garden

living green
on all its projects, while balancing this with client needs.
The tactic for OvS is to pack as much perennial plant material into
a location as possible, which is water absorbing. Says Groft, "The
entire garden essentially becomes a rain garden," collecting both rainwater
and runoff from hard surfaces, and forestalling erosion and
water wasting. The OvS rule of thumb, according to Groft, is that a
lawn should be limited to "whatever the homeowners have time to
mow with a push mower on a Saturday afternoon." And a modest
lawn becomes simply another design element, a foil for the OvS signature
borders and beds voluminous with perennials like black-eyed
Susan, ornamental grasses, anise hyssop, sedum and fleece flower.
The perennial material for the garden — comprised of water-wise,
low-maintenance, butterfly- and bird-magnet plants, including a high
percentage of natives — was selected not only for toughness but also
for year-round interest (the homeowner even enjoys the "freeze-dried"
look of her winter garden). The less cutting back and seasonal changing
out of plants the better, since such routines require a lot of input
(not only labor, but fertilizer and water) and result in a whole heap
of garden waste, some of it too twiggy to compost easily. Once a year,
in late winter or early spring, the Southampton garden gets a single
serious haircut before new growth on perennials and grasses gets up
and going. But the piles of trimmings don't wind up by the side of the
road. They're shredded and composted for use as mulch later.
Woody plants too were chosen for their easy care, including
'Tardiva' hydrangea, Viburnum x pragense and Nandina, which are not
46 GARDEN DESIGN APRIL 09
in the heavy-pruning, meatball-shrubbery category, and trees such
as Styphnolobiumjaponicum (formerly Sophora), ginkgo and natives
like flowering dogwood and Magnolia virginiana. A buddleia planted
just outside a kitchen window offers a butterfly- and hummingbirdviewing
portal, with a stained-glass effect when backlit by the
sun. It took some convincing, but the client also agreed to let the
prerequisite privet hedge go undipped. It still forms a privacy screen
from the neighbors, but instead of being tightly sheared, it has a
natural look. And left unpruned, it flowers, attracting the notice of
fellow Hamptonites who have never seen their hedges in bloom.
As a ground-up project, with house and garden designed in tandem,
Groft had the opportunity to work closely with architect Robert
Lemmen of Lemmen Paul Associates to site constructed elements.
For hardscaping, Groft kept it local and recycled, choosing New
York bluestone for paving and crushed concrete rather than quarried
gravel for pathways. Landscape architect and architect agreed to
locate the garage separate from the house (the homeowner insisted
that she didn't need an attached-garage "bat cave"), and the area
between the two structures forms a cozy microhabitat near the
kitchen — the perfect location for Groft to create an edibles garden
of raised beds, which harmonized herbs, Swiss chard, peppers,
and cherry and grape tomatoes with cutting flowers.
To bring the element of water onto the site (the ocean being one of
the obvious reasons people move to the Hamptons, though this property
isn't ocean adjacent), Groft designed a small pool of aquatic plants