THE GARDENS

Creating the extensive gardens took much longer than the five-year house restoration. It started with a mature maple tree that had outgrown its previous location at a nearby car dealership. Other trees followed: sycamores, river beeches, lindens, katsuras, tupelos, and a magnificent, weeping European beech that cascades beside the pool. Man-made ponds also were part of the garden plan; Lynne Denton defty used shrubs and evergreens to help integrate them.

Lynne grew up in an agricultural region of Upstate New York, where she helped neighbors with their cows. Her rural vision for this property included lots of flowers, starting with the coreopsis and veronica remembered from her grandmother’s garden. A scattering of larkspurs shows Lynne’s love of the color blue. She looks out her kitchen window to a white garden. Other stalwarts are the lilacs, hydrangeas, iris, rhododendrons, hostas, ferns, Jack-in-the-pulpits, and deutzias that are comfortably familiar.

Lynne found inspiration in historic gardens she’d visited, including Westbury Court, Sissinghurst, and Inverewe Garden. From them came the designs and motifs for walls and fences. Water runoff is collected from the roof and pumped into the vegetable garden.

Lynne also created a wildflower dell surrounding a pond at the far end of the property. Lynne and Il Doge, the golden retriever of that time, did a lot of digging and weeding to clear the land for an intimate garden that was planted with wild ginger, azaleas, tiarellas, Japanese maples, willows, iris, and other woodland plants.

Ancient and added to over time, the old house has a dark, close interior. Outside, the maze of garden rooms is relieved by alfresco dining areas, pool-side lounges, and garden benches.