February 26, 2025 • 44 mins
Fernando Wong, a landscape designer and Martha’s co-star on the HGTV show, Clipped, is known for consistent, inspired vision throughout his work. In a conversation between friends, Martha sits down with Fernando and Tim Johnson, his husband and business partner. They explore how Fernando fills landscapes with miniature outdoor “rooms” and timeless elegance. They also discuss their new book that revisits Fernando’s work, titled, The Young Man and the Tree: Fernando Wong Landscape Design.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
My friend and landscape designer Fernando Wong is known for
his inspired vision when it comes to outdoor spaces and gardens.
He fills these gardens with interesting architectural elements and artistic plantings.
Fernando and his husband Tim Johnson Founded Fernando Wong Outdoor
Living Design, Inc. In two thousand and five, and since
(00:28):
then they've created some of the most lush and elaborate
private and public outdoor rooms across the country. They published
a book, a beautiful book entitled The young Man and
the Tree Fernando Wong Landscape Design, and on the cover
is one of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen.
(00:49):
And I think I actually saw that tree in real life,
did I, Fernando.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome to my podcast. Thank you for Fernando and Tim,
and thanks for coming all the way to Bedford.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
It's Chili here, Martha.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And Chili, and the garden looks like hell, but we
need the cold. Yes, my garden is a perennial garden
and it needs cold, and it needs snow cover, and
the plants need to rest and to chill and to
get ready to grow again next spring.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Which is why it's so lush when we come in
the spring. It's always remarkable when you think of how
long it's dormant.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And you're living mostly in Florida, mostly in the southern climes,
and so you're used to a very different kind of
tropical gardening. And I envy you because it is very
beautiful what you do and where you are, But I
would miss the seasons tremendously. Fernando. Yes, do you remember
when we first met? Why were we together? We were
(01:47):
there for a very specific reason in Terrytown, New York,
on the Hudson River, in a beautiful park like setting.
We were working on a television.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Program correct that was called clip.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Clip, Yes, Clipped. It was supposed to be amazing show
about topiery, Yes, and topiery which has become very popular
all over the world, and people are practicing the art
of topiery, which is basically bushes and shrubs that are
on trees that are clipped into shapes by artistic gardeners
(02:21):
and landscapers.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Wonderful, wonderful people that actually participated the contestants. They also
mentioned other two styles of topiery called pave and what
was the other one? Mosaic mosaic and pave that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I didn't know what they were talking about, and they
really didn't have the opportunity our contestants. You were a judge, yes,
And we had a couple other How many judges did
we have?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Three?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
There was one other person? Was it that nice guy from.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Boston, Chris Lambert?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That's right, Chris Lambert from Boston or Cape Cod. I
think he writes to me, now do you keep in.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Touch a little bad? Yeah, he's a very nice.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Guy, charming guy. And and we were all kind of
scratching our heads because on Tell, for television and for
working in such a short period of time, we had
to do a lot of artifice, and the poor contestants,
you know, had to shape, you know, fully grown you
bushes into something, and that's not usually the way topiari works.
(03:23):
It's usually a shrub that's planted in the ground, or
a box wood or a you or a pretty much
anything and then shaped year after year after year, so
it gets full and lush and and becomes whatever the
artist wants it to become. But I felt sorry for
the contestants because I know that they didn't have enough
(03:43):
opportunity to make what they really wanted to make. But
you were so fun to be with. Frenanda, thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It was in the middle of COVID, which made it very,
very che I don't remember that part, but I remember
it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I remember that you were doing like three more shows
doing that same time and say where the manth I
guess that's because by the time of the end of
the day we were just so tired.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
In fact, you called us once and I think it
was eight o'clock and we were in bed. He said,
what are you doing? And we all were up and said,
what can I come by? And you know, we'll have
drinks and talk about people in the show. So we
got up and went down had a martini. But we
were talking about the Bedford Post Bedford Post, which which
we love. But your energy is amazing because we were
wiped out and we were just doing that one little
show and you had gotten up at four in the morning.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I was doing my own show.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Here, Martha knows best. When we were working right on
my own in my own garden here. Oh, it was
it was a crazy You were on a cooking show too. Yeah,
we were doing Martha cooks and do all kinds of stuff.
But but you know what that got me through COVID,
and I know that kind of activity got you guys
through COVID very nicely too. But we digressed because this
(04:50):
is not about COVID and it is not about surviving
the pandemic. It is about the amazing, amazing team work
that both Fernando and Tim do. They just are amazing
at how many different places they're working on. These are
These are elaborate gardens, and these are important gardens. And
(05:12):
these are large houses with beautiful properties, many of them
on the intracoastal waterways, in Palm Beach and in Miami,
in Panama, you're working.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I'm working in Panama.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And where else are you working?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Working in the Bahamas and the Bahamas?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yes, and life for.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Key and life for Key. Also. I have worked in
several islands, such as Baker's Bay, Harbor Island, which I love.
My favorite place in the world.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Isn't that nice?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I had friends who had homes and on Harbor Island
and it's very beautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh my god, the most beautiful pink beach and the
world is there. Yeah, and I'm very lucky to be
working there.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, beautiful, And I still don't know how you do
it because when I go down to it, like something
like the Bahamas, how do you get the plant material
that you get to the Bahamas? Everything has to be imported.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Everything is important.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And do you have your own boat that you take
stuff on it a freight boat.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, we streamline all those aspects because we do use
local people so they they know, they know how how
to release customs and all of that, the timing of
when the plants remain on a container, so it's manageable
and is quite easy to do for us.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Well, he says it's easy. It's magic actually because because
what you have to look at the book to understand
the kind of complex and beautiful architecture that goes into
the designs of these gardens around very complex houses, around
existing beautiful trees. Now, tell me about the tree that's
(06:53):
on the cover of your book, the young Man and
the Tree.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
The young Man on the Tree the Tidle actually team
come out with that idea for the title. But the
tree is a wonderfullest specimen.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
It's a beautiful k pok But it came from the
Bahamas and where this house was, it's a famous John
volkhouse and it's called the Dodger State. It's very large.
