Great gardens have much in common with other works of art—form, color, structure, light, space and an indefinable “something” that draws viewers in. Unlike other masterpieces, however, gardens are ephemeral. Any gardener can tell you what happens when you leave a landscape untended for even a month. Lines blur, thuggish plants grow large while less … Read more
When Francis H. Cabot died in 2011 at the age of 86, New York Times obituary writer Margalit Fox credited him with creating “two of the most celebrated gardens in North America.” Last weekend, when the temperature and weather were close to perfect, I visited one of them, Stonecrop Gardens, near Cold Spring, NY. Born … Read more
Nearly a decade ago, I first visited Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, New Jersey. The owners of Greenwood, 28 acres of gardens, structures, outbuildings and naturalized areas, were beginning the process of making the transition from private property to public garden. Deterioration was encroaching on the property, which had its moments of greatest glory in … Read more
