Madoo, Bridge Gardens Sow The Seeds Of A New Season

Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack and Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton have already officially opened, but there is no shortage of upcoming happenings at these two East End horticultural fixtures.

This year, Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack is getting a little bit of a lift in all areas before the height of the season.

It is much needed, according to Alejandro Saralegui, director of the whimsical, rambling garden in Sagaponack, born 50 years ago from the talented hands and creative mind of artist Robert Dash.

“Madoo is an extraordinarily important garden,” Mr. Saralegui said during a recent telephone interview. “And it’s right in everybody’s backyard. We haven’t always done the best job publicizing that.”

Recent programming has helped spread the word, he explained, noting Monday Mornings at Madoo—a storytelling session for kids hosted in conjunction with the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton—as well as Madoodles, a children’s drawing class, and the conservancy’s annual fundraiser, Much Ado About Madoo, now in its sixth year, with hosts Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler on July 17 and 18.

It will be a night the late Mr. Dash would have enjoyed. Not long after he bought the 1.91-acre swath of tractor turnaround land in 1966, he hosted summer soirées for his closest friends and worked what was wild growth into the irreverent, organic garden that went public in 1993.

“We’re trying to bring it back and open it up to more people—especially our community,” Mr. Saralegui said. “As the area gets more developed, it’s more and more important to preserve places like Madoo. It’s an organic spot that is a piece of the past, essentially. That Madoo’s organic is extraordinary, and it always has been since Bob started gardening.”

Mr. Dash called Madoo home for 47 years. A few months before Mr. Dash died in September 2013, he decided to donate three of his paintings to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, but he wasn’t feeling up to attending a meeting with the higher-ups there.

“Ale, you go. You can take the meeting,” Mr. Dash had said to Mr. Saralegui. “You’re Madoo now.”

The director took a deep breath on the phone, reliving the memory. “It was extremely generous on Bob’s part, and it gave me a lot of confidence,” he said. “We worked together for almost four years exactly, so I got to know Bob and I got to know his philosophy and, more than anything, what Madoo means to the community and to the plant world.”

Every year, the garden changes, Mr. Saralegui said, though well-known elements and areas are constant: the renowned Gingko Grove, as well as Mr. Dash’s optical illusions that play with mirrors and ancient architecture.

“In the garden, there are moments when you see Bob’s genius that give me pause,” he said. “Whether it is a combination of, say, an antique pink rose mixed with the almost black-leafed cohosh, which is terribly chic, or our beautiful Acer griseum planted right in front of a gray-trunked magnolia, there is a remarkable artist’s eye in Bob’s plantings that perseveres at Madoo.”

Over the course of its lifetime, Madoo has transitioned from the property of Mr. Dash into a garden that is more embracing of the public. And, as such, this year’s priorities are revamping the paths and terraces—“Make the garden a little more walkable, which anyone who’s been here will understand exactly what I’m saying. It’s been a little treacherous,” Mr. Saralegui said—and renovating the pond under the Asian bridge, which hasn’t been touched in 25 years.

A capital campaign for Madoo raised $30,000 last year, and the fruits of that collection can be seen in the garden’s now-working greenhouse. It will play a critical role in future children’s programming, Mr. Saralegui said, not to mention the garden itself.

“I, literally, just before I grabbed the phone, I was looking at tomato seedlings popping up through the soil,” he said. “I can order seeds from all over the world and start getting really cool things back into the garden: from odd pepper vegetables that are a little different than the norm to more-cutting edge flowers that are different than what you normally see.”

The garden, which is almost always a visual delight, features winter-blooming jasmine, snowdrops and daffodils, “making the garden look as if it is painted in yellow,” Mr. Saralegui said.

Very rare hellebores and new varieties of witch hazels are on the way, and tulips have recently been reintroduced to the vegetable garden. The center rondel will feature hundreds of T. Dordogne, which has “the most sultry orange coloring, and right now I’m growing red-leafed lettuces to underplant them with,” he said.

In the fall, the garden is speckled with the blue blossoms of monkshood, and the delicate, orchid-like flowers of the toad lilies. “There is always something going on here,” Mr. Saralegui said.

“I think [Mr. Dash] would be proud,” he added. “In a way, we are bringing the garden back to it’s heyday … We’re looking forward to another 50 years, if not 100.”

For more information, visit madoo.org.

Sometimes, the new vegetation in Bridge Gardens is as much of a surprise to visitors as it is to the man who planted it—at least until the boxes of seeds arrive on his doorstep come spring.

Every year, it’s like clockwork. Manager Rick Bogusch flips through all of the vegetable catalogs in January and February, and places his orders. Two months later, he has forgotten nearly all of them.

“In the crush of the beginning of the season, there’s so much to do right now,” he said during a recent telephone interview, taking a break from working in the 5-plus-acre garden nestled in Bridgehampton, a stewardship project of the Peconic Land Trust and a multipurpose, multidisciplinary outdoor classroom with a focus on sustainable lawn and gardening practices.

“There’s always new things to see,” he continued. “But what are they? I guess I can’t really tell you at the moment.”

Garden enthusiasts will just have to come see for themselves, he said.

“I try to show people new varieties that they can grow—new different kinds of vegetables, the best of what’s out there,” he said of the edible component, although Bridge Gardens also includes many specimens of trees, shrubs, hedgerow, roses, perennials and herbs. “I try to figure out what is best for this area of Long Island and what will grow here and do well. I approach it that way, thinking about others who might want to grow the same kinds of plants or fruits or vegetables, and what would be the easiest ones, the ones that require the least amount of input and effort, especially if you’re growing sustainably or organically.”

This season’s vegetable garden—which lives in the Inner Garden, alongside a large Spanish-styled knot garden and beds of culinary, medicinal and ornamental herbs—will feature newly planted raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, as well as a wide variety of peppers, beans and greens.

Anyone who grows peppers should know about Carmen, a long, red, frying pepper that is very productive, he said. The El Jefe jalapeno pepper is another personal favorite, he said. It is an early producer with large fruits—“and then there’s the name, which means ‘the boss,’” he said.

White Russian kale is worth noting, he said, as opposed to its more popular relative, Red Russian kale. The former is superior in flavor, he said, and produces from early spring into late fall.

The garden will also see selections from online company Seeds of Italy. Mr. Bogusch has already sown a broccoli rabe called cima di rapa—“I just looked yesterday and it’s already germinated,” he said—and he plans to try more Italian varieties of rabe throughout the year.

“Another Italian green little known in the U.S. is agretto,” he added. “It’s salty, narrow leaves are wonderful sautéed with oil and garlic, and a great way of combining nutrition and flavor.”

Beyond the vegetable beds is the Outer Garden, home to a number of events throughout the summer, which include classes and workshops, the Fridays at Six concert series, and a new Fridays at Four series, a local wine tasting paired with a garden tour on the last Friday of every month from June through September.

“On September 30, Montauk Brewery is coming and will be offering a pre-Oktober Fest tasting,” Mr. Bogusch said. “And the Fridays at Six evenings are really wonderful. Those nights of music in the gardens are really a highlight of summer.”

For more information, visit peconiclandtrust.org/bridge_gardens.html.