It goes all the way from the lake and it's
three acres and it was originally a hotel and it
was the Clark family's hotel which is Clark Avenue, and
one of the Clark sons in the eighteen fifties brought
(07:27):
this tree back as a sapling.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And now it's how is it hundreds of I mean
over two hundred years.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, and this this is actually so I thought that
was import.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It just came from, but that's it came. They traced,
they know, they brought it back and it's very very
beautiful because every once in a while it will seed
and it will have these puffs of this beautiful, beautiful floating.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Cap which they used to stuff pillows.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
With exactly right tilt.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yes, my grandma used to show me the k pok
coming out of the pillows that we slept on. Yeah,
and so it really, it really does. It is a
productive tree, it is.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
But it's a very massive tree. And the homeowner, probably
like all of our clients and like probably the three
of us, it's very o.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
CD would like to cut it down.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, she was having a huge party and it did
this thing and they had all these people out there
with blowers trying to get the all the little fluffy
things up. I thought it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
She was so beautiful because it felt like it was snowing.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh boy, that is so funny. Well, Fernando, you came
to the world of landscape design by studying architecture first.
How did that influence your work as a as a
landscape designer.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I'm very much in love with classical architecture, so I
use principles that are based on you know, Italian Renaissance
and French as well as English designs. That allowed me
to elaborate a theme of plan selections as well, along
with the geometry that some of these gardens are well
(09:01):
known for.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, who's your favorite Italian landscape designer from the past.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh God, I think that probably would have been I
don't know, maybe Leonardo da Vinci, because everything started with
a drawing.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Right, and he did design some gardens actually beautiful.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, I was. I was in a couple of garden
We went to Rome for Thanksgiving and we saw a
lot of Leonardo da Vinci's work in Rome, and it
was it was so reminiscent of the beauty that I'd
seen all over Italy. But oh my gosh, I love
those gardens so.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Much, the Renaissance, the incredible work.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So what happened in France? Was your favorite designer in France?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Andrea Natron me too, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
The favorite landscape of their Si.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yes, Volvicon, which I happens to be a designer for
one of the night galas, not this year but last year, and.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I missed that. Oh can you imagine designing of a
party at volivit one of the most beautiful classical French
chateaus of the that was seventeenth century, right, yes, yeah,
before Versailles was built before. Yes, And when Louis the
fourteenth saw Volivitconte, he got very angry.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Very jealous, very jealous.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
He hired all the same designers to build his most
beautiful place, Versailles, and he imprisoned the owner.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Of for fifteen years, never to see the house again.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Can you imagine how awful?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But I think you've had alis on the Count de Voto.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So he's a wonderful, wonderful storytelling and he came the
count from volivitcon He's the family still owns the beautiful property.
He's told me lots and lots of stories.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
He's got good ones. And I think you also talked
to the count the dowager Countess to his mother.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
She makes the most beautiful dessert. She did a dessert
cookbook which I just envy as the most beautiful thing.
Some of her desserts are so colorful and so intriguing.
Those are the kinds of desserts that might have been
served in the time of Louis Cator's. That's very interesting,
really something. And what about English gardens? Which which are
(11:12):
the English designers that you love?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well, there's one that I really love is Russell Page.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
But he's contemporary.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He's contemporary. But until recently we have befriend the Duchess
of Rutland. So I came across with the knowledge of
capability Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yes, isn't he amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
The beautiful landscape that he created, because we might think
that the English countryside was natural, but now it was
also created.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
It was so much created. And I have a lot
of Sir Humphrey Repton's books with the overlays, and you
can see he starts with a Humphrey Repton was not
the most important landscape designer, but he was an important
one and He did a very beautiful book on which
a Broadway play Tom Stoppard was based. On the stage,
(12:02):
they did the overlays where you start with a basic
landscape and then they peel you peel back and you
see what finally is designed to be built.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
One of the things about beaver Castle's interesting is that Amma,
the Duchess of Otland, they found the capability brown plants
that hadn't been and they're implementing them.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Which house does she have?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, it's called this is so great. It's called beaver Castle.
But it's very English because it's spelled b e l
v io.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
R to belva.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
But they say beaver you know, they not quite as
that means beautiful exactly right. So the English like to
trick us with the crazy pronunciation.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
It's crazy. So Fernando's signature design principles and his esthetic
ideas are wonderful for garden spaces large or small. If
you look through this book you will get very inspired.
(13:04):
But what he can do to a space large or small?
Can you share some of your design tenants with us?
Fernando just like four things that when you're looking at
your own property, Four things that you should take into consideration.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well, first of all, is the architecture style of the
house is very important. Then how the spaces that you
are planning to have are going to be interconnected, and
those lucky enough who have whether water views or mountain views,
who try to work with those, while we can also
conceal undesirable views as well, and then always imagine places
(13:42):
that might be enclosed, such as courtyard, and how to
use those elements of iconography to your favor. But most
of the design that I always trying to do is
elongate these vistas. And I think is important for us to,
especially in the drop, to perhaps consider there's so much
(14:03):
landscape and they're surrounding areas of a house, and we
can actually get benefits from concealing and open vistas by
incorporating landscape that is in our surroundings.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Accessing vision right, yes, it's called it's funny. You can
call it an access of vision or a view, or
you can call it access axis of vision. The intersections
of all of your eyes going into the distance. And
I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I love that part of it never gets higher. I
always bring me peace. So that's probably why it's always
part of my design.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And you know when you meet Fernando, He's this really
cute guy. He's such a friendly, happy, go lucky kind
of guy. He is really intense when it comes to
starting to describe the landscape. No, really, I love talking
to you about landscape and it's really it's really interesting
and tim of course he uh, do you manage the business?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I do manage the business.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I me ya, Fernande, which is management.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
We're very lucky because we've been together for twenty three
years and we've had the business for twenty years. And
we never fight about personal things because we have to fight,
and we fight about business.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Business, that's it.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
But we haven't had a personal fight. And I don't
know how nice. Yeah, it's good, but we fight about
business a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
But you share do you both? Do you share Fernando's view,
you know, his idea of design.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
The other reason we've been so successful as a partnership
is that we have very different lanes and very distinct lanes.
