Boston Flora

Tag: Sleepy Cat Farm

  • Thursday, December 11, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Sleepy Cat Farm, Part IV – Planning and Perfecting with the Future in Mind, Online

    Sleepy Cat Farm embodies the vision of Fred Landman who, since acquiring a Georgian Revival house and six acres of neglected grounds in Greenwich, CT, has transformed his property into a magical thirteen-acre landscape that serves as a testament to his belief in the harmony between house and garden. This four-part Virtual Program, which began with two episodes in the spring and summer, continues to explore the evolution of Fred’s vision from 1994 to today. It tells the story of how the talented architects, horticulturists and artisans he collaborates with have married landscape and architecture to create a series of highly personal sanctuaries. Fred delights in sharing these spaces with hundreds of visitors every year.

    Our final episode in the story of Sleepy Cat Farm’s evolution looks to the future with Kristi Wright, who succeeded Alan Gorkin as Head Horticulturist in 2024. Kristi likes to think of the garden’s design as a stage set on which the scene continually changes according to the season, the gardener’s hand, or on occasion, the whim of Mother Nature. She seeks to maintain the design integrity of each of the garden’s features when it’s time to edit an overgrown area; reassess sun/shade issues, introduce unusual species, or face the challenges that climate change presents. Another objective is creating opportunities for Sleepy Cat Farm to serve the wider community. Local food banks rely on Sleepy Cat’s vegetable garden and orchard for produce. A six-month internship program is in the works, and a volunteer program is a possibility for the future. Kristi hopes to create a plant list on the garden’s website in order to share the staff’s horticultural knowledge with gardeners everywhere. For now, however, Kristi, her team, and Fred Landman can’t wait to show off to the next wave of Open Day visitors all the wonders that Sleepy Cat Farm has to offer. $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-sleepy-cat-farm-part-iv-12-11-2025

  • Thursday, October 2, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Sleepy Cat Farm, Part III – A Horticultural Perspective, Online

    Sleepy Cat Farm embodies the vision of Fred Landman who, since acquiring a Georgian Revival house and six acres of neglected grounds in Greenwich, CT, has transformed his property into a magical thirteen-acre landscape that serves as a testament to his belief in the harmony between house and garden. This four-part Virtual Program, which began with two episodes in the spring and summer, continues to explore the evolution of Fred’s vision from 1994 to today. It tells the story of how the talented architects, horticulturists and artisans he collaborates with have married landscape and architecture to create a series of highly personal sanctuaries. Fred delights in sharing these spaces with hundreds of visitors every year.

    The Garden Conservancy’s series on Sleepy Cat Farm resumes October 2 at 2 pm Eastern. Horticulturist Alan Gorkin discusses how his role in the garden expanded as the garden itself evolved. Alan came to Sleepy Cat Farm’s expanded greenhouses and vegetable gardens in 2008, after working at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Cranford Rose Garden, and as head grower and cutting garden supervisor for Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island. For a while he was the garden’s only full-time employee; a landscaping service managed the overall maintenance program. It wasn’t long before Fred Landman recognized that Alan’s talents could be utilized in a broader capacity. Fred put Alan in charge of a handpicked staff and oversight of the landscaping service and let Alan build on the bones of the garden that he and landscape architect Charles Stick created. Drawing partly on lessons from Charles and partly on his own horticultural expertise, Alan complemented the garden’s pathways, vistas and architecture with unique plantings until his retirement last year. His longtime contributions to the garden underlie much of Sleepy Cat Farm’s magical charm. 

    $5 for Garden Conservancy members. $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web25-sleepy-cat-farm-part-iii-10-2-2025. Note: You will receive the webinar link directly from Zoom. 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. 

  • Tuesday, October 29, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – An Afternoon at Sleepy Cat Farm

    Please join the Garden Conservancy and Monacelli Press for an exclusive presentation, book signing, and reception celebrating the launch of Charles J. Stick and his Gardens. 

    Charles J. Stick and his Gardens is a fascinating biographical monograph of Charles J. Stick, renowned Virginia-based landscape architect celebrated for his historically and culturally based gardens filled with luxuriant blooms. This new book is the first to explore and bring together four major estates by Stick—Crab Tree Farm on the North Shore of Chicago, Illinois; Mount Sharon near Charlottesville, Virginia; Waverley, in Somerset, Virginia; and of course Sleepy Cat Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut—offering new insights into the design process and the intimacy of his client relationships. 

    Sleepy Cat Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut is a spectacular garden—a thirteen-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 an iris garden, and several formal garden rooms with reflecting pools and koi ponds—and this event offers the special opportunity to hear directly from its visionary creators. Following the conversation will be a celebratory reception where light refreshments and bites will be served.

    Purchase a copy of the book as part of your ticket to receive an exclusive Garden Conservancy discount. Additional copies will be available for purchase at full price at the event. $35 for Garden Conservancy members, $40 for nonmembers (talk only), or $75 for members, $80 for nonmembers (talk with book)

  • 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