When a family came to Dirt Queen NYC seeking a backyard makeover, they really just wanted one thing: to be able to use their yard. The existing “garden” was a patchy stretch of grass with garages on three sides. Now that their kids were older, the family no longer felt they needed a lawn for playtime. Instead they craved an adult space for hosting dinner parties and a dedicated firepit area, which might even entice their teens to hang out at home.
Jarema Osofsky and Adam Bertulli, co-founders of Dirt Queen NYC, took stock of the existing conditions. The family wanted to keep the existing trees, including some arborvitae that were nicely screening the neighbor’s garage and some Norway maples that were creating dense shade on one half of the garden. Bertulli and Osofsky saw an opportunity to give their clients the function they craved, carving out two distinct garden rooms in the small space, while also creating a dynamic pollinator garden.
Here’s how they did it.
Photography by Brett Wood, courtesy of Dirt Queen NYC.
Before
Above: The yard was nothing but balding grass, arborvitae, and a stand of Norway maples. One impactful move Bertulli and Osofsky made was asking the neighbors if they could paint the back walls of their garages the same color. Luckily, they agreed.
After
Above: From uninspired and useless to inviting and functional. Above: Native flowering shrubs are the backbone of the new garden. For the garden’s midlayer, Osofsky used Clethra summersweet, oak leaf hydrangeas, and Viburnum dentatum, which she notes provides really beautiful berries for birds.
In this week’s installment of Quick Takes, we present a pair of Brooklyn academics with a flair for garden design, Corwin Green and Damon Arrington, partners in life and business. Corwin teaches communication design and social design at Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design. Damon teaches landscape design at Cornell, New York Botanic Garden, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
The pair’s four-year-old firm, Verru Design, recently showed up on our radar when we spotted the naturalistic plantings they did for a charming townhouse garden (see Brooklyn Backyard Visit: A Fruitful Collab Between an Architect and Landscape Designers). Their M.O.: “We embed ourselves in communities, research their attributes and ecologies, and then actualize design projects.” The up-and-comers even have a podcast, Tree, Shrub, Flower, launched a few months ago, that spotlights the deep roots they have in their New York community. “Our guests are our friends and collaborators, who happen to have Tony Awards, and Emmys and are incredible creatives, whether it be a landscape expert or a leading actor on Broadway.”
Below, Corwin and Damon share the garden book they both assign to their students, the reason they like to plant when the moon is waxing, and more.
Photography courtesy of Verru Design.
Above: Damon and Corwin in their garden. Their next design? “We are working on a new project in New Canaan, CT, where we will be installing a pool. We’re excited to work on a larger scale—we could never fit a pool in our Brooklyn backyard projects!”
Your first garden memory:
Corwin: My first memory was in my grandma’s backyard in Waynesboro, Georgia. During summer visits, my siblings and I were tasked with picking figs from her trees, which she would use for desserts and preserves, and to instill a work ethic. As a kid, I didn’t like figs or the idea of working during often hot vacations. Even though I still haven’t developed a taste for them, I appreciate learning the practice of fruit picking.
Damon: I grew up on a dairy farm on southwest Virginia. My mother had greenhouses growing up and she kept my crib under the impatiens flats. My first memories of gardening were the smell of vermiculite and the sound of loud fans humming throughout the moisture-filled plastic rooms.
Garden-related book you return to time and again:
Planting in a Post-Wild World. We recommend it to students in our classes. It is the quintessential book for learning how to create ‘plant communities’. They teach you how to create landscapes that are layered.
Instagram account that inspires you:
Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design @mcldllc. His photos are always top-notch and the gardens he design are very much in our style of wild and lush, appropriately vegetated. He deals a lot with slopes, and we are currently working on a project where the client’s backyard has something like a 20 percent slope, so we’ve been watching how he crafts staircases and retaining walls into the landscapes.
Describe in three words your garden aesthetic.
To steal the words of Laura Fenton from her feature [on our project] in Gardenista last week…”low-key wild.”
Plant the makes you swoon:
Above: A cloud of blooming Calamintha nepeta on a patio lined with teak tiles.
Calamintha nepeta. The compact foliage looks good in containers and along pathways and produces a nice show into fall. It has a consistent presence in perennial gardens and a quiet charm that hits you with amazing aromas.
Plant that makes you want to run the other way:
Bamboo. We’ve had jobs where we had to extract bamboo from containers and the roots are really gnarly. We are literally scared of bamboo.
Favorite go-to plant:
Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina). For unexpected texture, the staghorn sumac has always delighted our clients. And its fall color is absolutely stunning. The seed heads that form are striking in the winter, so its seasonal interest is abundant. Sometimes we choose plants specifically for their winter interest.
Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:
Sun conditions. Understanding your garden at both solstices is of crucial importance. In the northeast the summer solstice sun is at a 72-degree angle, the winter solstice is at a staggering 27-degree angle. Mapping this on-site analysis is the most important step in your initial steps. We recently did a pinup at NYBG where the students had to show us the extent of the summer/winter sun in plan view, an integral step for young designers to learn.
Gardening or design trend that needs to go:
Above: Verru designed the louvered fence made from locally sourced cedar in this Brooklyn backyard.
If you’re looking to upgrade your outdoor furniture, and are a fan of Scandinavian design but live in the US, we have some exciting news for you: Iconic Danish furniture brand Carl Hansen & Søn‘s outdoor teak collection by architect Alfred Homann is now available stateside at Room & Board. There are two Carl Hansen & Søn outposts in the US (one on each coast—San Francisco and New York City); Room & Board, meanwhile, has more than 20 locations scattered across 12 states, so you’ll have plenty more options to test out the pieces.
We like that the collection uses untreated teak wood, which gradually morphs into a silvery gray shade as it ages. And we love that the teak is Forest Stewardship Council-certified.
Above: The Carl Hansen & Søn AH Collection features 10 pieces, including a deck chair, lounge chair, sofa, and side tables, all pictured here. Above: Cushions are available for each seating option. Pictured are the chaise and ottoman (with and without the cushion). Cushions are made from CertiPUR-US-certified foam and outdoor fabric that partially includes recycled acrylic.
Above: The deck chair—with and without cushions ($935 and $7o5, respectively). Pieces in the collection range from $395 to $3,335. Above: The dining table is also available in a larger, rectangular size.
