Rockland Farm comprises a variety of areas that flow one from another over about ten acres of the Canaan, New York property. A 450-foot-long rock ledge runs parallel to the front drive and is topped by a dry garden in silver, gray and blue, with a thyme walk along one edge. Raised areas on the west side of the house feature exotic and tropical plants, many in containers. Behind the house is a sequence of garden rooms: a lavender garden contained within a raised hornbeam hedge; a perennial garden in pastels surrounding our pool; a water garden, fronted by a white garden and with a shade garden and rhododendron walk behind; a hot sundial and rock garden; and a fenced vegetable and cutting garden. From here, a hydrangea allée leads to a lawn with sweeps of perennials on one side and a mixed garden containing a faux-bois set on the other—or to steps up to a small, wooded knoll, where paths offer intermittent views of the garden and the hills beyond and connect a folly, a water feature and a stumpery. Where the garden meets open land, a Tim Prentice kinetic piece snakes its way through the trees, and a massive carved bench in a pine grove overlooks a three-acre lake in the middle-distance. Rockland Farm has been featured in magazines and in the books Great Gardens of the Berkshires, Private Edens, and Private Gardens of The Hudson Valley.
Berkshire Botanical Garden will host Cocktails at Rockland Farm on July 19 from 5 – 7. $40 for BBG members, $55 for nonmembers. Address and directions will be provided upon Registration. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.
