The 2018 Connecticut IDA Winners: Garden Design

Clients with a 73-acre farm are avid gardeners, but wanted Haver & Skolnick Architects to solve a problem for them. Birds were consuming their many blueberry bushes. Prior attempts at netting resulted in too many birds getting trapped. A unique solution involved something the architects call a “berry bowl”—a domed 24-foot-diameter structure composed of steel tubes bent to form concentric circles that, in turn, support a steel mesh.

The challenge, though, was to fashion a mesh tight enough to ward off birds but ample enough to allow in bees to pollinate the bushes.

Hanging from the center of the dome is a large planting dish, irrigated from tubing within the steel structure.

Espaliered vines cover the base, resulting in a texturally lush exterior.

For this Greenwich home in Field Point Circle, the designers from Gregory Lombardi Design Incorporated were intent on marrying the landscape with the Arts & Crafts character of the house. In keeping with that aesthetic, the landscape is decidedly more formal and mannered close to the house, but becomes more natural the farther out one goes toward the property’s borders.

Local materials and grades of wood are combined with traditional details to create a series of outdoor rooms, of sorts. A moment of drama occurs at the entry as a sudden turn in the driveway results in a grand view of the main façade. Visitors are greeted there by Belgian block, drifts of purple blooms, boxwoods and a symmetry of canopy trees.

One of the magical, natural qualities of this part of New Canaan is its rolling hills. But the undulating terrain can make the siting of a new pool difficult. Such was the challenge for landscape architect Sean Jancski. In order to preserve the shapeliness of the two-acre property, Jancski placed the pool on one of the hills closest to the edge of the site. An elegant allée of trees at one end of the pool leads the eye into the distance and frames the fire pit in between the trees.

A fieldstone retaining wall cuts through the landscape, serving to level the area of the pool and patio, tying it to a new outdoor dining terrace.

The hillsides adjacent to the pool are covered with lush meadow plants and colorful perennials.