FEATURES

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Tiered by virtue of 29 steps and plateaus, the garden is a series of gorgeous scenarios and vistas that invite you to continue the ascent. Every bench and chair on the one-acre property is placed to take advantage of the spectacular views, and from inside the house each charming window, whether curved, octagon or an expansive sheet of glass, captures another extravagant vignette, be it a quaint boathouse overlooking Georgica Pond or the pounding ocean softened by beach plums and purple pea flowers.

Gradually expanded and refined over the years, the 1920s house nestles into the rise like an apparition. With vines anchoring house to land, the harmony of building and terrain is accentuated by the picture-perfect use of color. An oxidized, stony blue teal covers every inch of wooden trim and is echoed in the Adirondack chairs, the iciness of the pool, the metal of the museum-worthy urns and even the patina of the outdoor lights. The cool blue stone of the patios and pathways looks as if it were hewn from special rocks to get this very particular resonance. Not only does Barbara see in colors, but she says she thinks and dreams in them, too.

Barbara's thirst for garden knowledge is voracious, and her garden of 13 years has soaked up ideas from our best local and regional sources. She is a regular at Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons (HAH) lectures, has benefited from myriad courses at the New York Botanical and Brooklyn Botanic gardens and has received golden advice from pros such as Paige Dickey. The East End's fabulous nurseries are her primary plant sources; she boasts that her Camperdown elm came from Buckley's and the pale yellow magnolia 'Elizabeth' from Marders.

Keeping track of a garden that has so much to offer every week of the season is a huge job, so it's not surprising to discover that documenting her garden's progress got her into photography. As is her norm, she has embraced this endeavor with great vigor. Not only is her photographic artwork represented by the Tulla Booth Gallery in Sag Harbor but she has a book, Flowering Trees, in the works.