-
Advice Offered On Creating A Naturalistic Landscape Design – 27east
Publication: The East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press
By Anne Halpin
Gardeners interested in a more natural look for their landscapes were treated to an inspiring and insightful talk on Sunday afternoon at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton by Duncan and Julia Brine.
The Long Bridge at the Brine Garden © gardenlarge.com
The principal designer and his wife and partner in the Pawling, New York-based Garden Large, a naturalistic landscape design firm…
Their talk focused on the process of making a naturalistic garden personal and unique to each site…
The first step in the process involves acquiring a sense of the region and the characteristics of your particular property, what Mr. Brine calls “the givens.”
Mr. Brine used his own family’s property in Dutchess County to illustrate the design process…
For Mr. Brine, naturalistic landscape design responds to the native plants already in place. The landscape is understood as an environment, the plantings part of a whole—a bigger picture than a traditional garden bed or border…
For the Brines, the goal of a naturalistic garden is to, in Mr. Brine’s words, “idealize and partner with nature’s potential in a place.”
A large garden such as theirs can replicate the different ecosystems of slopes, and wet lowlands, the plantings visually integrating with views of their neighbor’s property and the distant ridgelines. On a small property, a naturalistic garden can’t invoke an entire ecosystem, but it can serve as a fragment of nature, a quotation of a natural environment.
The naturalistic garden…can offer a refuge and respite for the senses. And because the plants are chosen to suit the givens, the garden will look like it belongs there, and the plants will thrive. It’s a low-maintenance, resource-conservative place that can nourish the gardener’s soul as it helps nature along…
These are excerpts, for the full article, go to http://www.27east.com/
Join us in the Hamptons this weekend?
Hudson Valley’s Duncan Brine, aka Garden Large,
Speaks in the Hamptons on Sunday, March 18 at 1pm
The Peconic Land Trust announces its third annual lecture series at Bridge Gardens, in Bridgehampton, NY. On March 18 at 1:00pm, Duncan Brine, principal of Garden Large, presents his naturalistic landscape design process, expanding on his recent article in “American Gardener” magazine.
“A naturalistic garden combines a gardener’s needs and desires with nature’s dictates; its design cannot be premeditated because its inherent beauty is inextricably linked to the landscape on which it is created.”
Mr. Brine is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and the New England Wild Flower Society. Garden Large specializes in native plants and whole property gardens. Visit www.gardenlarge.com, for more about Garden Large, Duncan Brine, and the Brine Garden.
© gardenlarge.com
The Long Bridge at the Brine Garden, Pawling, NY
Scott Medbury, president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Vincent Simeone, director of Planting Fields Arboretum, and others, are also featured in the speaker series. Reservations are required and the fee is $15 per person. Refreshments will be served following each program.
For reservations and additional dates and details on the speaker series, go to Bridge Gardens on www.PeconicLandTrust.org.
The Peconic Land Trust
The Peconic Land Trust was established in 1983 to conserve Long Island’s working farms and natural lands. The nonprofit Trust has worked in concert with landowners, local government, partner organizations, and communities to conserve over 10,000 acres in NY, on Long Island. The Trust’s professional staff carries out the necessary research and planning to identify and implement alternatives to development. While working to conserve the productive farms, watersheds, woodlands, and beach front of Long Island, the Trust is also protecting the unique rural heritage and natural resources of the region. The Trust has Stewardship Centers in Southold, Cutchogue, Bridgehampton and Amagansett and its Main Office is in Southampton, NY. The public is invited to enjoy a wide variety of fun and educational activities through the Trust’s “Connections” programs which strive to connect people to the natural lands of Long Island’s East End.
Bridge Gardens
Bridge Gardens was established in 1988 by Harry Neyens and Jim Kilpatric, who designed and installed the gardens over the ensuing 10 years. In 1997, Bridge Gardens Trust was created as a charitable corporation to maintain and preserve the gardens. In 2008, Neyens and Kilpatric donated Bridge Gardens to the Peconic Land Trust. Rick Bogusch, a landscape architect with a long career at Cornell Plantations in Ithaca, NY, is the garden manager.
Bridge Gardens covers over five acres and consists of an Inner Garden and an Outer Garden. Developed first, the Inner Garden features a large, meticulously-trimmed knot garden surrounded by beds of 180 different culinary, medicinal, ornamental, and textile and dyeing herbs. Overlooking these plantings, the garden house is the manager’s residence/education center. In the Outer Garden, the favorite attraction is a collection of antique and modern roses. Bridge Gardens also contains animal topiaries, a lavender parterre, perennial beds and borders, a water garden, woodland paths, a hidden bamboo room, double hedgerows of privet with viewing ports, and specimen shrubs and trees.
Duncan Brine to present at Peconic Land Trusts’ Lecture Series – Bridgehampton, NY
-
© gardenlarge.com
-
• Sunday, March 18: “Naturalistic Whole Property Design”Brine, principal landscape designer of Garden Large, and instructor at the New York Botanical Garden along with the New England Wild Flower Society, will expand upon an article he wrote for the American Horticultural Society’s “American Gardener” while focusing on the six-acre Brine Garden in Pawling, NY.Anne Raver featured the garden in the New York Times, and the recent book “Gardens of the Hudson Valley” compares Duncan to Russel Wright of Garrison, NY’s Manitoga.Discover how this designer finds inspiration in existing conditions and elicits ideas from the prevailing nature of a place.
-
Duncan Brine in the American Gardener, published by the American Horticultural Society
The American Gardener to feature Duncan Brine’s naturalistic garden
American Horticultural Society’s
The American Gardener Magazine
Editor: David Ellis
Author: Duncan Brine
Photographers: Rob Cardillo and Duncan Brine
© gardenlarge
This fall, the American Horticultural Society’s The American Gardener magazine is slated to feature Duncan Brine’s article and photographs about “a naturalistic garden”.
The article and the Brine Garden’s 20th Anniversary both honor Doug Tallamy’s groundbreaking book, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (2009 Timber Press).
Twenty years ago, Duncan Brine found direction in moving away from the status quo of traditional gardens and toward a naturalistic garden’s engaging creative process and philosophy. A naturalistic garden combines a gardener’s needs and desires with nature’s dictates; its inherent beauty follows the suggestion of landscape conditions. It’s not a pre-meditated design forced upon the landscape; rather, a naturalistic garden is itself, and looks like itself, without affect. In his article, Brine discusses naturalistic techniques and pragmatic approaches that help you create your own naturalistic garden.
Among other notable achievements, photographer Rob Cardillo has received a Gold award for best photography from the Garden Writers of America .
The American Gardener is now available both digitally and in print to members of the American Horticultural Society.
