The Brine Garden is a chapter of this beautiful new book.

“The line between art and nature has never seemed so blurred as it is in the Brine Garden.”
— Gardens of the Hudson Valley
Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry

Gardens of the Hudson Valley, by co-writers Susan Lowry and Nancy Berner,  is the topic of this spring 2011 Rocky Hills Lecture.  Photography of some of the valley’s iconic and historic gardens, both public and private, by Sue Daley and Steve Gross, will be featured.

Rocky Hills, the garden of Henriette and William Suhr, is a Garden Conservancy Preservation Project in Mount Kisco, New York. The Rocky Hills Lecture Series is presented by the Friends of Rocky Hills.

Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
Chappaqua Public Library
195 South Greeley Avenue
Chappaqua, New York
Free admission

Brine Garden is a chapter of this beautiful new book.

The majesty of the Hudson River has captivated both artists and visitors for generations, and the gardens along its banks have a unique character. From the early gardens of riverfront estates like Clermont and Montgomery Place, with their sweeping lawns and spectacular views of the river and far-off mountains, to the Beaux Arts masterpiece Kykuit and the 1950s gardens at Manitoga, the historic gardens highlight the significant r…ole of the Hudson Valley in the development of American landscape design. Many of the major figures worked here, including Andrew Jackson Downing, Frederick Law Olmsted, Beatrix Farrand, and Fletcher Steele, and their ideas continue to resonate in the 21st century. Included are a number of private, contemporary gardens that are informed by both the history and topography of the valley; the grand themes evoked in the larger historic properties are echoed in these smaller, more modest landscapes.

Hort members $10; non-members $15

Register online at: www.hsny.org/programs_workshops_talks_tours.html#gardens_hudsonvalley

For more information please check out our Brine Garden page

The Garden Conservancy, which makes America’s finest private gardens available to the public, presents the Brine Garden and the Scherer Garden in Pawling, NY, this Saturday, October 2, from 2-6 pm, rain or shine ($5 admission per garden).

In fall, rather than focusing on flowers, these gardens feature the ambiance created by vistas, their plants’ form, texture, and color. Kathy and Stan Scherer’s  botanically rich garden includes woodland paths, a mix of woody and herbaceous plantings, and a memorable Quaker Hill view.

© gardenlarge.com

The New York Times, Horticulture Magazine, and other publications have featured Duncan Brine’s work. In the New York Times, Anne Raver describes the Brine Garden as “a dreamlike landscape.” She writes: “…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.”

Horticulture’s Carleen Madigan explores Brine’s landscape design method, saying, “…the Brine garden is the embodiment of Duncan’s philosophy of gardening large. This concept doesn’t necessarily relate to size; it’s the idea that an entire property, be it two acres or twenty, should be seen and treated as one garden…”

Marilyn Bethany, formerly of New York magazine, wrote about the Brine Garden in www.ruralintelligence.com. “All good gardens are instructive. This one? It will blow your mind.”

© gardenlarge.com

Diverse trees, shrubs, and grasses structure the naturalistic six acre Brine Garden, including an allée of the native, faux evergreen, Taxodium; a group of the uncommon understory maple, Acer triflorum; a grove of the native exfoliating birch, Betula nigra; a clutch of dense tree canopies from Persia, Parrotia; a band of distinctive fast growing, native swamp oak, Quercus bicolor, which was just introduced at the site of the former World Trade center; and the towering grass, Miscanthus giganteus, just coming into “flower” which to many resembles bamboo. Brine Garden visitors receive a property map and a list with botanical and common names distinguishing between U.S. native and locally indigenous plants.

Brine Garden 20th anniversary

Saturday’s Open Day is part of the Brine Garden 20th anniversary, which honors Doug Tallamy’s groundbreaking book, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (2009 Timber Press and available at Pawling’s Book Cove). Tallamy, an entomologist, writes of a future where the canopies of indigenous backyard trees link to provide meaningful habitat, especially for birds and pollinating insects.

The 20th year celebration began with a festive opening for an exhibit of Brine Garden images at Pawling’s Gallery on the Green and continues with the concurrent publication of a magazine article and a new book featuring the garden.

