After years of living with a shared rooftop garden in lower Manhattan, designer Julie Weiss decided to let the plants win.
“I love the wild, overgrown feel,” says Weiss, who was Vanity Fair’s art director from 2004 to 2014. “It’s a contrast to the city.”
Weiss, an LA native, lets the garden take on a life of its own. Wavy grasses and lavender look billowy and soft against the city backdrop, with all those sharp right angles on the Woolworth Building and the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance.
During an early autumn visit, we enjoyed the panoramic views that stretch to both the Hudson and East rivers:
Above: Weiss anchors the garden with hardy herbaceous perennials that bloom deep into October. Purple agastaches and lavenders mix with wild grasses, hydrangeas, and roses. And there’s the white nicotiana (at left) that she plants by the door for its “beautiful, tropical scent.” Above: Divided into four outdoor “rooms,” the space has lent itself to countless dinners, intimate drinks and summer soirées. Above: Weiss likes how each of the four outdoor “rooms” can accommodate several of the building’s occupants simultaneously but privately. Above: Water tower as rooftop sculpture; a common New York City sight. Above: Keen on planting abundant and “tough” perennials, Weiss anchors the space with roses, lavenders, and late-flowering tardiva hydrangeas. Annuals including zinnias, cosmos, and dahlias (Shown) add color and late-season interest. Above: Weiss lines the perimeter with lacy tardiva hydrangeas, “a great white hydrangea that does well with the wind on the roof.” Above: Secret garden: a pergola and chairs.
All week, we’re republishing some of our favorite Garden Visits that have a personal connection to our writers. No public gardens here, no vast estates, no professionally designed landscapes—just the backyards, vegetable patches, and flower beds that remind our writers of home. This story by contributor Justine Hand is from July 2016.
After bouncing along an undulating, rutted track, wheels crunching over shell drive while wisteria vines lap at the windows, the entrance to my friend Marnie’s garden is like a transition to another world.
Her landscape is an informal, unfussy affair that draws equally from the traditions of English cottage gardens and the wilds of Marnie’s native Cape Cod. Here and there is also a dash of the Mediterranean, reflecting Marnie’s travels to Italy and California. It’s a romantic, unfettered place, full of discovery—the kind that invites children to romp around its pathways. Among the blooms one might find edible treats like thimble berries, or an old pot perfect for the clubhouse, or an ocean-tossed treasure that Marnie has collected from the sea.
Full of proliferous blooms that encroach on paths and climb the walls, Marnie’s world borders, Secret Garden-style, on being overgrown. “I like to let plants do their thing,” she notes. “Sometimes a plant will disappear for a year, and then the next it surprises me by coming back.” This laissez faire approach leads to a much more dynamic garden, “that, like me,” she adds, “changes every year.”
Above: Cape Cod meets Mediterranean—a lobster buoy found washed ashore rests on a deck bordered by a long lavender bed.
Above: The pert faces of verbena and native yarrow bloom in front of the garden shed in July. Above: Marnie’s signature colors, pink and orange, are reflected in these splendid echinacea.
Mosquito repellent plants are garden heroes: colorful flowers and herbs with natural fragrances that chase away buzzing insects even as their perfumes soothe humans.
The first step in your plan to thwart mosquitoes? Grow plants such as lavender, basil, mint, scented geraniums, and marigolds. But unless you’re planning to plop your chair down in the middle of a flower bed, you may not enjoy the full protective benefits. So we came up with a plan to bring the full power of your anti-mosquito forces to the deck or patio: a mosquito repellent floral arrangement. (We placed ours on a side table next to our favorite reading chair.) Read on for step-by-step instructions.
Lavender’s strong scent, which comes from essential oils that can be distilled from its flowers, is often used for aromatherapy. While there is little scientific evidence to back up claims that lavender oil has health benefits, inhaling its fresh, herbal scent calms many people. But not mosquitoes.
Above: Florists at work.
I asked a couple of aspiring florists named Clementine and Eve to arrange the mosquito repellent plants and flowers in a few clear glass vases: a deconstructed floral arrangement. (If you don’t have vases of different heights and shapes on hand, you can just as easily arrange the flowers in mix-and-match drinking glasses or glass jars to get the same effect.).
Above: Jagged lavender (L. pinnata buchii) with feathery leaves and deeply purple flowers goes into a vase, roots and all.
