All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Dan Pearson designs a Connecticut garden that questions what a garden can be
Robin Hill throws into question the very definition of the word garden. Guided and shaped by nature, its 20 acres occupy the indeterminate space between cultivated and wild, a triumph of minimal-intervention design. Set in the leafy hills of Litchfield County, in north west Connecticut, the Neoclassical house was originally built in the 1920s by Leila Laughlin Carlisle, a Pittsburgh steel heiress, who named it after the fictional Robin Hill in John Galsworthy's novel The Forsyte Saga.
In 1980, the property was acquired by the interior designer John Saladino, who introduced more formality by adding terraces, pergolas, lawns and walls. After his departure, however, the garden fell into neglect and the surrounding 6,000-acre Great Mountain Forest began to encroach. Home to an abundance of wildlife, including white-tailed deer, moose, black bear and wild turkeys, the forest filled city dwellers Susan Sheehan and her husband John 'Callaghan with wonder when they bought the property in 2012. But also a fair amount of apprehension.
When they first moved in, the ground was covered in snow, masking the chaos underneath. As spring arrived, the landscape around the house began to come alive and Susan then realised that what had once been a genteel garden had become a tangle of thicket. As a non-gardener, she felt this wild, out-of-control landscape was terrifying, but she also felt that a formal garden would not be appropriate in the setting.
Having been introduced to garden designer Dan Pearson by the artist John- Paul Philippe, a mutual friend, she was aware of Dan's nature-led design ethos and decided to approach him for help. After their initial meeting, Dan asked Susan for some notes on what she wanted. The result was a detailed document that included, significantly, a picture of Edvard Munch's The Scream, annotated with the words: "This is how I feel about the garden at the moment.' Dan knew then that he had his work cut out. He had to somehow find a way to remove the fear, to make a bridge into nature and to make its owners fall back in love with the place.
The result is a garden of muted colours and quiet beauty that seamlessIv connects the house to the different parts of the plot and landscape beyond. There is an upper area with a cutting garden and orchard, and a lower area with an expansive native perennial meadow that slopes dramatically away from the house, surrounded by woodland walks. Led by the natural glacial erratics that push up through the ground all over the place, Dan designed a series of stone features and interventions at various intervals, starting with a set of wide circular granite steps to connect the back terrace with the meadow.
From here, visitors can take a winding route into the woods, where they will be stopped in their tracks by a beautiful conical stone cairn that appears to float surreally on a carpet of epimediums. In the upper garden at the front of the house, a curious raised stone plinth, devised by garden designer Nancy McCabe, had been added by John when he lived in the house in the 1980s. Part wall, part path, it is a feature that Dan decided to retain, carefully rebuilding it and planting its surface with a mosaic of cushiony thyme, marjoram and garlic chives. This gave rise to Dan introducing another stone intervention at the side of the house - a long and low dry-stone wall that narrows as it moves towards the bosky edge of the garden, playing with perspective.
With the stoneworks as the guiding beacons, the rest of the design began to emerge. In the lower garden, an initial period of clearance pushed the woods back and the meadow started to take shape. Dan had seen the wealth of native flowers in the surrounding landscape, so he knew that he could encourage these perennials to grow successfully here in the different microclimates that the sloping site offered. Rudbeckia, bergamot, echinacea, eupatorium, baptisia and asters are just a few of the native plants that now thrive here.
Cut just once a year, with paths mown through to define it as an intentional space, the meadow needs no irrigation, mulching or feeding and is completely self-sustaining. But it is not as easy to maintain as some might think. 'The meadow is a complex ecosvstem and people don't necessarilv see the work that goes into it,' says head gardener James McGrath. 'It's not just a case of letting it go, but it will never be totally under control, so it is always teaching you something.' Under Dan's guidance, each year James plants 1,000 or so plugs to enhance the meadow, editing out anything that threatens to take over. This ongoing process is all part of the garden's design.
In other parts of the upper garden, more meadows thrive where once there was lawn. The grass is left to grow long in the Stone Orchard. which is studded with bulbs in spring. Among all this natural beauty, one area is reserved for a more traditionally cultivated garden. Beyond the orchard is a D-shaped garden, retained from the 1930s design, which is now the cutting garden - although not a cutting garden of conventional straight lines and ordered beds. Surrounded by a tall hedge of Calamagrostis xacutiflora 'Karl Forster', a mass of colourful flowers is grown in large, nebulous beds intersected with curving paths. Away from the native purity of the meadows, a succession of cultivated plants can be grown, with a barrage of colourful blooms all the way through the relatively short growing season. Geraniums, nepetas, salvias and calaminthas give way to Rudbeckia triloba, Amsonia hubrichti, Oenothera lindheimer: 'The Bride' and armfuls of asters in autumn, creating the effect of a Pointillist painting.
Harnessing an existing habitat and dialling it up to make something quite magical is what Dan does best. 'Robin Hill has become one of our touchstone projects for the direction we're taking in design,' he says. 'It has been the landscape that has driven this project from the start, so why fight it? There is a lot of reciprocity in this place. The land gives so much back; it's a case of working with it and letting it lead the way'
Pastoral Gardens (Montgomery Press, £55) is available at montgomerypress.co.uk and will be published on November 5.
Dan Pearson Studio: danpearsonstudio.com
Andrew Montgomery1/10On the edge of the perennial meadow, in an area overhung by birch and oak trees, a moss-covered boulder forms a quietly beautiful feature. The leaves of a Japanese maple, Acer shirasawanum 'Aureum', planted near it, turn yellow in summer
Andrew Montgomery2/10The pale trunks of the paper birch, Betula papyrifer, provide elegant structure
Andrew Montgomery3/10In dappled shade to one side of the house, Dan made another stonework platform inspired by the artist Richard Long. This low wall narrows at one end, playing with the sense of perspective
Andrew Montgomery4/10When the overgrown site was cleared, remnants of old walls were discovered. Along with the existing glacial boulders, these inspired Dan to create a series of stone interventions as markers at various points on the route around the 20-acre garden
Andrew Montgomery5/10This fern's eye-catching yellow-green fronds create a carpet of colour and texture, softening one of the large glacial erratics found in the garden
Andrew Montgomery6/10Dan Pearson put in grassy steps edged in stone beside the east terrace meadow. This area of more colourful, enhanced planting created by head gardener James McGrath features perennials such as mauve Aster novae-angliae, pink Echinacea purpurea and yellow Rudbeckia triloba next to a small Magnolia virginiana
Andrew Montgomery7/10A path leads from the edge of the woods up a slope to the south meadow
Andrew Montgomery8/10The native hay-scented fern Dennstaedtia punctilobula
Andrew Montgomery9/10Feathery clouds of Amsonia hubrichti foliage turn from brilliant green to yellow in autumn, surrounded by pale stands of the feather reed grass Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Forster' and swathes of yellow-flowered Rudbeckia triloba in the informal cutting garden, which is contained within D-shaped walls that were part of the original 1930s design
Andrew Montgomery10/10Commissioned by a previous owner, the interior designer John Saladino and known as the Appian Way, this stone plinth in the upper garden at the front of the house was rebuilt by Dan, who planted its surface with a tapestry of drought-tolerant plants such as oregano, thyme and Allium tuberosum
