I was recently on Nantucket installing a beautiful hillside garden overlooking Polpis Harbor in Quaise. The hillside is planted with waves of native grasses and the garden features a lower, private enclosed garden with classic Nantucket privet hedges aligned with colorful perennial boarders.
I also had fun visiting former clients in Squam and was delighted to see this mature OvS garden planted nearly ten years ago, a wonderful example of how our gardens thrive in the Nantucket landscape. Alot of the credit goes to our clients, who are so engaged with their garden. They have added wonderful new areas including an elegant barn beautifully sited in open native fields and a walled-in fruit orchard.
While on Island, I also enjoyed a walk off Polpis road through the “Moors” as they are called locally. These special land preserves protected by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and are filled with rare and endangered plants as well as beautiful windswept costal heathlands, diverse grasslands, cranberry bogs, and ground covers like huckleberry, low bush blueberry, and beach plumb.
Walking towards Gibbs Pond was magical and absorbing … grassland walking paths lead to narrow scrub oak woodland paths that are filled with a ground plane of ferns, and wonderful narrow paths encircle the pond with quiet views across the pond textured with rushes.
The pond ,wetlands and plant communities were capturing my attention as we are in the final stages of design for the Native Plant Garden at the New York Botatical Garden. The garden features a re-circulating central water feature with innovative water retention, wetlands that will filter and cleanse the pond, and an entire spectrum of plants that grow in conditions from wet sun to dry shade, upland forest to dry meadows.
It was such an enjoyable visit to Nantucket and I look forward to returning soon!
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