And I do like design, and you know, I'm good
at interiors and things like that, and I always offer
my opinion, but it all comes from him. And one
of the amazing things about Fernando is when we go
to a garden in Palm Beach or whoever it is, Bahamas, Fernando.
(15:57):
It's almost immediate, and you could see him think it.
It'says if he's hovering over the space. But he gets it.
That's why we're so successful. He gets it right away.
There's no sort of angst about how he's going to
do this. He knows in his brain and it just
comes out and it's just it's magnificent. So that's very wonderful, that.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Kind of intuition, immediate intuition about a place. So many
people really struggle with that so much. And I struggle
with it because I came here to a farm. No
landscape architect helped me, and I probably would have done
very well to have some advice, because I came to
(16:34):
one hundred and fifty acres and the first thing I
did was build a road, and I didn't even think
about the views from the houses. All I wanted was
a way to get around this whole property. There were
no real roads, so I built the road, and then
I built the paddocks for the horses. They needed, they
needed their home, and then I started to think about
(16:57):
trees and where they should go, and I really didn't
focus at all on can I see anything from the house?
And I should have paid attention to that. But I'm
happy here.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
But it's interesting. I think you're like Fernando in the
sense that when we go to a project like the
ones you've seen, and they're so beautiful, but for Nanda
only focuses on what he should have done better than flaws.
But when you're here, it is one of the most
beautiful places in the world, and you've done such a
magnificent job. But it's when you when you go around there.
You don't maybe necessarily have us in the house, but
(17:28):
you do have those view corridors, those beautiful views as
you see them.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
A few things the properties, but it could have been
so much better a place I was. I was trying
when I did this place. I thought, oh, this is
my last big garden. But who knows? You never know,
do you know? So how do you use water to
define spaces, Fernando, because you your properties, many of them
(17:53):
that you design are surrounded by water or facing water.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Sometimes I'm lucky enough, like in the surf Club for
Seasons in Miami. I did that hotel and there were
nine acres on the ocean. They were emerging of a
historical structure with the richer Meyer towers, and then all
what we have at that time was just sand. So
(18:19):
my experience by being in Palm Beach, it just opened
up a whole set of rules that were not necessarily
applied in Floord in Miami, per se, but it just
brought so much elegant to that particular spot. In other cases,
where I have intercoastal waterways, sometimes I use pleached trees
to block maybe a non desirable house across the inter
(18:42):
coastal and then be able to see the water from
their lower portion.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Of a pleach tree is a tree that who has
a trunk and oftentimes a tall trunk, and then a
shape lease top of the tree right correct, usually a
square or rectangle or a pyramid, kind of a round
pyramid or something. But I love pleach trees me too.
I love polared trees even better, do you Pollard?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
We do that in Florida, not for winter, but we
are we actually do it for managing the canopy of
the trees. That way. I think that probably a lot
of people who start having gardens in Florida used a
lot of English designers, and that actually helps to bring
more character to the tree, especially seagrets, which is a
(19:30):
Florida native and it makes a beautiful silhouette during the summertime.
And you sea grape, We actually pull out some that
also picus aria orbanions also. They get benefits from that
because they have very shallow root system and on a
sandy soil. It's very important to try to manage not
(19:51):
to lose an specimen tree by lowering or making the
canopy smaller.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So I'm trying to Polari is really stunting the growth
of the branches of a shapely tree like a linden.
Linden trees take to pollarding, as do sometimes sycamore. Yes,
I'm doing a sycamore polarted sycamore la.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Now, yes, I remember saying that.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, I'm starting it. We have to do some a
lot of pruning this winter to try to start getting
the They have nubs on them. I call them nubby
trees because each branch ends up in a big cluster
of nubbins, yes, and then all the little branches sprout out.
You know. It's kind of fun. But if you are
interested in shaping your trees, there's so many many wonderful
(20:40):
books talking about pollarding and bleaching and pruning. Pruning is
an art, it's such an art form. Do you have
good pruners?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, I work with several companies, so all of them
are incredibly talented. I think that they should have been
in the show if you were to ask me, I agree, yes,
I think that you also have a beautiful cloud a
box with outside these windows. Oh yes, it's quite beautiful.
(21:08):
So you have very good people working here.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right, Well, we like to we like to clip you go,
and we have very good clippers, both both human clippers
and middle clippers, and we do mostly by hand. All
this what box. A few years ago, I figured out
a new way to cover them. We use the steel
tubing or aluminum tubing from the plastic greenhouses, so those
(21:34):
those temporary kinds of greenhouses, and we use that and
then cover that with burlap. So it works well instead
of bamboo, because bamboo just rots every year and so
you have to and it's harder to insertain the frozen ground.
These middle the middle.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Do you have them install on sleeves? So yeah, okay,
oh yeah, we.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Put them in sleeves and pull them out every year.
It works. I'll show you there's all kinds of things
to learn from each other. When you're talking about gardening.
