The Peconic Land Trust’s Bridge Gardens, 36 Mitchell Lane in Bridgehampton, is open daily all year round, with free admission. The 2024 season will showcase garden house renovation plans and offer a lineup of gardening workshops, tours and art classes.
“While all the seasons at the garden have their beauty, summer and fall are when the gardens are in full bloom,” says Garden Director Rick Bogusch. “Now is a good time to plan your visit.”
The gardens include a large, formal herb garden with four theme beds (culinary, medicinal, textile and dye, and ornamental), a rose garden, a demonstration vegetable garden, a water garden, perennial borders, specimen trees and shrubs, unusual hedges and 24 community garden plots, all situated within a five-acre, park-like setting.
A focus for this year is a new capital campaign for renovation of the garden house and pathways. The renovation will provide an important gathering space for the Trust and the Garden to explore issues surrounding land conservation, stewardship and sustainability, including solutions that promote healthy land, water and communities on Long Island.
The Peconic Land Trust is working with local architecture firm Oza Sabbeth Architects and builder RLW4 on plans that transform the house into a true community space, with ADA-compliant entrances and bathrooms, expanded meeting space for groups up to 60 people for educational programming, and a commercial kitchen for garden to table food demonstrations. While keeping the iconic metal roof of the garden house, the building will transform to feel as part of the garden. The design for the Bridge Gardens building was recognized this year by AIA Peconic in the unbuilt category at its design awards in April.
“The jury admired and appreciated the attention to the history of the cultural landscape. The adaptive reuse and transformation over time from a Potato Farm to a Residence now transformed into a proposed public, multi-purpose, community center with demonstration gardens and outdoor classroom that highlights and focuses the community on the history of Long Island’s working farms is a poignant form of architecture as a social art,” noted the award from AIA Peconic.
The inner garden pathways are also part of the renovation plans. Landscape design firm Araiys Design has created a plan with ADA compliant pathways that will wind visitors from the parking area through the inner garden — connecting to the garden house and the herb garden. Additionally, a natural amphitheater that incorporates the gardens’ slope will be introduced for open air programs.
While admission is free, Bridge Gardens also offers memberships that provide a variety of benefits, including reduced or free admission to the educational, recreational, and cultural programs held throughout the year at the gardens.
A complete listing of events at Bridge Gardens is available at peconiclandtrust.org or by emailing events@peconiclandtrust.org, as is information on becoming a member.
Staff Writer on May 27, 2024