For the famous writer, author of culinary bestsellers and gastronomic TV show Ina Garten, her garden in East Hampton is her main favorite brainchild. Here she rests her soul from the hustle and bustle of the big city and grows flowers

Ina Garten, author of cookbooks and her own TV show.

Anyone who is familiar with Ina Garten’s cookbooks knows that the “Barefoot Countess” (as her popular cooking TV show on the Food Network is called and as Americans usually call her) often receives guests in her lush garden in East Hampton. What the guests don’t know and don’t even guess is that it took the author of culinary bestsellers ten years to convince the previous owners to sell her land. “I called them every year, but they always said no,” Ina says.

She and her husband, economist Jeffrey Garten, were living up the street when they saw that land was being sold nearby in a great location. It was a former pasture, completely overgrown with grass, near an old farm—it all belonged to the Mulfords, one of the oldest families in East Hampton. The Gartens bought this house, even though it was too small for all the transformations they were planning. And there were a lot of plans: a new house, a large garden, an office, a study for Jeffrey and, of course, a large kitchen for Ina. But they also knew that the Mulfords had another plot in the neighborhood, and hoped that they would be able to persuade them to sell it, too.

In the meantime, Ina plunged headlong into the realization of her old dream — to create a real garden. “We designed the garden even before we made the house!  she laughs. — I knew I needed a vegetable garden, fruit trees and hydrangeas everywhere… Lots of hydrangeas!”

The back of the house with hydrangeas “Tardiva” behind a hedge.

Photo

John Hall

Ina’s friend Martha Stewart introduced her to landscape designer Edwina von Gal, who was just finishing a project nearby. For the new Garten house, von Gal drew a simple square and divided it into four parts: for the house, the orchard, the kitchen with a vegetable garden and the last one for the lawn.

“We designed the garden before we made the house!”

And although the garden has been updated several times since then, the original layout of von Gal has been preserved, as well as many of the original plantings. These are flower beds with white dahlias mixed with verbena, wooden boxes made of boxwood planted with perovskii (aka Russian sage), bushes of white rosehip and white hydrangeas in pots. The old garden shed, covered with climbing hydrangeas and clematis, has also been preserved. And finally, the crown of Edwina von Gal’s creation is an orchard, where 25 wild apple trees bloom in full bloom every May, creating a fragrant white canopy. Ina is still amazed by their size: “When we bought them, they were very tiny!”

The garden shed, designed by Edwina von Gal, is covered with hydrangeas.

Photo

John Hall

The new Garten farmhouse, with its classic “Hamptons” wooden facade sheathed in shingles, is an almost exact replica of their former home. When everything was finished and almost half of their grand plan was completed, they turned to the Mulfords with a request to buy a neighboring field. But to their deepest disappointment, the neighbors flatly refused to sell the plot. But Ina didn’t give up. A year later, she called again with the same offer, and again the answer was “no”. This went on for ten years!

Finally, the Mulfords gave up, and in 2005 the Gartins were finally able to merge the two sites. Ina immediately started building a summer house, which today houses her office and experimental kitchen, where she tests new dishes for cookbooks and shoots her TV show.

The original part of the garden, designed by Edwina von Gal. White roses, sage and perovskia grow on flower beds with wooden sides. Hydrangea blooms in clay pots.

Although the garden has been updated several times, the original layout has been preserved here, as well as many of the original plantings

Dahlias, clematis, hydrangeas bloom next to the gazebo. Bench, Bayberry Nursery.

When the two plots were combined, another difficulty arose — to make the garden an organic whole. “This time I wanted it to be a little more architectural,” says the hostess, inspired by the books and ideas of the modern London landscape designer Luciano Giubbilei. She invited Joseph Tyree, who worked with von Gal, to put them into practice.

To create a visual connection between the new and old parts, Tyree continued the flagstone path from the summer house to the main Garten house. He also planned different summer outdoor areas, starting with a simple barbecue area surrounded by tropical copaifers, in the center of which stands a steel outdoor hearth by the sculptor Elena Colombo.

The barbecue area is surrounded by tropical trees, and in the center there is a street hearth by the modern artist Elena Colombo.

In vegetable beds, carrots and tomatoes grow together with nasturtium.

Photo

John Hall

The gate leads to a walled shady garden planted with crepe myrtle, ferns and lilies of the valley. From there, a winding path leaves, surrounded by boxwood and bright yellow ginkgo trees. Next to the house there is a vegetable garden surrounded by a square green wall, where tomatoes, carrots, fennel, beets, cabbage and other vegetables grow. Then you pass through a clematis-covered arch, festooned with hydrangeas, and discover a luxurious bed of white roses.

The East Hampton Garden was originally planned by Edwina von Gal and then expanded by Joseph Tyree. Hydrangeas and vitex are planted under the arch of clematis.

Photo

John Hall

It is difficult to choose the best place for leisure in Ina’s garden. You can sip mojitos on spring evenings under a canopy of fragrant wisteria or enjoy an evening glass of port on the porch of the garden shed, looking at the sunset sky. Each section of the garden has its own character and atmosphere — like different departments in a favorite library, on the shelves of which real treasures are hidden. But there is one thing: Jeffrey has not yet received the promised office. Instead, he will have to settle for Ina’s new culinary bestseller, where he is assigned the main role — the book Cooking for Jeffrey, which was recently published.

Ina Garden on the background of her house.

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