GREENWICH — Upon retiring, many individuals take up gardening — digging a brand new perennial border or including a number of vibrant mums to herald the approaching of fall.
Fred Landman has taken the idea to a complete new stage, lovingly and methodically creating Sleepy Cat Farm, a 13-acre oasis on Clapboard Ridge Highway. Greater than 25 years within the making, it represents an in depth collaboration with panorama architects, designers, artists and expert employees who have a tendency its lush meadows and groves, pavilions and swimming pools.
Begun as “a backyard of which the home may very well be proud,” the property is now a much-anticipated cease for backyard vacationers who Landman fortunately welcomes to advertise a love of horticulture, design and the worth of vegetation in our lives.
“Ought to I simply sit right here and be a miser with my pot of gold?” mentioned the previous president & CEO of PanAmSat, who first moved to the stately brick Georgian dwelling in 1994. “It ought to be shared.”
Backyard fans far and large can get a peek contained in the enchanting gardens within the new guide “Sleepy Cat Farm: A Gardener’s Journey,” due out subsequent month (October 2021, Monacelli, A Phaidon Firm).
With textual content by Caroline Seebohm and plush images by Curtice Taylor, the practically 200-page guide chronicles the evolution of the property and pays homage to a number of the key gamers in its creation.
One want solely take a look at Landman to be satisfied of the restorative nature of gardening. Requested by a customer to tour the property, he excuses himself briefly.
“Let me simply change my sneakers. It is perhaps just a little moist exterior,” he says, returning with a sturdy pair of rubber boots.
From there it’s out to the round drive, the place he factors again to the neo-Georgian dwelling inbuilt 1942. Whereas it had nice bones and stylish element, it felt a bit lopsided, he says.
Enter Charles Hilton, a regionally based mostly, nationally revered architect recognized for his grounded, classicist fashion.
Hilton added a full wing to the house, altering the traces of axis and updating the long-overlooked kitchen, and ultimately, the bedrooms and loos.
In the meantime, Landman was making an attempt his hand at beautifying the entrance of the house alongside the driveway. He added a vegetable backyard, some flowers, even a neoclassical instrument shed.
Throughout breaks, the 2 males talked about their work and the remainder of the property. They realized that they had each been eyeing the pool space and its pavilion, which Hilton pronounced “very small and quirky.”
A neighbor provided to promote Landman a quarter-acre of land and Hilton and Landman have been off and operating, designing and constructing a classy pool home with an open pergola and two brick pavilions that might embody the eating space, altering rooms, kitchen and toilet they envisioned.
It was the primary of many such newer components which have led to the entire that’s Sleepy Cat Farm.
Whereas Landman labored on the preliminary planting beds, very early on he introduced panorama architect Charles Stick into the fold. Primarily based in Charlottesville, Va., Stick shares Landman and Hilton’s classicist aesthetic and has been instrumental in turning Landman’s visions into realities that work in concord with the property’s pure attributes, Landman mentioned.
“I’ve executed a variety of touring and after I traveled the world, I noticed gardens,” he mentioned.
The distinct sections of the backyard are a bit like a world tour — from the parterre and putti fountain to the urn-topped grotto and arresting Porta Paradiso to the Chinese language pavilion, prayer wheels and raised wooden-plank spirit stroll by an iris backyard.
The present vegetable backyard subsequent to the decrease greenhouse fuels and providers the creativeness of Landman’s spouse, Seen Lippert, knowledgeable chef who labored with Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame. Strolling by an extended arbor strung with long-necked winter squash and the berry wedge protected by a woven willow whip “fedge” (a fence/hedge), he extolled the virtues of her recent fruit cobblers and rose petal syrup-infused cocktails.
Whereas every backyard space represents a particular design — and infrequently one other land buy — the general plan was to enchant and entice guests, Landman says.
“This path encircles this space and leads again to the way in which we got here,” he says, bending to tug up an errant weed from a patch of floor cowl. “In the event you’re curious, you possibly can go off and do different issues. You may go off and uncover.”
The beckoning spirit is clear within the statuary that anchors the landscapes.
Alongside the trail to the Sacred Grove, a bronze determine of Echo stands towards large rocks. A dramatically stretched warrior sculpture by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle guards a reflecting pool, whereas Adrian Melka’s imposing Atlas hefts the world on the finish of a gracefully undulating hedge.
Whereas on a visit to Rockport, Me., Landman discovered an uncommon sculpture of a feminine Bacchus by turn-of-the-century artist Alice Cooper. “Not the rock star,” Landman says, with a smile.
The dancing determine blowing two reedy flutes invitations guests down a secret path.
Although Sleepy Cat Farm makes ample use of its acreage, Landman mentioned he’s unsure the positioning is full. With 4 gardeners and ongoing inspiration from Hilton, Stick, Lippert and a bunch of kindred spirits, there could also be extra to find.
“I’ve by no means mentioned I used to be executed,” Landman says as he sat below a gently arched wisteria trellis. “I all the time say if in case you have an opportunity and you may… you need to all the time make one thing stunning.”
“Sleepy Cat Farm: A Gardener’s Journey” will likely be revealed in October. Fred Landman and Charles Stick will focus on their work and the guide at 1 p.m. Nov. 16, on the New York Botanical Gardens. For extra data on this occasion, go to www.nybg.org.
