach more attractive, so we cleared scrub and installed a lawn and proper driveway. Later we started to think about growing our own vegetables and herbs and creating a small garden.” Then the plot began to thicken.

“We began to fall under the influence of friends who gardened. On trips to visit family in England, we began to take an interest in their gardens and public gardens nearby. We then saw our own space in a more informed light and discovered features that were interesting and special. To learn more, we started taking courses at the nearby Berkshire Botanical Garden. All this culminated in a decision to hire a local landscape designer to create our first planted area. We watched him carve out the area, shape beds, amend the soil, and select plants, and we were hooked!”

However, to start, things were not always idyllic in terms of honing this vision of paradise. “Our biggest challenge was our lack of knowledge and experience of gardening, so that we kept on making elementary mistakes. We also didn’t have an overall plan, so we had to find a way to connect disparate areas into some sort of coordinated whole. Another challenge, arising out of our inexperience, was the fact that we had probably bitten off more than we could chew.

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