Bethlehem -- Baker/Linder Garden

Four acres of this nine acre hillside property comprise gardens, the house, art studio and outbuildings, with another five acres kept in hay. Doing all the work themselves for the last 25 years the current owners limbed up and contoured existing overgrown trees and shrubs into cloud-like shapes and clipped and cleared out underbrush from an overgrown tangle of juniper, Mugo pine, Alberta spruce, yew and japonica to create the space underneath for a secret garden of hosta, astilbe, lamium, pachysandra and ferns. Many more conifers were added to the stands of spruce and dwarf conifers installed by the previous owners. Planting beds were shaped and filled with massed perennials, ground covers and shrubs, with a limited selection of varieties chosen to achieve a calmer effect. There are three connecting perennial gardens, a formal boxwood garden, and a rose garden, planted containers around the swimming pool and the house, and a woodland walk with 50 varieties of hostas. The house was fitted out with large picture windows for viewing the garden and the Litchfield Hills that are 35 miles in the distance. A swimming pool was designed by them and built on a plateau the owners dug out of their sloping property.

The owners have propagated most of the boxwood, built walls, borders and walkways from rocks found on the property, and built a wattle arbor and gate from branches. Plant materials are saved all season and dried and turned into artwork sold in a sideline business.

Persons associated with the garden include Mr. and Mrs. G. Curtis (former owners, 1959-1989); Ralph Schuler (rock wall contractor, 1994); Phil Dobson (pool contractor, 1989); John Deak (building contractor, 1998); Michael Rivera (sculptor "Split Bamboo", 2000).