Hardscaping creates sense of place

"When you garden in Connecticut, the stone is there whether you want to acknowledge it or not. You can curse it or use it [But] you are going to have to deal with it."

— Maggie Feczko, president of the Westport Garden Club

There's no getting around it — Connecticut has some pretty rocky soil. Put a shovel in the dirt and you're bound to hit a stone. And as Maggie Feczko said, embracing reality may be the best thing a gardener can do. A recent garden tour in the Greenfield section of Fairfield did just that — celebrating stone, by way of creating stone paths, patios, walls and hardscapes that add beauty to the landscape. Feczko, and 10 members of the Westport Garden Club, were among the 55 people who recently toured

the grounds of a brand-new, energy-conscious "smart house" at 32 Hickory Lane on the market for $4 million. Built by contractor Thor Vanderblue and landscaped by Chris Palmer, of Outdoor Design Landscaping in Fairfield, the free tour, co-sponsored by Gault Inc. and Connecticut Cottages & Gardens magazine, was led by landscape designer Gordon Hayward, 65. Hayward, a Connecticut native raised in Litchfield County, is the author of 10 garden design books, including "Stone in the Garden" (W.W. Norton & Company, 2001). A landscaper since 1984, he enthusiastically embraces the rugged New England countryside. Hayward and his wife, Mary, have lived in rural Vermont since 1978 on a 17-acre property dotted with stone walls, orchards and an antique house built in 1776.

Stone walls, said Hayward, are "man's historic hand on the land," a practical way resourceful farmers cleared their land.

"Did you know there are enough stone walls in New England to go around the equator seven times?" he asked.

Hayward works across the country, but mainly in New England. "Designs," he said, "have to take careful advantage of the property. What stone does is create a sense of place.

"When I work in my garden, there's late 1700 stone walls so that

harks into the past," he said. "I bring in the same stone, same color to underpin the feeling of place. That's harder to do in a suburban setting" or with younger houses, he said.

His foremost design principle is to extend the house into the garden. The house and landscape should become one. "I create gardens so people live in a house in a garden," he said. "Stone paths start at the doors and move out to the garden. Patios are extensions of rooms, extending the spirit of the inside to the outside." Standing in front of an outdoor fieldstone fireplace on a covered bluestone patio on the Hickory Lane property, Hayward pointed out that the landscaping successfully extended the feeling of the new 7,644-square-foot farmhouse with soaring gables and a welcoming front porch. Walking from the bluestone patio, across a second flagstone patio, where a stone outdoor kitchen is located, he noted the use of three types of stone in the adjacent areas — fieldstone, bluestone and flagstone. The design is restrained yet related, Hayward said. At a water feature near the front of the house, Hayward said that while the same stone from the back of the house was repeated, river rock was added for interest.

"One of the fundamental lessons of a good water feature is using rounded river rocks, not flat, jagged, broken stone," he said.

Vanderblue, the home's builder, said adding stone features to the property was only natural. "I loved doing the stone. But, once you get going [with stone],

it's hard to stop," he said with a laugh.

"Stone adds value to the landscape and to the home," said Sam Gault, owner of Gault, Inc., a family-owned, 145-year-old heating and air conditioning business in Westport that began selling stone about 20 or 30 years ago. "People love to integrate stones into their landscape.

"They love to have the outdoor barbecue surrounded by stone; accent patios with stone knee walls; a lot of people like stone patios under pergolas," he said. "We're seeing people going back to more natural looking driveways, to more stone or gravel driveways."

What's really come of age, he said, is consumers' interest in natural stones for walkways and patios. "The most popular stone is the Connecticut fieldstone that can come from different areas, but mainly from the northern part of the state where there's old farms," he said. Gault carries flagstone from New York state, too, and bluestone from Pennsylvania and New York, he said. The company sells to the trade and do-it-yourselfers. Over the years, Gault said he's seen a steady growth in sales. The company opened an extensive stone showroom in Westport in 1998 and two years ago opened an outdoor showroom in Bethel.

Choosing Hayward to lead a garden tour was a good fit, he said.

"I think what Gordon does very well is he's able to look at the property and determine what really needs to be used. He does a nice job using natural-looking stones," he said. "That's what Connecticut is about — very natural-looking homes and landscapes that are true to our heritage." Following the tour, Hayward gave a slide presentation that included the charming cottage he owns with his British-born wife in the Cotswolds in England. One of his pet peeves in American landscaping is "the perimeter garden" with the "an ameba of a lawn" edged with plants. "It's not good design at all," he said.

He prefers less defined borders. People should feel like they're standing in and are surrounded by the garden, he said. Some of his design suggestions:

? The front door landing should be generous. "Don't just keep it the width of the walkway," he said.

? When creating a stone path or walkway, set the stones in sand or crushed stone dust. ? Never place outdoor furniture directly on grass, but rather create a stone floor to set the furniture on, an easy weekend project that he said could be done for under $300.

? Use standing, or vertical stones, to mark entrances or as sculpture. "I use stone to create comfortable, welcoming destinations for people," he said. "Stone creates lasting centers because plants are ever-changing and stone is immutable, unchanging.

"Stone introduces this Ying and Yang that I think draws people to stone," he said. "Stone gives a garden stature and a sense of permanence." Interior designer Maureen Tartaglia, of Weston, said she took home many ideas from the tour. She likes Hayward's suggestion to design the winter garden first — think how the garden will look after the flowers are gone.

Her 1925 house sits on more than two acres of land surrounded by stone walls and includes a small stone smokehouse, she said.

"I love the charm of the stone walls. They are so beautiful and warm. I love to have the inside and outside [of my home] work together" as Hayward suggests, she said.

During his presentation, Hayward also recommended pressing small stones between larger stones on walkways, Feczko recalled a few days after the tour. "I started doing that," she said. "I have large pieces of bluestone that are laid with a six-inch gap between each bluestone.

"I had planted some moss [between the stones] and I'm laying two- to four-inch stones and pressing them in the moss," she said. "It's giving another textural element to the pathway."

The small stones are ones she finds on her property when digging in the garden. It's a project she'll probably spend the summer, and beyond, doing, Feczko said, laughing.

"I have an endless number of paths and the technique is one I enjoy doing. I don't feel I have to do it all in one day," she said. "A little bit at a time will be satisfying."

Gault's stone showroom is located at 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport. Call 227-5181 or visit www.gaultinc.com.