63
COUNTRY GARDENS // FA LL 2019
“My idea was to visit the very best gardens that I could,” Michael says. He
sought out gardens throughout New England and Great Britain, a practice
that culminated in his leading private tours to acclaimed English gardens like
Sissinghurst and Great Dixter, as well as designing sophisticated public and
private gardens in his hometown.
His own hilly property might have flummoxed a less structurally mindedgardener. But Michael saw its potential. “A hill lends itself to formality and
axes, how you get from point A to point B,” he says. Near the house, Michael
planted the upper garden for his neighbors’ enjoyment, with brightly colored
foliage and flowers that can be appreciated from a distance. On one end, a
straight path parades through the Hall With Balls, as Michael has dubbed
a passageway animated with a dozen clipped boxwood balls. They seem
to bounce downhill toward the lower garden, a private space for afternoon
cocktails. Shielded from the street by a high rock wall and hedges, plants
here glow in soft pastels that remain visible even as the sun goes down.
“I’m interested in foliage more than flowers,” Michael says, “and intriguing
“I’M INTERESTED
IN FOLIAGE MORE
THAN FLOWERS,
AND INTRIGUING
COMBINATIONS
O F PL A N T S .”
— MICHAEL GORDON
4
LEFT Accented by a pair of Japanese stewartias Michael grew from seed, a granite
bench makes a rustic focal point at the top of the T-shape lawn. The seat is a massive
capstone from an old retaining wall. BELOW RIGHT Adirondack chairs on the bluestone
patio near the house anchor the bottom of the T-shape lawn and afford a secluded view
of the inventive mixed borders lining the lower garden.