Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Garden

– By Robin Jovanovich –

It was Katie Brown’s mother-in-law who suggested that she should look into landscape design rather than law school. “Even though I didn’t know anything about flowers, the idea began to appeal to me, especially after my mother-in-law, who was my mentor in so many ways, started taking me to visit nurseries,” said Mrs. Brown.

The younger Mrs. Brown was artistic, had studied art history at Smith and worked at The Met right out of college, so it wasn’t hard for others to see that she’d be a natural in  landscape design.

To test the waters, she took a drafting course at Parsons. “I began to worry that I was taking the wrong course. It wasn’t until two years later, after I’d earned my certificate from the New York Botanical Garden, that I realized anything you put into the mix makes you more knowledgeable, the Gestalt theory.”

When she was hired for her first project — “the friend of a friend in Rye” — she was a little anxious. “I’d gotten the certificate, but that didn’t mean I could do a real landscape plan!”

But she did, and it gave her confidence. “The fact that my hours weren’t 9 to 5 was also good because I had three young children.”

Many other jobs came her way and she was soon an experienced landscape designer. “But you don’t want to do the same things and you have to keep growing.” Her first “Eureka moment” as a designer came when she went to hear a talk by landscape architect James van Sweden of Oehme, van Sweden. He, of the New American Style of relaxed gardens that follow a natural course, filled with ornamental grasses and herbaceous perennials, and an opponent of manicured lawns.

Formal English gardens are not a thing of the future, said Mrs. Brown, who has designed many beautiful ones. “Today, everyone wants low-maintenance gardens, especially with climate change. People are interested in native plants, like witch hazel, shadblow and inkberry.” She proffered that if the great estates of England managed to be stately without irrigation and pesticides, so can our backyards.

Her backyard and front yard and side yards are the perfect mix of understated stately and natural. The property has lots of levels, which she took proper advantage of create all kinds of gardens. “Luckily, I have a nice husband who doesn’t mind hauling hoses because we had absolutely no irrigation system the first 12 years we lived here and only put in a small system two years ago.”

What you see is what she loves and says she will always have in her garden — Knockout Roses, Russian Sage, Hydrangeas, Mellow Yellow Spirea, Persicaria, Astilbe Ostrich Plume, Burgundy Coral Bells, Blue Atlas Cedars, Paper Bark Maples, Adams Crabapple trees, Birches, Stewartia, because they bloom late, and Southern Magnolias because she grew up in Richmond.