43 Photos
From the East Hampton garden of Alexandra Munroe and Robert Rosenkranz. COURTESY THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY
George Biercuk in his Wainscott garden, not yet in bloom. MICHELLE TRAURING
George Biercuk's and Robert Luckey's Wainscott garden, not yet in bloom. MICHELLE TRAURING
George Biercuk's and Robert Luckey's Wainscott garden, not yet in bloom. MICHELLE TRAURING
George Biercuk's and Robert Luckey's Wainscott garden, not yet in bloom. MICHELLE TRAURING
Artist Joe Zucker and Britta Le Va's backyard in East Hampton.
George Biercuk's Wainscott garden is all about fragrance and color. MICHELLE TRAURING
Hellebore in George Biercuk's and Robert Luckey's Wainscott garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Oaks are a garden's friend, not foe. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Fred Meyer in his Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's Remsenburg garden. MICHELLE TRAURING
Inside the gardens of a home on Tuthill Lane in Remsenburg. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's garden in Remsenburg during a tour last summer. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's garden in Remsenburg during a tour last summer. MICHELLE TRAURING
Inside the gardens of a home on Tuthill Lane in Remsenburg. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's garden in Remsenburg during a tour last summer. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's garden in Remsenburg during a tour last summer. MICHELLE TRAURING
Inside the gardens of a home on Tuthill Lane in Remsenburg. MICHELLE TRAURING
Inside the gardens of a home on Tuthill Lane in Remsenburg. MICHELLE TRAURING
Inside the gardens of a home on Tuthill Lane in Remsenburg. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's garden in Remsenburg during a tour last summer. MICHELLE TRAURING
Scenes from Fred and Monica Meyer's garden in Remsenburg during a tour last summer. MICHELLE TRAURING
Amy Zerner's artistic couture.
Harry Bates exterior
Co-chair Dick Bruce at "Art in the Garden." COURTESY FRAN CONIGLIARO
Fran Conigliaro and Diana Brennan at "Art in the Garden." COURTESY DIANA BRENNAN
A completed home in the estate section of Westhampton Beach. COURTESY LAWRENCE III CORPORATION
A completed home in the estate section of Westhampton Beach. COURTESY LAWRENCE III CORPORATION
Harry Bates exterior
From the shady Wainscott garden of George Biercuk and Robert Luckey. COURTESY GEORGE BIERCUK
From the shady Wainscott garden of George Biercuk and Robert Luckey. COURTESY GEORGE BIERCUK
From the shady Wainscott garden of George Biercuk and Robert Luckey. COURTESY GEORGE BIERCUK
Demolition at Keyes Island property. COURTESY LAND AQUISITION DEPARTMENT Kronos photographed in San Francisco, CA March 26, 2013©Jay Blakesberg
Demolition at Keyes Island property. COURTESY LAND AQUISITION DEPARTMENT
Perlbinder residence. Kronos photographed in San Francisco, CA March 26, 2013©Jay Blakesberg
From the East Hampton garden of Abby Jane Brody. COURTESY THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY
From the East Hampton garden of Carol Mercer. COURTESY THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY
When longtime gardener George Biercuk began property shopping on the East End 15 years ago, he knew he wanted one that was southwest-facing and covered in trees.
He found it in Wainscott—a 1-acre parcel shaded with oaks, begging for a natural garden to be planted in its acidic soil. And that is exactly what Mr. Biercuk and his partner, Robert Luckey, did.
“Oaks are our friends. I know people who absolutely hate them, but they’re deep rooted and you can plant under them and you can have a wonderful garden,” Mr. Biercuk said last week during a private tour of his land. “You can plant a garden in the shade. You don’t need lawn. This allowed me to experiment with whatever I wanted to do. It was my sandbox.”
But not at first. The original plant covering the property was catbrier, a “nasty” leafless vine with thorns, Mr. Biercuk said. He added that it was so stubborn that it needed to be cleared with pickaxes—a chore that nearly cost the gardener three fingers, he said.
The yearlong project was worth it, he said, and the final result will appear on the Garden Conservancy’s annual Open Days Program, which kicks off its Suffolk County tours on Saturday, April 20, with Abby Jane Brody’s garden in East Hampton—one of 18 in the region.
“Abby Jane Brody has shared her garden through Open Days nearly every year since 2004 and visitors come to see what’s in bloom every spring,” Garden Conservancy Media Coordinator Stephanie Werskey wrote last week in an email. “Many of these gardens have participated in the Open Days program since we expanded onto Long Island in 1996.”
Mr. Biercuk’s garden has been on view for Open Days since 2007, according to information provided by Ms. Werskey.
Some of the properties on view this year and in years past have also appeared on unaffiliated tours, such as the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s annual House and Garden Tour. On a rainy August day last summer, hundreds turned out to Fred and Monica Meyer’s Remsenburg garden. They are hopeful that their May 25 tour date—which also includes the nearby Remsenburg gardens of Valerie Ansalone and Howard and Deonne Finkelstein—will be umbrella-free.
The Meyer garden features “several ‘garden rooms,’” Ms. Werskey said, “each with a different focal point and mood.”
It begins with a natural garden on the side of the couple’s home, leading into an allée of Blue Boy Holly and crape myrtle in the backyard, culminating in another garden enveloping a Roman bust.
“That’s me,” Mr. Meyer chuckled last week during a tour, pointing toward the statue.
Perennials border a serpentine path—sprinkled with rhododendron, silberlocke, azalea, peonies and astilbe—that unfolds into a pond garden, an English knot garden, a pergola covered in winding wisteria and a garden centered around an old copper weather vane in the shape of a pig.
“That’s not me,” Mr. Meyer said, and added with a smirk, “though some people would say so.”
He inhaled, breathing in the warm spring air and glanced around his backyard. “The natural form, I think that’s important,” he continued. “Work with the land. Work with your property. If you’ve got a hilly site, use it. Don’t flatten it out.”
And use everything, Mr. Biercuk urged, even the trees. Several of his oaks share their bark with climbing schizophragma vines—a focal point of the garden, which is all about color and fragrance, he said. Turning on an axis, he pointed out
chamaecyparis obtusa nana
, viburnum snowflake, mahonia, pieris, hellebores, azaleas and rhododendron, which he fondly calls by name—Phyllis, Mary, Grace and Taurus.
“Phyllis, ah, it is absolutely gorgeous. As gorgeous as Grace. They get along,” he said. “This garden is designed that wherever you are, there are multiple options. There are lots of junction points. You’re always encouraged to turn around and even walk back the way you just came because the view is very different. To look and see what’s going on.”
Suddenly, Mr. Biercuk stopped in his tracks. “See!” he exclaimed. “There it is!”
He waved his arms out in frustration, plucked a small vine of catbrier from the soil and tickled its hairlike roots between his fingers. “Nasty little bugger, doesn’t even have big roots yet. I just have this sense of where it is. Die!”
Tossing the weed on a nearby rock, Mr. Biercuk continued on his stroll.
“It’s a battle,” he laughed. “I defend the edges of all this coming in. It’s an informal, shady, natural garden—but not that natural.”
The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program will begin in Suffolk County on Saturday, April 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with Abby Jane Brody’s garden in East Hampton and the Peconic Land Trust’s Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton on view from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that same day. George Biercuk’s Wainscott garden will be on view on May 4 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Fred and Monica Meyer’s Remsenburg garden and the nearby gardens of Valerie Ansalone and Howard and Deonne Finkelstein will be on view on May 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Additional tours will continue through September 7. Tickets are $5 per garden. For more information, call (888) 842-2442 or visit opendaysprogram.org.
Michelle Trauring on Apr 15, 2013