When I visited you in Palm Beach, you showed us
a beautiful garden where you incorporated a real What is
a real.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
There's a small channel where water will travel. And this
particular case, I have a sitting area with a beautiful
diamond shaped traillers on top of it. So I install
some boogambilias on either side of that trailers so they
can eventually give us some shade. But I felt that
(22:31):
that particular spot needed some interest, so the design was
created to actually take anybody who sits in that area
and look across the yard and a connection of three
little fountains, one that is very tranquil, the one in
the middle that has the spout, and at the very
end is a wall fountain that with a beautiful phase,
(22:52):
kind of very classical in style, and that pours water
into it.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh oh great, yeah, I have to I'll come down
and look at that again. Someday. I really want to
do some water features and on this property. And we
have streams, but this summer everything dried up. What do
you do when a stream dries up?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Just wait, cry, wait for next season for the rain
we had.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
We had quite a drought here this or we didn't
have We didn't have rain for more than twelve weeks,
and so we were watering and watering and water to
have deep wells so the well water. And I lived
right near a reservoir which has water all the time.
But boy, it was it was tough. So when you're
doing a landscape job, do you do you always include
(23:38):
in your designs.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Irrigation correct, always, that's very important.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah. I I installed water lines with hydrants, but not
irrigation because I always found that irrigation on such a
big such a big area, when it breaks, it causes
a lot of flooding and a lot of problems. So
do we use hose and hydrants? Oh, that's smart. Well,
it's hard because you're moving hoses and sprinklers everywhere, but
(24:07):
at least you can control what you're watering.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Well, it's very difficult. And on these biggest states we
do where they have very complex irrigation systems and we'll
have twelve zones and then when something breaks and you
get the call, we have a ten thousand dollars water
about what we're going to do, and they have to
find the break so that your ways is much better.
It works, It does.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Work, but.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It is labor intensive, it really is. It's hard. So
how do you utilize pools as a design element?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Oh, those are a wonderful item to design. I typically
like rectangular pools. I also adventure out in other or
more classicals such as ovals or chevrons. I don't explore
it too much on kidney shaped pools because I think
(24:53):
I need a lot of land to be able to
accommodate something that beautiful.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
When I think of a kidney shaped pool, I think
of palm springs, correct, you know, with the boomerangs and
kidney shape. It fits the architecture out there. But here,
when you when you see a kidney stay cool, it
just doesn't work at all. And this farm is very
reck de linear, So I try to keep it. I
try to keep it your pool.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Here, pool here. But one of your favorite things are
the round pools. And and that project that you filmed
from Martha's Gardens, it has a round pool. It was beautiful,
which is very pretty. And Fernanda also did that. There's
ever been to the the gas Marilla in on Boca
Grand in Florida. It's one of the few remaining wood
(25:39):
kind of grand hotels. Forna did this remarkable pool there
and it's round and it's called the moon pool and
it's very cool.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Well, they were layers to that, so that round pool
I wanted. I saw the idea of the round pool
because I was calling it the moon pool. So it
has pity it at the time when the design was
have perimeter walls raised so you can have advantaging edge.
And then the idea was to have the walls dark,
(26:09):
and then you have a tile design of the pool,
so all of the wall it should have been black
and then the moon would have been tons of white.
But you know, you have to comply on commercial properties
with some regulations of you know, safety for those who
(26:29):
say dark.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Dark bottom is dangerous because someone might dive in the
shallow end and hit the bottom right, something like.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
That, something like that, or a child needs to be
able to see is brown.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Which is why commercial projects are so tough. And it's
sort of like during a movie, because it's a miracle
when a movie there's so many details when you have
a great movie. When you do a commercial property, and
like the four seasons we've done, we've done a couple
of hotels in Savannah, and we're doing a hotel the Panandle.
It's a big resort, but you have to go through
value engineering, you have to go through a committee, and
then the killer is life safety because you have to
(27:00):
think about things kind of fire truck turn around and
not go over any bushes. It's really hard. So when
you see good hotels, it's remarkable how talented people that.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Are that do that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
So how do you choose pool colors? Because that people
are always asking me, you know, how do you choose
a color for a pool.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
We like it dark because the reflection not only the moon,
but it reflects the in Florida, the night, the light,
but you reflect the trees, the sky, and so we
love dark poles. We try to push those, but a
lot of people don't like them.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Most of my gardens actually are green and green just
because the light in Floyida I saw intense. But I
just enjoy that so much because you notice other things
within the garden, the shine of the leaves, the shapes.
And then when you have a dark bottom pool, then
(27:59):
you capture the reflection of the sky and sometimes we
have beautiful afternoons or beautiful mornings, and that bring a
whole different dimension to a backyard.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
And what's the service of the pool that's black is
that is the concrete pourd black.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Is Actually we can do it with tiles. You can
do it with a material called pebble tech or wet
jet industry, similar to what could it be a plaster pool,
but it has pebbles in it and the pebbles do
not change color.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So my first pool was black in Westport, Connecticut, and
I called it the black hole because it was very
deep and it was fifty feet long and twenty feet wide.
And I was the painter because it was at that
time we painted pools and it's the most horrible thing
(28:53):
to do in the early spring. You drain your pool
and you paint it. And I was down there with
rollers and gallon on some paint painting at black every
every single year. It was the most horrible job. That's
before they had gunn I think it was in an
old concrete pool. It was a horrible job, but we
laughed about it, but it was a beautiful. I loved
(29:14):
the blackpool. Since then, I'm going for much more like
almost natural concrete color.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Which you inspire me because when you buye me over
and we were talking about your pool, and at that
time you were installing the granite patio from But these
granite pieces were giant and they were restored or.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
They came from a they came from a Catholic church
parking lot in Boston about that and they are big,
thick pieces of granite and they're sort of a pinkish brown.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
But the one thing that it just sort of like
surprised me that most was the bottom of your pool.
