Greetings Gardeners,
I am Frederick Bland, a New York architect who has been developing an extensive 1-acre garden in a small seaside village on the “banana belt” of Connecticut’s shoreline, 12 miles east of New Haven. Keeping extensive records, I estimate that well over a thousand species of trees, shrubs, perennials, ground covers, vines, and bulbs adorn the garden today. I am a collector but with my architect’s hat on, I am also a designer, a combination that I have come to find rare. The garden, called Uptop and started in 1993, has reached a level of maturity that has made it publishable and it has been included in Jane Garmey’s Private Gardens of Connecticut, an article by Tovah Martin in Connecticut Cottages and Gardens, and most recently in Fine Gardening Magazine. The garden has been a mainstay on the Garden Conversancy’s Open Days Program for many years. Additionally, I have lectured about the garden and turned these talks into a self-published little book, The Making of a Garden(er), An Urbanist Architect in the Garden, sections of which can be found online. For over a decade I served as Chair of the Board of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and continue to serve as Chair Emeritus. I enjoy writing, have written extensively about my observations of this and other gardens – and gardening in general – but always simply for myself. I have taken the bold (presumptuous?) step of deciding to share my thoughts with those who might find them interesting – or even objectionable and may wish to refute my thoughts. No gardener ever stops learning, for this pursuit – unlike, say, golf or bridge – is endless in its mysteries and elements of wonder, and seeks to make something, not simply fill time. These musings will be posted from time to time, as I feel inspired, with no specific timetable. Stay tuned….
Notes from Uptop Garden 