Duncan Brine’s article, “Inviting Nature into Your Garden,” urges those, “starting a new garden or contemplating a redesign, to consider a naturalistic approach, which has renewed relevance in today’s environment.” His feature story, accompanied by many images, is in the current issue of The American Gardener, published by the American Horticultural Society. (To read excerpts from the article, join the Brine Garden page on Facebook.)

Gardens of the Hudson Valley (2010 Monacelli Press), with a foreword by the New York Botanical Garden president, Gregory Long, has lavish, revealing photographs of the Brine Garden by Sue Daley and Steve Gross and interpretative text by Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry.

FrOGS Event

Duncan, with his wife and partner Julia Brine, will staff one of many tables at the free (donations accepted) upcoming FrOGS Art Show and Celebration of the Great Swamp, October 23 and 24, on Pawling’s Quaker Hill, in the exhibit hall behind Christ Church. FrOGS is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the Great Swamp of Dutchess and Putnam Counties through science and education. This lively annual event allows the whole family to learn, from a variety of sources, about what’s going on with the nature in our midst, and to discover the Brines’ passion and vision for a private garden’s potential. They are principals of Horticultural Design, Inc., a landscape design and installation firm, specializing in native plants and naturalistic gardens since 1984.

Visit www.gardenlarge.com, for directions to the Brine and Scherer gardens, information about the FrOGS event, and more about Horticultural Design, Inc, Duncan Brine, and the Brine Garden.

http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2010/08/timbers-cool-pick-andrew-beckman-as-editorial-director.html

Photographs: Sue Daley and Steve Gross
Text: Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry
Forward: Gregory Long,
President of The New York Botanical Garden

Monacelli Press, a division of Random House
Publication date: October 19, 2010

© gardenlarge

Soon to be published, Gardens of the Hudson Valley features the Brine Garden  among “twenty-five gardens between Yonkers and Hudson, including famous estate gardens like Kykuit, Boscobel, the Vanderbilt Mansion, and Olana (all open to the public) and private gardens that combine sweeping views and lush plantings”.

Steve Gross and Sue Daley are photographers who specialize in architecture, interiors, gardens, travel and lifestyle.

Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry have teamed up before as the authors of Garden Guide: New York City, revised edition, 2010, Norton.

The Monacelli Press  is a leading publisher of books on architecture, the fine arts, interior design, landscape architecture, photography, and graphic design. The Press is known for studies of historic and contemporary artists and architects; for perceptive photodocumentation of places and events; for exceptional volumes on traditional and contemporary interior design; for energetic collections of graphic and product design.

Subscribe to GARDEN LARGE

Add to Technorati Favorites

Horticultural Design, Inc. and the Brine Garden

Bound in Books

The Nonstop Garden

by Stephanie Cohen and Jennifer Benner
includes one of our gardens
Timber Press
Pub. date May 2010

Stephanie, aka the Perennial Diva, is an award-winning author, speaker, and the former director of the Landscape Arboretum at Temple University in Ambler, PA. Jennifer is a writer, photographer, and horticulture consultant, and a former editor at Fine Gardening magazine.

Gardens of the Hudson Valley

Photographs by Sue Daley and Steve Gross
Text by Nancy Berner and Susan Lowry
features the Brine Garden.
Monacelli Press
Pub. date October 2010

Steve and Sue are photographers who specialize in architecture, interiors, gardens, travel and lifestyle. Nancy and Susan are the authors of Garden Guide: New York City, revised edition, 2010, Norton.

Designer Plant Combinations

by Scott Calhoun
features ten pages of images and plant combinations from the Brine Garden.
Storey Publishing
Published 2008

Scott is a recipient of the highest awards from the American Horticultural Society and the Garden Writers Association of America.
His blog: Scott Calhoun’s Desert

From New York to Boston:
Book a design consultation with Duncan Brine, principal landscape designer

Horticultural Design, Inc.
hortdesign@gardenlarge.com
(845) 855-9023

By Bill Cary

http://gardening.lohudblogs.com/2010/03/06/upcoming-at-bedford-audubon-10/