It felt like you were on a creek. So it
was supernatural and I absolutely love it. And actually I
applied in one of my projects. I was so shocked
when the color was applied because it was occre It
(30:10):
was ok. It was not until they actually do the
pressure wash to explore the aggreg Oh my god, I
have such.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
A yellow mustard color.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yes, I was so afraid. Oh my god, what I
have done.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
So you must have lots and lots of tricks to
draw people into your landscapes. Yes, a little entry or
a big entry.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
It depends on the property. Once again. Sometimes we can
create mystery by winding a dryway to the property. Sometimes
we use shadows so larger trees will be part of
the front entrance and then you let the house kind
of be revealed by the sunlight. It depends on where
I am, because I could be in Coconut Grove and
(30:55):
core Gables, or I could be on the beach. It
depends on the house.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Oh I had, I had a favorite house and Coral Gables,
the one right next door to Viskaya. Oh, there's a
beautiful old white house. Yes, and I told every realator
down there that if the owner ever died, please call
me because I would buy that house. I love this Skaya,
don't you. Yes, Viscaya has A is a beautiful place,
(31:22):
and it's a It was a Venetian house with a
Venetian kind of landscape right on the waterway there. It
was what what body of order is that same bag? Yeah,
what a beautiful place. If you have not been to Viscaya,
please it's it's open to the public. It is a
it is a public garden and mansion in the Venetian style.
(31:44):
Please try to see.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
That house was as remarkable as yours because they used
to have a sue. They used to have like.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Originally it was thousands of acres. It was from John
Dee or Cormack. That's right, and they used it for
two years or two months out of the year, and
it is one of the most remarkable houses in America.
It feels like you're in Italy.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Oh it's so beautiful there, then feels.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Like, yeah, it really does. So that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
What inspires you, Fernando and your outdoor designs? Besides history, of.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Course, yes, recently, I just really enjoy going to resorts,
sort of like my splurgs of marketing research and find
out what's new, and I always trying to be inspired
by that. Hotels. Hotels are a great source of inspiration
for me. Also historical homes. We are members of these
(32:38):
wonderful organization called the Garden Conservancy. So every time that
we go to a tour of these gardens, which happens
to be in the garden, your house happens to be
in the garden tour as well. You get so inspired
by what other people do. So it's quite nice.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
It's really important that there's a great dyna reallying quote
that needs to travel. Wh's in paraphrasing, but basically you
have to see things if you're a designer to be inspired,
and so we travel quite a bit, and we were
very lucky we.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Were doing a bit.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You are never home, Well, we need that I to
be inspired, I know, but.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Isn't it fabulous to be able to and and once
once you're known as a landscape designers as as these
two guys are, you get invited to all these other
places too, and you can just call up and say,
I'm for an end while I would like to see
your property. But it is wonderful to see all these places, really.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
And it's also nice with gardeners because all gardeners like
to show your garden. You like to show your work.
You're you're very generous about letting people see things and
opening up to different organizations like the Garden Conservatives.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
So yeah, it's important too. Once you do the amount
of work that one does to make a garden, to
share it is also a very nice thing. I love
having garden chores here. Not only do people learn, they
can ask questions. Ryan is very knowledgeable and I try
to try to be here usually on a garden tour
(34:04):
and let people in. You have visited so so many gardens.
Tell us three of your favorites.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, if you are find yourself in Florida, come to Miami.
There's several beautiful examples, and one of my favorite is Viscaya.
The other one is the fair Child Tropical Garden, which
is completely different than the one I just mentioned. And
there's one more is the Compound, and the Compound is
in Coconut Groau and has all kinds of examples of
(34:33):
tropical free trees. So and also is Mbiscay Bay and
tim my favorite.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
I think Versailles is one of the most remarkable things
I've ever seen in my life. I also think the
interesting one is bucking and Palace if you can do
tours there, and that has a really beautiful garden. Just
because of the fact you're in the middle of London,
you have this giant expanse.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
My favorite partners well the Orangerie at Versailles, which I
had a private tour of during the Olympics this year
because I was there because that's where the equestrian events.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
We saw you snoop, Yeah, I was a snoop dogg.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But what a beautiful, beautiful place. And the Orangerie is
one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
And the gorgeous, gorgeous citrus trees. I love that place.
I also love Mount Vernon because I live in old
American houses and I just think Mount Vernon is a
very beautiful place. I also love the gardens of Jens Jensen.
(35:36):
He did a lot of gardens in gross Point. He
did the like the Chicago Parks. Jens Jensen. It was
called the Prairie Architect. And I love the the serenity
and the and the openness of his designs. He's a
really fine landscape designer. And I own a Jens Jensen
garden up in Maine. My house has the only East
(35:59):
Coast gens and garden. That's great. That's Skylands. That's amazing,
really lucky to have that place and try to maintain
it so it's basically a forest. Fernando, you've been called
one of the most important landscape designers in America by
Architectural Digests. What does that mean to you and how
does that raise the bar for projects that you take on.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Well, it's really nice to beat.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
In a short period of time. You are really, I
mean fabulous. It's so wonderful to see that your success
and your accolades for the work that you've done. People
love your work.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Well, we tried to make it really fun, so I
think that we are quite a pair. So we make
things interesting and fun. But I think that we do
it with such a joy. And when we were talking
just early on about how is my process when I
design something, I do it, I don't know, three or
five different options, sometimes just just for the pure joy
(36:58):
of it.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, it's great. So you give your customers an option yes,
or two or three and they can choose and discuss.
And how long does it take to design, say, say
a three acre property in a fancy neighborhood like Palm Beach.
How long does it take you to design a garden
like that property?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
In my mind, I can design it instantly. Is just
the aspect of putting into a drawing and then work
with geometry and you know, line of sights in that
kind of condition, I probably will say maybe two months.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Yeah, And how long does it take to build a
garden like that?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It depends because then we.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Can plan to something that looks good.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So if you are just doing planting, for example, you
can put together a garden maybe in six or eight months.
