Innisfree Gardens - 65th Birthday Adventure

August 29, 2014

In the late 1920s, Walter Beck and his wife, avid gardener and heiress Marion Burt Beck, began work on Innisfree, their country residence in Millbrook, New York. Beck discovered the work of 8th-century Chinese poet, painter and garden maker Wang Wei. The essence of Wang Wei's approach was to develop inwardly focused gardens and garden vignettes within a larger, naturalistic landscape. Beck applied this principle to his gardens and christened his modified approach as "cup gardens. This was a deviation from the typical approach in the Western world. Western gardens are usually designed to embrace a view of the whole. In contrast, the traditional Chinese garden is usually designed so that a view of the whole is impossible. One is  required to stroll over serpentine, seemingly aimless arteries. The observer walks into a series of episodes, like Alice through the looking glass. It is said that the genius of Innisfree is in the maintenance of the gardens. Meticulous attention to the fit of plants or structure (as they settle in over time) with the landscape is made. If they no longer fit, they are immediately removed. 

Some of the setting that struck me are included below.

Throughout the gardens, seating is provided for the visitors. I love simplicity of this design. Consistently, the chairs are arranged in a line in quantities of there to seven, but always on odd number.  The contrast to the wooden chairs and the landscape is striking. 

There was very little sculpture within the gardens.  This piece was a very out of the way area around the lake. The formality of pieces like this just did not fit.

             

There were a couple of spots where where water features were added like the misting spray
in this area. I found these interesting, but felt it was a little contrived and did not really fit the setting well.



Love this tree grouping and shaping beside the lake.

                    

The contrast of the yellow vegetation with the green leaves and stone is great.

                  

This was my favorite scene.




Walls and vegetation. Love it.




                      



                                      



The larger stones seemed to placed to be partially viewed through the trees more than viewed just for the stone itself.

                                             

The terraces were laid in interesting patterns and designs, but not in a way to overshadow the landscape focus.



There were some interesting flowers throughout the gardens to add a little color, but not too much.

Love how these grasses are grouped by the lake.

And how these trees are aligned to the roll of the landscape.

One must not neglect the lake for the sake of the landscape.

There is much to offer there as well.

In fact, we almost stepped on two representatives of what the lake had to offer. 

And another favorite grouping of mine.

This place is beautiful.

It makes you want to stop and ponder.