Habitat

Strawberries Are Happy Plants

There are certain plants that any gardener interested in eating well will want to have, and among them, strawberries top my list. Unlike most vegetables, which can take all summer to grow and need to be replanted each year, strawberries ripen from late spring through midsummer. Once established, they need minimal care. And they are particularly...
Recipe: Strawberries With Whipped Cream

An hour before they are needed, wash, hull, and slice the strawberries into halves or quarters. Toss a quart of the sliced strawberries with a half a cup of sugar (or to taste), along with an ounce of kirsch (optional).
Star Gardener: Choose a Dogwood While It Blooms

Abby Jane Brody
If you’ve been entranced by the bountiful crop of flowers on the kousa dogwoods this spring and have been tempted to add one to your garden, now is the time to act. Head right to your favorite garden center and pick one out while they are still in bloom — what you see is what you get, is what I was told years ago by a nurseryman.
Gardens Bloom Again for ARF

Jennifer Landes
Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, and Wainscott will be the focus of this year’s Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons garden tour, to be held on Saturday. Celebrating its 30th year, the tour will include five private gardens of note.
Star Gardener: The Case of The Missing Hydrangeas

Abby Jane Brody
This past winter appears to have been more difficult for hydrangeas than the winter of 2014, with its extended period of deep cold and a single cold snap in April that put paid to most of last summer’s flowers.
Updating Ancient Beams

Christopher T. Cory
Well-behaved ghosts haunt East Hampton if you know how to find them. The hand-hewn beams of the village’s oldest houses, for instance, dated by experts to the 1680s, can still be seen, emerging like spectral cartoon characters from white “sheets” of modern plaster.
Showhouse Benefits Animal Rescue Fund This Weekend

Joanne Pilgrim
Six rooms designed and outfitted by top interior decorators at the Animal Rescue Fund’s Thrift and Treasure Shop in Sagaponack will be on display at a designer showhouse, cocktail party, and sale on Saturday that will benefit ARF’s work on behalf of animals.
Euphoria, Giddy Delight, Sensory Overload: An Intoxicating Garden in Mattituck

Abby Jane Brody
They’ve done it again, in spades. Now going into its second summer, they’ve created three new gardens, adding up to about an acre. A below-ground “ruin” is surrounded by a new meadow leading to three roundels.
What’s 50 Tons and Serpentine?

Baylis Greene
Take a minute to think of two of the most romantic features of summertime on the South Fork. (Okay, barring anything involving the dunes and a blanket.)
GIMME: RED, READ, AND READY

Durell Godfrey
The Star’s hunter-gatherer, Durell Godfrey, isn’t red but she is ready to take on an irregular verb any old time. She wishes everyone a good read despite the fact that the word sounds different in the past and present tense but is...