And then if there is a house that is not
being built yet, there's about eighteen months to two years
where the house needs to be built for all of
the planting to take place.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
But usually it's years, and most of our projects it's
two to three years, whether it's a big renovation or
new construction.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
What are some of your most memorable projects?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Memorable?
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Your favorite?
Speaker 2 (38:10):
My favorite? I definitely like a Sally Trail, which happens
to be the cover of the book because many many
years ago, probably in two thousand and two, his parents
gave me a book called Gardens by the Sea, and
I used to admire those pages, and little that I
know that project will fall into my desk as a
(38:33):
potential client. So it's sort of like you know that
sometimes life will give you and send you a whisper
who knew that I will have a chance to restore
these wonderful historical home and the garden and the other one,
which actually is when you went to in Palm Beach,
which was a house. We lived further south, so we
(38:53):
drove by it every day. That just sat rotting for
ten years, and we loved the house.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
And then those two guys.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Two guys took it over. It's a beautiful Regency.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Persian casts, the biggest Persian casts you have ever seen.
I've been in touch with the reader, Oh God, sending
me pictures of these amazing casts that she has.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
They're so big.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I don't know if I can I don't know if
I can handle how big these You.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Got a lot of her.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
But that project was so great because the two guys
who've met, who we'd done things with them in Miami,
were the nicest people in the world. But it was
sort of a unicorn project in the sense they hired Fernando,
they hired Miles Red and Sharon and boys and Sharon.
What's a great architecture from New York classical architects And
they we did our presentation and we did we do
these three D movies. We show them the three D movie.
(39:38):
They said, we love it. Let's get going. They just
kept sending money. There were no meetings and they did,
oh my gosh, it doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And how long did it take?
Speaker 3 (39:46):
It took a couple of years, but there were no meetings,
and they thrilled with it. They're thrilled and they let
Miles do it. It's the best thing, Miles ad It's
coming out in Architectual Digest, and it's on your show,
Martha's Gardens. So to be an a d but that
wasn't credible, that whole process, and it's one of the
best things Fernando's ever done. And this is an interesting
a little bit of gossip. It just went on the market.
They're selling it furnished, completely furnished for forty nine million,
(40:11):
so definitely million.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
How big is the property I forgot him.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
It's almost an acre, almost an acre.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
It's quite an extraordinary place and lots and lots of room.
So if you have forty nine million lying around, So
if you want to design, say a homeowner just wants
to redesign quickly a garden, or you give me three
or five pointers.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Well, work always with get a tree survey so you
will know the inventory of what you have. Then working
your pedimitter of planting for privacy, and then you can
bil upon stages. If you get those two things done,
you'll be in your way to create something that we
(40:55):
I also.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Think it really does help to hire a professional and
there's there's different there's a professional landscape designer for every budget,
and even there's there's landscape designers that do small projects.
But one of the great things is even if you
can't afford to install the whole thing, get a plan,
and then you can do it in stages slowly if
you just want to do something on your own. I
(41:17):
think one of the biggest things, and if you'll notice
about all the Fernando's gardens is he does little rooms.
And it's sort of counterintuitive because you would think that
by breaking up the space it makes it seem smaller.
But in the same way that when you go into
a room and a room seems smaller and there's nothing
in it and you put the furniture in, I guess
this was really a big room. The way your mind
reacts to different spaces is it actually thinks it's bigger
(41:39):
than if it was just one big open space. We
try to break it up and make little rooms and
do a few corridors and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, that helps. I have that my favorite saying for gardening.
When you want to be happy for a year, take
a wife, or you can say take a husband. If
you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog.
But if you want to be happy for the rest
of your life, make a garden. Isn't that nice?
Speaker 2 (42:05):
It's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Written by a sourpuss old man, probably who already builds
a fabulous garden is engraved in his in the stairs
to his property down. I think it's in Maryland.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Oh, I wondered where that came from because you said
that I'm pump Beach. And then I think it's on
that that documentary.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yes, and now it's everywhere.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
It's kind of it's become a cultural PHENOMENA six year old.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Nephew of mine is walking in through the garden and
he's quoting that he loved the idea. There's so much
more to talk about, and but I just want everybody
to know that Fernando Wong and and Tim Johnson have
created some of the most beautiful gardens in America and elsewhere.
(42:48):
And you can access a lot of the visuals by
getting the book The young Man and the Tree. It's
available on Amazon. Who published this book. Von Dome published
the book and uh And you can watch Fernando on YouTube.
There's some some pieces from shows and things with with
(43:09):
Fernando on the YouTube, and you'll see how how much,
how lively, and how intuitive these two guys are about
garden design and about the implication of these garden designs
on a person's property. This is it's so nice to
be talking to both of you about all of this.
(43:30):
Just keep doing your great work, and I applaud all
your efforts and and your success in a field that
needs good taste and beautiful plants and wonderful gardens, and
you do all of that.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Thank you, Martha, thank you, thank you, Martha, and thank
you for writing the forward to the book, which I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
I forgot it says right on right on the cover,
and I love writing forwards to books that I really like.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Well, we really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
For writers that really do things, and so both of
you do that.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Thank you so much, Thank you. M. H.
My friend and landscape designer Fernando Wong is known for
his inspired vision when it comes to outdoor spaces and gardens.
He fills these gardens with interesting architectural elements and artistic plantings.
Fernando and his husband Tim Johnson Founded Fernando Wong Outdoor
Living Design, Inc. In two thousand and five, and since
(00:28):
then they've created some of the most lush and elaborate
private and public outdoor rooms across the country. They published
a book, a beautiful book entitled The young Man and
the Tree Fernando Wong Landscape Design, and on the cover
is one of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen.
