Hampton Bays annual garden tour to showcase the beauty of the hamlet

Mary Pallister, Sue Nydegger and Vedrana Grgas all keep very different gardens at their Hampton Bays homes, but they will all have one thing in common this weekend: The three women will showcase their manicured beds of flowers, ferns and flora for others to see.

The Hampton Bays Beautification Association will host its 12th annual Garden Tour on Saturday, July 10, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A total of nine homeowners in Hampton Bays, including Ms. Pallister, Ms. Nydegger and Ms. Grgas, will participate in this year’s event.

“Everyone has unique, different gardens,” said Valerie Zuccarelli, a co-chairwoman of the association, as she explained the large number of stops on this year’s tour.

Members of the Beautification Association keep an eye out for interesting and well-kept gardens through the year and start choosing homeowners for the tour in April. The group hosts the tour every July because that is when flowers such as hydrangeas, lilies and daisies are in bloom, said Susan von Freddi, the president of the Beautification Association.

Ms. Pallister’s garden is in full bloom and it looks like an English country garden, full of strewn-about daisies and elegant Russian olive trees. She showcased her garden on the tour in 2003, and said that she likes it to be free with no colors or similar flowers growing in the same place.

“Wherever birds drop their seeds and the plants grow,” she said. “There’s no real structure.”

Others on the tour have different approaches to planning their gardens.

“Some leave the natural part of the environment as part of their garden,” such as the bays or the woods, Ms. Zuccarelli said, adding that others add touches like ceramics and statues to their garden. “Everyone has their own style and taste.”

Ms. Nydegger lined one side of her yard with light blue and pink hydrangea plants at her waterfront home. The flowers serve as a gateway from her front yard to the Shinnecock Bay, which her property overlooks. The other side of her property is lined with a small vegetable garden, lilies—including hot pink calla lilies, which she said she is very proud of—and other perennial flowers.

Ms. Grgas’s garden overlooks the Peconic Bay. She has decorated her space with various statuettes of rabbits, frogs and owls. She reported that she likes to plant colorful flowers, especially her favorite flowers, impatiens, on both sides of her 
house to contrast with her white brick home. Ms. Grgas also 
uses potted plants to decorate her terrace overlooking the water.

The point of the Hampton Bays Garden Tour is to give the garden visitors ideas for their own homes.

“It’s inspired me,” Ms. Grgas said of her past trips on the tour.

Ms. Zuccarelli added that the association members try to choose all different homes, even places with small properties, to showcase the creative ways Hampton Bays residents cultivate their gardens.

The Garden Tour is also meant to show off the gardens in Southampton Town’s most populated hamlet, Ms. Nydegger said, noting that the Beautification Association should be commended for its work. “It also shows the beauty of Hampton Bays,” she said of the tour.

Each year, members of the Beautification Association hold a small contest and vote on their favorite garden. The winners of the contest are honored at the following year’s garden party, held every June.

Shane Gritzinger and Owain Morgan won last year’s competition. Their property was decorated with ponds and waterfalls, fruit trees, plants and flowers, Ms. von Freddi reported.

The Hampton Bays Beautification Association Garden Tour will be held in Hampton Bays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 10. Patrons can purchase tickets from 9 a.m. to noon at the United Artist Movie Theater’s parking lot on Montauk Highway and Springville Road. Admission is $20 and patrons will also be given a map and directions to each home on the tour, and a short description of each garden.