Clove Brook Farm—Christopher Spitzmiller

The garden at Clove Brook Farm was started about seven years ago following a restoration of the historic Greek Revival farmhouse. The garden has quickly grown into a series of interconnected spaces, beginning with a horseshoe-shaped garden near the house that is surrounded by a clipped hornbeam hedge and anchored by a dovecote. It's this garden where we have a spectacular show of tulips and sweetpeas in spring, followed by towering dahlias in late summer. A few years ago another large garden "room" was added which centers on an oval swimming pool and neoclassical style pool house. This garden is also bounded by a hornbeam hedge and includes perimeter beds filled with various herbaceous perennials which evolve throughout the growing season, starting with poppies in early spring, then peonies, roses, lilies, and finally dahlias. Last year my partner, landscape architect Anthony Bellomo, designed and installed a large kitchen garden which we pack with various vegetables. We are both confirmed garden addicts, and in addition to the more formal garden spaces, continue to add informal and naturalistic plantings throughout the property. We've planted several mixed shrub borders studded with drifts of bulbs, embellished our existing orchard, and collected unique sculptures to establish focal points. There is nothing more satisfying than tending and fostering a garden, and watching it develop and mature. It's all documented in A Year at Clove Brook Farm (Rizzoli, 2021, with foreword by Martha Stewart). Garden is partially accessible.