(00:49):
And I think I actually saw that tree in real life,
did I, Fernando.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Welcome to my podcast. Thank you for Fernando and Tim,
and thanks for coming all the way to Bedford.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
It's Chili here, Martha.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
And Chili, and the garden looks like hell, but we
need the cold. Yes, my garden is a perennial garden
and it needs cold, and it needs snow cover, and
the plants need to rest and to chill and to
get ready to grow again next spring.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Which is why it's so lush when we come in
the spring. It's always remarkable when you think of how
long it's dormant.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And you're living mostly in Florida, mostly in the southern climes,
and so you're used to a very different kind of
tropical gardening. And I envy you because it is very
beautiful what you do and where you are, But I
would miss the seasons tremendously. Fernando. Yes, do you remember
when we first met? Why were we together? We were
(01:47):
there for a very specific reason in Terrytown, New York,
on the Hudson River, in a beautiful park like setting.
We were working on a television.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Program correct that was called clip.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Clip, Yes, Clipped. It was supposed to be amazing show
about topiery, Yes, and topiery which has become very popular
all over the world, and people are practicing the art
of topiery, which is basically bushes and shrubs that are
on trees that are clipped into shapes by artistic gardeners
(02:21):
and landscapers.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Wonderful, wonderful people that actually participated the contestants. They also
mentioned other two styles of topiery called pave and what
was the other one? Mosaic mosaic and pave that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I didn't know what they were talking about, and they
really didn't have the opportunity our contestants. You were a judge, yes,
And we had a couple other How many judges did
we have?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Three?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
There was one other person? Was it that nice guy from.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Boston, Chris Lambert?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That's right, Chris Lambert from Boston or Cape Cod. I
think he writes to me, now do you keep in.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Touch a little bad? Yeah, he's a very nice.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Guy, charming guy. And and we were all kind of
scratching our heads because on Tell, for television and for
working in such a short period of time, we had
to do a lot of artifice, and the poor contestants,
you know, had to shape, you know, fully grown you
bushes into something, and that's not usually the way topiari works.
(03:23):
It's usually a shrub that's planted in the ground, or
a box wood or a you or a pretty much
anything and then shaped year after year after year, so
it gets full and lush and and becomes whatever the
artist wants it to become. But I felt sorry for
the contestants because I know that they didn't have enough
(03:43):
opportunity to make what they really wanted to make. But
you were so fun to be with. Frenanda, thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It was in the middle of COVID, which made it very,
very che I don't remember that part, but I remember
it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I remember that you were doing like three more shows
doing that same time and say where the manth I
guess that's because by the time of the end of
the day we were just so tired.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
In fact, you called us once and I think it
was eight o'clock and we were in bed. He said,
what are you doing? And we all were up and said,
what can I come by? And you know, we'll have
drinks and talk about people in the show. So we
got up and went down had a martini. But we
were talking about the Bedford Post Bedford Post, which which
we love. But your energy is amazing because we were
wiped out and we were just doing that one little
show and you had gotten up at four in the morning.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I was doing my own show.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Here, Martha knows best. When we were working right on
my own in my own garden here. Oh, it was
it was a crazy You were on a cooking show too. Yeah,
we were doing Martha cooks and do all kinds of stuff.
But but you know what that got me through COVID,
and I know that kind of activity got you guys
through COVID very nicely too. But we digressed because this
(04:50):
is not about COVID and it is not about surviving
the pandemic. It is about the amazing, amazing team work
that both Fernando and Tim do. They just are amazing
at how many different places they're working on. These are
These are elaborate gardens, and these are important gardens. And
(05:12):
these are large houses with beautiful properties, many of them
on the intracoastal waterways, in Palm Beach and in Miami,
in Panama, you're working.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I'm working in Panama.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And where else are you working?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Working in the Bahamas and the Bahamas?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yes, and life for.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Key and life for Key. Also. I have worked in
several islands, such as Baker's Bay, Harbor Island, which I love.
My favorite place in the world.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Isn't that nice?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
I had friends who had homes and on Harbor Island
and it's very beautiful.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Oh my god, the most beautiful pink beach and the
world is there. Yeah, and I'm very lucky to be
working there.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, beautiful, And I still don't know how you do
it because when I go down to it, like something
like the Bahamas, how do you get the plant material
that you get to the Bahamas? Everything has to be imported.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Everything is important.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And do you have your own boat that you take
stuff on it a freight boat.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, we streamline all those aspects because we do use
local people so they they know, they know how how
to release customs and all of that, the timing of
when the plants remain on a container, so it's manageable
and is quite easy to do for us.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Well, he says it's easy. It's magic actually because because
what you have to look at the book to understand
the kind of complex and beautiful architecture that goes into
the designs of these gardens around very complex houses, around
existing beautiful trees. Now, tell me about the tree that's
(06:53):
on the cover of your book, the young Man and
the Tree.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
The young Man on the Tree the Tidle actually team
come out with that idea for the title. But the
tree is a wonderfullest specimen.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
It's a beautiful k pok But it came from the
Bahamas and where this house was, it's a famous John
volkhouse and it's called the Dodger State. It's very large.
It goes all the way from the lake and it's
three acres and it was originally a hotel and it
was the Clark family's hotel which is Clark Avenue, and
one of the Clark sons in the eighteen fifties brought
(07:27):
this tree back as a sapling.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And now it's how is it hundreds of I mean
over two hundred years.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah, and this this is actually so I thought that
was import.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
It just came from, but that's it came. They traced,
they know, they brought it back and it's very very
beautiful because every once in a while it will seed
and it will have these puffs of this beautiful, beautiful floating.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Cap which they used to stuff pillows.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
With exactly right tilt.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yes, my grandma used to show me the k pok
coming out of the pillows that we slept on. Yeah,
and so it really, it really does. It is a
productive tree, it is.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
But it's a very massive tree. And the homeowner, probably
like all of our clients and like probably the three
of us, it's very o.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
CD would like to cut it down.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Well, she was having a huge party and it did
this thing and they had all these people out there
with blowers trying to get the all the little fluffy
things up. I thought it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
She was so beautiful because it felt like it was snowing.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh boy, that is so funny. Well, Fernando, you came
to the world of landscape design by studying architecture first.
