A Tale of Two Gardens

In Fairfield County, Connecticut, two landscape designs rely on clean, formal geometry-but with strikingly different results.

- By Owen Holmes

Cutting Garden

Landscape architect Janice Parker carefully considered how this area would be viewed from the back of the home, particularly as one passes through the porte cochere. Beds are made from corten steel, chosen for its strength and rusty patina.

Divine Order

THAT THE DESIGN OF a garden-rather than the pursuit of perfectly grown plants-should be paramount was revolutionary when English gardener John Brookes began preaching as much in the late 1960s. But his protégé, Janice Parker, now an award-winning landscape architect and the botanical brains behind this garden for a Fairfield County family, took the advice to heart. "We're trying to make a series of rooms outside that are welcoming, that pull people out," she explains.

Various manicured terraces, seating and dining areas, and recreational spaces divide the 11-acre property, each one painstakingly aligned with rooms inside the house for optimal views. Parker credits a simple but effective grid scheme with keeping it navigable: "We know this layout on a primal level," she says. "It rings a bell in our deepest reptilian mind."