Remsenburg Area Gardens On Display

Green grass bores Valerie Ansalone, and her 1-acre garden on Risa Court in Flanders utilizes less than 5,000 square feet of it.

Instead, her yards are blossoming with roses, peonies, dogwoods, bearded irises, magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons—or “rhodies,” as she fondly calls them.

“It’s fun, it’s a passion, it’s an addiction,” the master gardener said at her home last week. “It’s a park-like setting. I want to be encouraged to walk through and keep walking.”

Ms. Ansalone said she hopes many others will wander the backyard’s winding, wooded paths and visit her 6,000-gallon koi pond on Saturday, June 11, when she opens her gates for the “Remsenburg Area Private Garden Tour,” which features five other local gardens—all of which are in the hamlet of Remsenburg—and is hosted by the Garden Conservancy’s “Open Days Program.”

All of the tours are self-guided and visitors choose their starting point, explained Stephanie Werskey, media coordinator for the Garden Conservancy. The not-for-profit organization’s chief mission is national garden preservation, she said.

“We like to encourage people to become gardeners and hopefully that translates into helping us preserve gardens,” she said. “We do look for the ‘wow factor.’ It might be a specific plant collection or over-the-top design sense, and we think it’s a wonderful way to spend the day. At $5 per garden, it’s a lot less expensive than some of the things you could be doing, and there’s a lot of beauty to see there.”

The idea was to pick gardens that are different from one another, whether it’s their style, character or size, according to Deonne Finkelstein, the “Open Days Program” regional representative, who will also be showing her Remsenburg garden on Kingfisher Cove on Saturday.

“Seeing all of these gardens and meeting people is such a great normalizer,” she said. “It makes you realize that while gardens may be different, nobody is that different from anybody else. Everyone can smile at one another in these beautiful surroundings and that’s the way I feel about gardening. It makes me happy.”

Ms. Finkelstein’s garden is a 45-year labor of love, she said. The retired landscape designer has planted hundreds of different plant species, from perennials and annuals to trees and shrubs, she said.

“Over the years, there have been so many plants that have been introduced that no one ever heard of, so because I was a designer, I felt it was very important to become acquainted with them first before recommending them to my clients,” she said. “So I’d plant it and then I’d have it. Now, here I am.”

The master gardener said she started off planting slowly, working section by section until she ran out of room on her 1½ acres. Her ideas would constantly change, she said, and so replanting—not discarding—was a must.

“It was just sort of my painting, but it was in dirt instead of on canvas, that’s all,” she said. “I like to get the most of the garden 12 months of the year, that’s my theme. I want the garden to look as attractive during the wintertime as it does in the summer. The summer is very voluptuous and full of color and flamboyance, and the spring is the start of everything. It gives you a thrill to see things start to bud out.”

A different garden, this one on Cedar Lane in Remsenburg, employs a similar methodology, according to Sylvia Laird, who maintains the property, which will also be shown on Saturday.

“This garden is developed so there’s continuous color from early spring ’til fall,” she said. “It’s all written a certain way and done a certain way. It’s almost like an orchestration.”

Tall cedars, daisies and ornamental grasses line the driveway and lead to a garden featuring iris, Casablanca lilies and lobelia. A deeper-hued shade garden hosts ferns and red roses, which marks the entrance to a vegetable garden growing blueberries, sweet peas, tomatoes, lettuce and other salad greens. A pond occupies the backyard, sitting next to a grass garden and private beach on Moriches Bay.

The second Cedar Lane residence sports a multiple-dimensional garden, Ms. Laird explained. Wetlands buffer between the far edge of the lawn and Moriches Bay.

“As you pass through the entranceway, you enter the white garden,” said Ms. Laird, who designed the garden. “But right before, there’s just enough vegetable garden to make you smile. It’s supposed to tickle you. The rest is very casual and yet loaded up with color because the homeowner loves her color.”

All six gardens on display for the “Open Days” are doable for other gardeners, with a little work, Ms. Finkelstein said. Investigate the plants before buying them, she advised, and do a basic soil test. Fertilize when necessary, she added.

“People like to eat, plants like to eat,” she said.
But above all else, don’t be afraid, Ms. Ansalone said of those who are thinking about putting in a garden.

“Don’t fear that you’re going to kill a plant,” she said. “Have the confidence. Follow the instructions on the ticket and don’t be afraid to move a plant. Nothing is in concrete. Tackle it head on.”

The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program will host the “Remsenburg Area Private Garden Tour” on Saturday, June 11, starting at 10 a.m. Tickets cost $5 per garden. For more information, call (888) 842-2442 or visit opendaysprogram.org.