Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Gardens of 'Old Acres'

The gardens of 'Old Acres', the Robert Bacon estate designed by John Russell Pope c. 1907 in Old Westbury, with landscaping by Martha Brooks Brown Hutchinson, as photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1922. Click HERE for more on 'Old Acres'.



Photographs from the Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection (Library of Congress).

11 comments:

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Ancient said...

HPHS --

Put down your Beckett and enjoy the gardens.

magnus said...

HPHS- It's spring for God's sake. Enjoy the hand colored slides

Doug Floor Plan said...

Speaking of gardens – Magnus, you’re the one who planted all those tulip bulbs; what is the outlook for LI gardens this year? Anything particularly good … or bad? I fear it’s going to be another very hot summer.

magnus said...

DFP- I am very concerned- early hot weather and no rain doesn't bode well. Things look great thus far, but we shall see.

Then again, who can prognosticate on the weather with any accuracy? We may have a cool, rainy summer, the despair of everyone but gardeners like myself.

Us Nassau Countyites are steeling ourselves for the next invasion- deer. I thought that we were safe, nestled in suburbia as we are. But I am told that the odd deer has been spotted at Welwyn which is uncomfortably close. And where there is one deer....

Zach L. said...

magnus...

Welwyn sort of makes sense if you assume they swam across the Sound. Believe it or not I came into contact with a deer in the middle of Spring Hill in Old Westbury in Feb 2010. We had seen deer droppings all over (which we found hard to believe) and then one day there it was standing under a tree staring at me (I opened my car door in disbelief and it took off). It disappeared for good about a month or two after that and hasn't been seen since. But think about how far it would have had to travel if it had come from the likes of Welwyn...culminating in having to cross Northern Blvd.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Hah, you wimps don't know from deer. Up here in Deer Haven, an evening's drive (last night I had a two hour drive on back roads from the state capitol) is like being in a video game, with deer popping up everywhere, brake and swerve, swerve and brake. We're also unusually hot and dry up here---the drive is a dust bowl.

But that's all beside the point. The gardens are lovely---really lovely

magnus said...

I shudder as my brother has a house in Millbrook and tells me that in a cold winter, even supposedly deer proof plant material like the poisonous rhodedendron get a good going over by the ravenous creatures.

Why do all the security words now sound like bad Latin?

Bill in Michigan said...

We battle deer here in East Lansing, MI and I have found 2 products, applied regularly, do help: Green Screen, a granular (I use this every 1-2 weeks) and Liquid Fence, which I mix and keep in a sprayer - awful smelling but very effective. Needs to be reapplied after a heavy rain. I wondered if others had seen the collection of FBJ slides released to the LOC recently and featured in the NYT.....and here are a few of the best this morning! Thank you Zach. We are all in bloom here a month or so early in MI and so far, my stuff has survived the few frosts we've had. Then again, we have had snow in late April, so you never know.

magnus said...

And Ancient- not to "beat a dead horse" or anything after yesterday's myriad of blog posts, and while I have always agreed with pretty much every comment you've made, I find something absolutely wild and wonderful about Beacon Towers- as odd, inappropriate and downright bizarre as it surely is. I wish I could put my finger on what it is that I find so appealing. Maybe I'm just confusing my feelings with shock and astonishment.

Anyway, someone once asked about Alva Vanderbilt's vaunted architectural expertice, of which I have always been highly suspect. I think the following anecdote says it all: Apparently, viewing a Loire Valley chateau, or Scottish castle, I can't remember which, Mrs. Belmont observed that her house at Sands Point was far more "authentic". Beacon Towers may be many things, but "authentic" is not one of them.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...
This comment has been removed by the author.