Is it time, fellow gardeners, to truly appreciate the power and beauty of light? Exploring the sensory journey that is Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, N.Y., opens our eyes to the immense potential of light in design. It goes beyond simply facilitating plant growth or determining sun/shade preferences.
Innisfree’s creators intuitively understood that light is one of the most compelling tools in design, capable of creating dynamic contrasts and guiding us through spaces. The play of light at Innisfree takes us on an emotional journey, propelling us from bright, open areas to narrower, darker ones.
To emphasize this point, Innisfree offers special events during times when the light is particularly remarkable. For example, they will open one day at 4 a.m. for a meteor shower before sunrise and hold a moon viewing during the autumnal equinox. These events showcase the garden’s deep appreciation for the interplay of light.
Covering 185 acres and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Innisfree is a stunning glacial bowl centered around a 40-acre lake. This lake acts as a giant mirror, capturing and reflecting the sunlight and moonlight.
As we explore the landscape’s wooded slopes, rocky outcroppings, and meadows, we experience several garden-making strategies heavily influenced by Asian design principles. Each scene is carefully shaped using light and raw materials to draw us through the landscape. These cues may be subtle but evoke different emotions depending on the time of day and season. It’s all about the transformative power of light.
The garden’s origin story begins with Walter and Marion Beck, who initially aimed to create an English-style garden on their property. However, they soon realized that this approach was erasing the unique qualities of the landscape. Inspired by a scroll painting of a Chinese garden, Walter Beck began creating individual garden moments across the terrain. Landscape architect Lester Collins joined the project in 1938 and wove these distinct pictures into a cohesive whole.
Collins, well-versed in Modernism, Romanticism, and Asian garden history, understood how our senses interact with design. Innisfree showcases the daily arc of light, with each area dramatically changing throughout the day. It doesn’t look like other gardens, yet gardeners immediately feel at home due to the prominent role of light.
Visiting Innisfree is a personal pilgrimage with multiple paths to choose from. You can circle the lake or take a more serpentine, meandering route. Collins described it as “a series of episodes, like Alice through the looking glass.” Depending on the light’s quality during different times, various areas will captivate you. The garden’s ever-changing nature invites exploration from every angle.
One of Collins’ biggest lessons in creating Innisfree was the importance of sustainability and finding plants that could endure with minimal maintenance. He didn’t aim to create a botanical museum but rather sought self-sustaining, native species to populate the garden. The emphasis was on plants that could thrive and spread naturally.
The garden features a wide range of native plants, including wild blueberries, ferns, mosses, columbine, Joe Pye weed, butterfly weed, rose mallows, pitcher plants, Eastern skunk cabbage, water lotus, Japanese primroses, and common mullein. Collins also manipulated the forest canopy to control the sunlight reaching the ground, resulting in mesmerizing shadow paintings and dappled light.
Collins used selective pruning and strategic additions to enhance the garden’s beauty. Standout features include a group of columnar sugar maples near a cottage that creates a vibrant display in autumn, and a row of Callery pears lining Dumpling Knoll, mirroring the undulating ground and water’s edge. These additions catch the light and become focal points in the garden.
Regardless of the path you choose through Innisfree, you won’t overlook the Yarimizu, a breathtaking meadow stream with an oxbow shape. It is undoubtedly one of the garden’s most captivating scenes.
Innisfree is a cinematic masterpiece that engages our bodies in motion, guiding us through its narrative. It beckons us to experience the transformative power of light, inviting us to embark on a journey of discovery and appreciate the beauty it bestows upon the natural world.
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