April at BRIDGE GARDENS

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7459++ 8828

April 28, 2014

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7454 8828

BG 7052 8921

BG 7471 8919

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7469 8820

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7495+ 8827

Bridge Gardens 6882 8648

Twister by James DeMartis

AAQ - BG 6994+ 8692

AAQ - BG 6994 B&W 8701

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7001 8832

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7410 8826

AAQ Bridge Gardens 7034 8833

AAQ Bridge Gardens 6230 8829

BG 6297 Bench 8918

Bridge Gardens 6241 8420

AAQ - BG # 6219+ 8406

AAQ - BG # 6203+ 8408

BG 6212 8912

BG 6226+ 8914

AAQ Bridge Gardens 6210 8831

April 9, 2014

Peconic Land Trust: BRIDGE GARDENS

Bridge Gardens was established in 1988 by Harry Neyens and Jim Kilpatric, who designed and installed the gardens over the ensuing 10 years. In 1997, Bridge Gardens Trust was created as a charitable corporation to maintain and preserve the gardens. In 2008, Neyens and Kilpatric donated Bridge Gardens to the Peconic Land Trust. Since operated under the auspices of the Trust, Bridge Gardens has grown as a horticultural oasis in the heart of Bridgehampton, and has been the setting for a broad array of cultural and educational programs, including its annual lecture series. Joining the Trust in 2008 as Garden Director, Rick Bogusch has become a locally known expert in garden design and planning, as well as for his culinary acumen, using plants found throughout the garden.

In 2012, Bridge Gardens adopted a mission to serve as a multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary outdoor classroom, demonstration garden and community resource – and tied the Gardens purpose more closely to the mission of the Peconic Land Trust. With this in mind, the Gardens’ vegetable bed, planted in 2010, doubled in size. In the Outer Garden, two large demonstration beds were created alongside the rose garden and planted with cover crops to demonstrate techniques for improving soil fertility – in both an attractive and beneficial way. Additionally, the programs planned at Bridge Gardens during the Spring, Summer and Fall all provide an educational component tied to sustainable garden and living practices.

Bridge Gardens will be open weekends through the end of October. Summer hours, which include Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, will begin Memorial Day weekend. Bridge Gardens covers over five acres and consists of an Inner Garden and an Outer Garden. Developed first, the Inner Garden features a large, meticulously-trimmed knot garden surrounded by beds of 180 different culinary, medicinal, ornamental, and textile and dyeing herbs. Overlooking these plantings, the garden house is the manager’s residence/education center. In the Outer Garden, the favorite attraction is a collection of antique and modern roses. Bridge Gardens also contains animal topiaries, perennial beds and borders, a water garden, woodland paths, a hidden bamboo room, double hedgerows of privet with viewing ports, and specimen shrubs and trees.