Garden Tour, Party for Guild Hall
Guild Hall will present its annual Garden as Art tour on Saturday. Five gardens in the East Hampton area, each with “a profound aesthetic that celebrates the topography, climate, and light” of the South Fork, according to the cultural center, will be open to visitors.
The event begins at 9:30 a.m. with breakfast and an illustrated lecture by the author and garden designer Jack de Lashmet on his new book, “Hamptons Gardens.” He will sign books after the talk, with the tour immediately following at noon.
The gardens to be visited are those of Edwina von Gal, Anna Danieli, Barbara Goldsmith, and Priscilla Rattazzi and Chris Whittle, plus one on Middle Lane whose owner did not want to be identified.
Ms. von Gal is a noted landscape designer. Her property in Springs, which shares the Accabonac Harbor view that inspired Jackson Pollock, is minimal, but highlights the native and natural beauty of its surroundings. She has a large vegetable and cutting garden, a studio, and a large expanse of salt marsh. Her outdoor art installations include a sculpture of blue glass pebbles by Maya Lin.
Ms. Danieli has a two-acre, four-season garden designed by Oehme van Sweden in Springs, with expanses of grasses and low-maintenance perennials. Mature trees throughout the property serve as anchors and give definition to the landscape. Edibles — figs, rhubarb, tomatoes, asparagus, and basil — also play a part.
Ms. Goldsmith’s garden was also designed by Mr. van Sweden, whose firm specializes in “the new American garden” style. It is set on a high ridge formed by a secondary dune. It includes trees and lawn trailing up to a steep slope where the house sits. The back of the dune is terraced with stone walls and planted with roses and perennials. A pool is surrounded by mass plantings of perennials and grasses.
Briar Patch, the property of Ms. Rattazzi and Mr. Whittle, is reminiscent of the old Summer Colony cottages. On the eastern side of Georgica Pond, the 11-acre site has a view of the pond, Wainscott Beach, and the Atlantic. A focal point of the site are three tall linden trees set on a rolling lawn sloping down to the water.
Tickets start at $100 for the tour and breakfast.
There will be a related cocktail party, also to benefit Guild Hall, tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. Tickets to that event begin at $300. It will take place in the garden of a house built on a bluff sits on a bluff, with the ocean on one side and Georgica Pond on the other. Benefactors at the $500 level will be invited to lunch at a private house on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. Both are sold out.