Ridgefield -- Stefan and Julia Corinne Abbruzzese Garden

Fraser Garden, formerly known as.

The current owners of the 1911 English style stone manor house and country place era gardens designed by Warren Manning have restored both since taking ownership of the 3.6-acre property in 2004. Their goals were to honor the original design, preserve the remaining trees and shrubs, and sympathetically incorporate elements for contemporary concerns such as deer fencing. The house and original 31 acres were on a hillside overlooking the surrounding countryside so the gardens were terraced, eventually melding into woodlands. The existing garden rooms have been unified with the consistent use of boxwood hedges for structure and formality combined with several varieties of hydrangea for softer textures, chosen for successive blooming times. The owners have preserved the climbing hydrangea growing on the stone pergola of the sunken terrace next to the house, as well as very old wisteria on a low stone wall with a covered arch on the far side of a flat acre farther downhill that was used as a polo field by previous owners. The garden rooms are planted with shrubs and perennials that are historically appropriate, and annuals for additional color. More than 30 containers placed around the property are replanted three or four times during the growing season from April to October.

Raised beds near the kitchen, and inside the deer fencing, contain vegetables, herbs and berries. The front garden, which is not fenced, includes peony, lilac, iris, cleome, daffodils, alyssum, salvia, and St. John's wort. Low growing blue juniper grows over the top of a wall made from boulders to soften the size of the rocks. In the garden rooms there are roses, dahlia, astilbe, cleome, allium, geranium, hellebores, hosta, butterfly bush, holly and yew. A row of arborvitae seen from the south terrace disguises the deer fence as well as screens the neighboring house. There is a koi pond in the sunken garden planted with floating hyacinth and lotus. The apples from espaliered trees on a nearby stone wall are shared with squirrels and chipmunks. Stately old trees on the property include copper beech, dogwood, oak, crabapple, birch, and weeping cherry; newer tree plantings include apple, pear, peach, shad, cherry, dogwood, red and sugar maples, and more than 60 evergreens.

Persons associated with the garden include: Arthur C. and Rose McLane Fraser (former owners, circa 1909-1941); Joseph M. and Nora Shapiro (former owners, 1941-1952); Paul D. and Elizabeth Arnold (former owners, 1952-1959); Tuccio Development Inc./Jerry Tuccio (former owner, 1959-1999); John R. Milo and Juliet D. Sitaram-Milo (former owners, 1999-2004); Grosvenor Atterbury (1869-1956) and John A. Tompkins (architects, circa 1909-1912); Warren H. Manning (1860-1938) (landscape architect, 1919-1913); Valerie R. Becker (landscape designer and gardener, 2013- ).

In 1927 the Garden Clubs of America held their annual meeting in Ridgefield and visiting delegates toured this garden. It was described as Old English on successive levels with delightful vistas and as perfectly fitting into its surroundings as shrubbery blended into forests.