Boston Flora

Tag: Fred Landman

  • Friday, June 23, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Sleepy Cat Farm Field Study

    Join Berkshire Botanical Garden on June 23 as we explore Sleepy Cat Farm in Greenwich, Conn. Sleepy Cat Farm is the vision of one man, Fred Landman, who acquired the handsome Georgian Revival house and grounds in 1994. Committed to the concept of harmony between house and garden, he has dedicated himself to the landscape to create “a garden of which the house could be proud.” Collaborating with Greenwich architect Charles Hilton and noted landscape architect Charles J. Stick and drawing inspiration from travels in Europe and Asia, Landman has done just that. The landscape unfolds in a series of garden rooms. Hillsides and vistas change daily, monthly, almost minute by minute, in this undulating landscape of surprises, intrigue and unexpected beauty. Evocative names add to the atmosphere, including the Golden Path, the Grotto, the Iris Garden, the Spirit Walk, the Perennial Long Border Garden, the Pebble Terrace, the Woodland Walk. Buildings and follies were added, also with storybook names — the Celestial Pavilion, the Barn, the Limonaia, the Chinese Pavilion, the Cat Maze and Arbor. Down the hill from the main house is an organic farm that supplies produce to the community, a project of Landman’s wife, Seen Lippert, a professional chef who worked with Alice Waters. Transportation from BBG for an additional $10 fee is available for a limited number of participants. $18 for BBG members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org

  • Thursday, November 18, 2:00 pm – Sleepy Cat Farm, A Gardener’s Journey, Online

    Join The Garden Conservancy for the third webinar in our four-part Fall 2021 Literary Series, as Fred Landman and Curtice Taylor take us on a privileged tour of a lavish estate in Greenwich, CT, that features an abundance of garden experiences: formal boxwood and undulating hornbeam hedges, dense woodland, reflecting pools, arbors and follies—and a ferme ornée (ornamental farm) offering organic produce to the community.

    Sleepy Cat Farm is the vision of one man, Fred Landman, who acquired the handsome Georgian Revival house and grounds in 1994. Deeply committed to the concept of harmony between house and garden, he has dedicated himself to the landscape to create “a garden of which the house could be proud.”

    Curtice Taylor has been photographing landscapes and gardens for more than forty years. His work has been published in major gardening and shelter magazines including House & Garden, Architectural Digest, and Connecticut Cottages and Gardens. A childhood friend of Fred Landman, Taylor has been documenting the gardens at Sleepy Cat Farm for more than ten years.

    Fred Landman resides at Sleepy Cat Farm in Greenwich, CT, with his wife, Seen Lippert. After retirement from the business world, Fred went from a weekend gardener to a full-time gardener. Over the past 20 years, his garden has evolved from a quaint suburban backyard to a 13-acre multi-faceted experience, including a stroll garden through a woodland with its own grotto, a meadow with a sacred grove, a wetland with an elevated spirit walk through the iris garden, and several formal garden rooms with reflecting pools and koi ponds. Seen, a professional chef who spent more than a decade at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, stays close to the culinary world and plans the extensive planting of the vegetable gardens and is the beneficiary of the fruit orchard. Sleepy Cat Farm operates as a foundation and it is open to groups by appointment. Seen and Fred have been Open Days hosts for more than seven years and members of the Garden Conservancy Society of Fellows since 2007. Fred was elected to the Garden Conservancy’s board of directors on December 10, 2020. 

    The Fall 2021 Literary Series is presented by the newly established Frank and Anne Cabot Society for Planned Giving, in partnership with Phaidon and Monacelli. Additional support for these programs is provided by Celia Hegyi, the Coleman and Susan Burke Distinguished Lecture Fund, and the Lenhardt Education Fund.

    A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. Please note that registration will end 24 hours prior to this webinar.