You have to hope that Sleepy Cat Farm in southwestern Connecticut will remain on the Open Days list of the Garden Conservancy from time to time, as it's a must-see garden created over 20 some years by owner Fred Landman and landscape architect Charles J. Stick of Charlottesville, VA.
But if you can't visit the garden in person, you can certainly enjoy its beauty and special characteristics in this lovely new book, Sleepy Cat Farm: A Gardener's Journey (Monacelli Press, 2021).
Landman, a former businessman, acquired the property in 1994 and set about to create a garden "of which the house could be proud," he said. He worked with landscape architect Charles Stick to bring his vision of a European-style garden to fruition, a garden that would echo some of the historic gardens he had visited in Asia and Europe. Now, the 13-acre property includes a pool and flower garden, a boxwood parterre, an elegant brick Celestial Pavilion, statuary throughout, a woodland garden, follies, and much, much more. There's even a working organic farm that supplies the local community -- a project of Landman's wife, Seen Lippert, who worked with chef Alice Waters in California before moving East.
And of course the site is named after a number of cats who moved in over the years (and whose portraits appear in the book).
As Landman says in an afterword, "Sleepy Cat Farm represents more than two decades of travel and observation, many trials and a few errors, the creative efforts of a talented team and my personal expression of a truly unique garden ... There is no more gratifying experience than to build, in cooperation with others, a place of beauty that will last for generations to come."
Do not miss this garden if you ever find it open for visitors. And the book makes a perfect gift for anyone with a love of gardens and horticulture.
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