Landscape designer goes beyond plant life to create gardens

There are intoxicating aromas swirling beneath the surface, breathtaking vistas ready to spring to life and brilliant colors waiting to splash onto the landscape. The artist in her sees this potential in the subtle slope, the open field, the turned over soil, the neglected shrub and the overgrown path.

Nature has always been Linda Ardigo’s muse, inspiring her to create garden sanctuaries for her clients by infusing her landscape designs with art and music.

The Bridgehampton garden of Julie and Alan Kling is Ms. Ardigo’s latest project, inspired by the Klings’ trip to Versailles, France. Upon their return, Ms. Kling said she and her husband wanted to re-create the vistas they had seen in France at their home on Jobs Lane.

“We contacted Linda soon as we returned,” said Ms. Kling, who noted that since their garden became Ms. Ardigo’s canvas their quality of life has improved. “We come outside and sit, look, relax. It’s incredibly peaceful and attracts all kinds of birds and butterflies.”

To help achieve that image, Ms. Ardigo, of Sagaponack, said she planted styrax trees that burst with beautiful blooms in the spring. “It looks like it’s snowing from them,” Ms. Ardigo said.

In the Klings’ garden, Ms. Ardigo is working with three sculptors and a composer to manifest her vision. Part of Ms. Ardigo’s technique is to enhance her landscapes with sculptures and soundscapes. “Designing a garden is a collaborative effort,” she said.

International sculptor Timothy Mark will have 15 pieces of his work in the Klings’s garden at 105 Jobs Lane in Bridgehampton, on Saturday, August 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of a sculpture and garden exhibit Ms. Ardigo is hosting there.

“These pieces represent the last 12 years of my work,” Mr. Mark said, who has worked all over the world, including Portugal, Italy, Germany and New Zealand. “Linda and I are a great fit. She develops a blank space. My work functions as a focal point around which she can create her design.”

Mr. Mark, who specializes in stone and marble, said the carving process is similar to designing a garden in that with both you start with a block and work to create a vision. “It’s like peeling an onion. You move inward, you find high points, the head, the shoulder, the elbows, the hips. You connect the dots,” he said.

“I’m very inspired by Tim’s work,” Ms. Ardigo said. “His pieces really make the garden come alive.” International sculptors Linda Brunker and Franco Junior will also be part of the exhibit.

“The blend of colors and textures in nature is an ever-changing visual experience,” she said, “Our surroundings help us create a sense of peace and beauty. Planting connects us to the earth, to a higher power.”

Though she describes herself as a visual person, Ms. Ardigo said her great love is music. New York based composer Miles Dalto is creating a soundscape for the Klings’ garden and will be part of Ms. Ardigo’s exhibit.

“I’m inspired by the scenery,” Mr. Dalto said. “My influences are jazz, electronica, whatever’s in the city, but working with Linda to create sound for open space is totally different. It’s very atmospheric.”

Ms. Ardigo inherited her love of the earth from her grandmother, whose Brooklyn garden was filled with tomatoes, basil, oregano, sage, herbs and flowers. “I inherited her gift of cooking,” Ms. Ardigo said, “which is another art form.”

Much of her childhood was spent digging in her grandmother’s garden and dreaming of having her own one day, a dream that would eventually come true. Ms. Ardigo cultivated her innate sense of design and visual imagination while attending the High School of Art and Design in New York City. It was through the study of painting and drawing that she became interested in the mysteries and complexities of nature.

“Like a painting, a landscape design is a work in progress. Each stage engages you in another aspect of the plan, of the shape and texture of the trees, the color and spirit of a flower, the levels and movement of the ground. Every piece of land is a blank slate,” she explained.

Ms. Ardigo then moved into television, producing commercials and television programs at Creative Ways, her own production company.

But the seed of her creative life today, the toil she calls a “labor of love,” began in 1979 when the opportunity to purchase a potato field in Sagaponack came her way. In that landscape, Ms. Ardigo envisioned an oasis for her family, a retreat far from the chaotic pulse of the city.

Everything she had learned in school, as a television producer, in her grandmother’s garden, all came to fruition in those two acres. “It was a lot of trial and error,” she said, “but it’s a very enchanting place.”

Ms. Ardigo carved out a sacred space, a magical garden that would motivate her to take her skills to other canvases, such as the garden of the Klings.

An artist in her own right, Ms. Ardigo paints watercolors of her concepts for her clients before she begins the physical work of bringing them to life. “To create the ultimate garden, I first have to understand what it is my clients want, what their needs are. Just like a house, a garden reflects the owners,” Ms. Ardigo said. “Uncommon foliage, exotic mixtures of color, curious themes with sculpture and artifacts give a signature look to each environment. Inviting paths of grass, stone or brick can lead the way to your own special garden.”

Crafting the perfect garden for her clients is a spiritual, if not religious experience, one that helps Ms. Ardigo come to grips with her own mortality. “You can really feel the pull of gravity when you work with the earth, and the love within these plantings,” she said, adding that the change of seasons, as evoked in the Book of Ecclesiastes, brings an understanding that there’s a time and place for everything. “A time to reap. A time to sow.”

For Ms. Ardigo, the upcoming exhibit at the Klings’ garden represents a culmination of her life’s work. “But, it’s also the beginning,” she said.