Brine, who grew up in Rye in Westchester and on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, began his career in the theater, intending to be a director. A stint in Los Angeles doing film production work was “a pause along the way,” he says.

– Hudson Valley Magazine,
Best of the Hudson Valley, Lynn Hazlewood

© gardenlarge.com

Duncan Brine is a Landscape Designer with a Filmmaker’s Eye

“Mr. Brine shapes a landscape as a filmmaker would a story, conceiving it as an unfolding narrative, he said, “only discovered by moving through space.” With a cameraman’s eye, he knows how to take the evocative long view of a wild black locust grove against the marsh, for example, as well as the close-up. He sees how one plant influences the shape or color of another in its proximity, with its shade or by leaning this way or that.”

– The New York Times, Anne Raver

“Mr. Brine calls it “structured naturalism.” And it is, of course. But there is also drama at play here: The plants have been given unexpected roles, in unusual places, and the delight comes in seeing what they will do on this ever-changing stage.”

– The New York Times, Anne Raver

© gardenlarge.com

When Duncan Brine talks about gardening, he uses terms you might expect to hear during a university lecture on literature or art.

Whether it is “regionalism” or “transparency,” he uses the words endearingly and enthusiastically.Brine, who owns Horticultural Design Inc., and tends a six-acre garden of monumental proportions in Pawling, N.Y., can’t help it. To him, gardening is art on a large scale, and it has global implications…If a garden feels right,” he said, “there is a reason for it.”

“Be aware of contour, pattern, placement and contrast, he suggests.”

– The News Times, HomeStyle, Deb Keiser

“Duncan Brine is strong on setting up a suitable infrastructure as a first step toward making big gardens beautiful… … He likes his plants obscure, and he also loves their bold presence. And the statement becomes even more emphatic in late summer and autumn when the grasses reach their full height. The trees, shrubs and grasses form what he calls “structural building blocks” that partition space. Although the inventory is vast and varied, repetition is important. It might be wearisome to repeat precise plants, but shapes need to be echoed…

© gardenlarge.com

They have plants of truly connoisseur quality…they’re all botanical aristocrats.” – Litchfield County Times, Passport Magazine, Tovah Martin

“I met Duncan Brine and was immediately intrigued by his scholarly approach to garden design. The staff at Horticultural Design has been gradually transforming the old cow pastures of Sheffield Farm into a display/trial garden, an inspiration for new ideas in design.”
“When Duncan Brine of Pawling speaks of his garden, he refers to it as ‘our secret garden.’ It is six acres of magnificent planting, tucked away in rolling hills.” — Taconic Press Weekend, Mark Adams

The Brine Garden

The Literary Garden, A Penguin Putnam Anthology

Introduction by Duncan Brine

This book offers that most rare of gardening resources-inspiration and vision. A practical step-by-step guide accompanies excerpts from the works of Louisa May Alcott, Ivan Turgenev, Carl Sandburg, D. H. Lawrence, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charlotte Brontë, Thomas Hardy, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Victor Hugo, and others-allowing readers to recreate literature’s great gardens in their own backyard.(Amazon)

The Literary Garden…begins at the point where literature and horticulture converge. Then, it wanders down the garden path to include notes and advice on growing flowers and plants, sources for seeds and information, suggestions on garden activities and recipes. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

About the Author
Duncan Brine is a Princeton-educated landscape designer who worked in theater and film before founding his firm, Horticultural Design Inc., in 1984. Specializing in naturalistic gardens, his work has taken him from rooftop gardens in Manhattan to rural properties throughout the East Coast.

Subscribe to GARDEN LARGE