Tour an Atmospheric, Minimalist Landscape in the Hudson Valley

Photos by Michael Del Rossi

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A New York City-based couple with two kids, who enjoy the property as a weekend home
Location: Hudson, New York
Lot size: 3½ acres (1.4 hectares)
Landscape architect: Dale Schafer of Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture

Partway through their house renovation, the homeowners brought on landscape architect Dale Schafer and the team at Wagner Hodgson to design a garden that would complement the home’s modern architecture. The existing site consisted of dry, gravelly terrain and scrub trees that blocked sightlines. Schafer proposed a design that would open up views of the Taconic and Berkshire mountains and would rely heavily on ornamental grasses for color, form and seasonal interest.

Installation was phased over three years, giving time for the landscape to take shape. Of the finished design, Schafer says, “It is in keeping with the simplicity of the architecture — not competing for attention, but rather a complementary foreground to both the house and the long view beyond.”

Front Yard

The entry sets the tone for a modern landscape: Colors are kept restrained, the number of plants used is limited, and forms are well-defined.

Floor-to-ceiling windows look out onto the entryway garden, which features three types of ornamental grasses planted in bands along the pathway and clipped turfgrass. ‘Morning Light’ Chinese silvergrass (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’, USDA zones 5 to 9; find your zone), the tallest, acts as a shimmering screen for the gravel parking lot. Variegated ‘Ice Dance’ sedge (Carex morrowii ‘Ice Dance’, zones 5 to 9) and North American native prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis, zones 3 to 8) border the walkway of bluestone pavers leading up to the home.

Backyard

In the backyard, a tiered lawn slopes gently away from the house, accentuated with raw steel beams. The repetition of the beams set into the lawn echoes the lines of the home’s architecture, bringing the geometry of the metal-edged windows into the landscape. A gravel patio sits close to the house, with outdoor furniture placed to overlook the garden and views. Around the corner, on a second smaller gravel patio, the clients can enjoy outdoor cooking on the grill.

Walking down toward the pool, one passes between meadow-like plantings of dwarf fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’, zones 4 to 11). A European hornbeam hedge (Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’, zones 4 to 8) hides a modern pergola and seating area from view. Instead of being distracted by man-made elements of the landscape, one’s eye is drawn along the sweeping grasses — perhaps watching as the plumes move in the wind — to linger on the view of the valley and mountain range.

In winter the ornamental grasses are left as they are, and stalks dry and turn tawny colors that add a subtle warmth to the landscape. When it snows, the flakes outline the grass stalks with white and silver. The leaves of the hornbeam usually cling to the plant once they dry, adding another hit of bronze. “When grass plumes and golden winter foliage are highlighted in the sunlight, especially against a dark cloudy sky, the visual experience is wonderful and painterly,” Schafer says.

At the base of the property, Schafer and his team added a pool that’s 18 feet wide by 24 feet long (5.5 meters wide by 7.3 meters long). It’s edged with bluestone pavers that have a thermal finish. A contemporary, clean-lined pergola made of powder-coated steel anchors a seating area at one end.

In the evening, lights illuminate the pool and cast a glow on the bordering meadow planting of North American native ‘Shenandoah’ switchgrass (Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’, zones 4 to 9) to the right and a softer glow on the ‘Hameln’ dwarf fountain grass to the left. On the whole, landscape lighting was kept minimal, with stair and pathway lights but few others.

Schafer shared two design tips for creating a similar landscape.

1. Limit the plant and material palettes. Reducing the number of plants and materials used for a project simplifies the design and gives it a more modern look. For example, massing a single variety of plants yields a more minimalist (and often more calming) result than planting a bed with many varieties and colors.

2. Think out of the box when it comes to using plants. “Use plants to contrast nature, rather than try to mimic it,” Schafer says. For example, he uses grasses in distinct planting blocks — hornbeam trained into a wall or blocks of grasses as landscape carpets — to become architectural elements of the design.

Maintenance

Schafer cites the comparably low-maintenance needs of ornamental grasses as another reason he choose them for the landscape design. Particularly for a weekend home, having a landscape made up primarily of plants that require only an annual cut-back (done in winter, before new growth begins) makes a lot of sense.

Beds are set on drip irrigation, and the lawn is on spray — both are connected to a smart controller that adjusts by season and according to rainfall to keep excess water use down. Other landscape maintenance required includes trimming the Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata, zones 4 to 8) on the building, pruning a few hedges and mowing turfgrass.

Note: Species of Pennisetum and Miscanthus can self-seed and be considered invasive, depending on where you live and your garden’s conditions. The hybrid species the landscape architects selected for this project do not self-seed in this Zone 5 garden, and the architects have not found them to be invasive. Check with your local nursery before planting, as this varies by region.

Architecture: Janson Goldstein

More
Add Softness, Light and Movement With Ornamental Grasses
Lay of the Landscape: Modern Garden Style
Learn more about gardening with grasses
Find a landscape architect on Houzz