How did that influence your work as a as a
landscape designer.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I'm very much in love with classical architecture, so I
use principles that are based on you know, Italian Renaissance
and French as well as English designs. That allowed me
to elaborate a theme of plan selections as well, along
with the geometry that some of these gardens are well
(09:01):
known for.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, who's your favorite Italian landscape designer from the past.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh God, I think that probably would have been I
don't know, maybe Leonardo da Vinci, because everything started with
a drawing.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Right, and he did design some gardens actually beautiful.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, I was. I was in a couple of garden
We went to Rome for Thanksgiving and we saw a
lot of Leonardo da Vinci's work in Rome, and it
was it was so reminiscent of the beauty that I'd
seen all over Italy. But oh my gosh, I love
those gardens so.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Much, the Renaissance, the incredible work.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So what happened in France? Was your favorite designer in France?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Andrea Natron me too, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
The favorite landscape of their Si.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yes, Volvicon, which I happens to be a designer for
one of the night galas, not this year but last year, and.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I missed that. Oh can you imagine designing of a
party at volivit one of the most beautiful classical French
chateaus of the that was seventeenth century, right, yes, yeah,
before Versailles was built before. Yes, And when Louis the
fourteenth saw Volivitconte, he got very angry.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Very jealous, very jealous.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
He hired all the same designers to build his most
beautiful place, Versailles, and he imprisoned the owner.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Of for fifteen years, never to see the house again.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Can you imagine how awful?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
But I think you've had alis on the Count de Voto.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So he's a wonderful, wonderful storytelling and he came the
count from volivitcon He's the family still owns the beautiful property.
He's told me lots and lots of stories.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
He's got good ones. And I think you also talked
to the count the dowager Countess to his mother.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
She makes the most beautiful dessert. She did a dessert
cookbook which I just envy as the most beautiful thing.
Some of her desserts are so colorful and so intriguing.
Those are the kinds of desserts that might have been
served in the time of Louis Cator's. That's very interesting,
really something. And what about English gardens? Which which are
(11:12):
the English designers that you love?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well, there's one that I really love is Russell Page.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
But he's contemporary.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He's contemporary. But until recently we have befriend the Duchess
of Rutland. So I came across with the knowledge of
capability Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yes, isn't he amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
The beautiful landscape that he created, because we might think
that the English countryside was natural, but now it was
also created.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
It was so much created. And I have a lot
of Sir Humphrey Repton's books with the overlays, and you
can see he starts with a Humphrey Repton was not
the most important landscape designer, but he was an important
one and He did a very beautiful book on which
a Broadway play Tom Stoppard was based. On the stage,
(12:02):
they did the overlays where you start with a basic
landscape and then they peel you peel back and you
see what finally is designed to be built.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
One of the things about beaver Castle's interesting is that Amma,
the Duchess of Otland, they found the capability brown plants
that hadn't been and they're implementing them.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Which house does she have?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, it's called this is so great. It's called beaver Castle.
But it's very English because it's spelled b e l
v io.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
R to belva.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
But they say beaver you know, they not quite as
that means beautiful exactly right. So the English like to
trick us with the crazy pronunciation.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
It's crazy. So Fernando's signature design principles and his esthetic
ideas are wonderful for garden spaces large or small. If
you look through this book you will get very inspired.
(13:04):
But what he can do to a space large or small?
Can you share some of your design tenants with us?
Fernando just like four things that when you're looking at
your own property, Four things that you should take into consideration.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well, first of all, is the architecture style of the
house is very important. Then how the spaces that you
are planning to have are going to be interconnected, and
those lucky enough who have whether water views or mountain views,
who try to work with those, while we can also
conceal undesirable views as well, and then always imagine places
(13:42):
that might be enclosed, such as courtyard, and how to
use those elements of iconography to your favor. But most
of the design that I always trying to do is
elongate these vistas. And I think is important for us to,
especially in the drop, to perhaps consider there's so much
(14:03):
landscape and they're surrounding areas of a house, and we
can actually get benefits from concealing and open vistas by
incorporating landscape that is in our surroundings.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Accessing vision right, yes, it's called it's funny. You can
call it an access of vision or a view, or
you can call it access axis of vision. The intersections
of all of your eyes going into the distance. And
I love that.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
I love that part of it never gets higher. I
always bring me peace. So that's probably why it's always
part of my design.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
And you know when you meet Fernando, He's this really
cute guy. He's such a friendly, happy, go lucky kind
of guy. He is really intense when it comes to
starting to describe the landscape. No, really, I love talking
to you about landscape and it's really it's really interesting
and tim of course he uh, do you manage the business?
Speaker 3 (15:03):
I do manage the business.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I me ya, Fernande, which is management.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
We're very lucky because we've been together for twenty three
years and we've had the business for twenty years. And
we never fight about personal things because we have to fight,
and we fight about business.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Business, that's it.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
But we haven't had a personal fight. And I don't
know how nice. Yeah, it's good, but we fight about
business a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
But you share do you both? Do you share Fernando's view,
you know, his idea of design.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
The other reason we've been so successful as a partnership
is that we have very different lanes and very distinct lanes.
And I do like design, and you know, I'm good
at interiors and things like that, and I always offer
my opinion, but it all comes from him. And one
of the amazing things about Fernando is when we go
to a garden in Palm Beach or whoever it is, Bahamas, Fernando.
(15:57):
It's almost immediate, and you could see him think it.
It'says if he's hovering over the space. But he gets it.
That's why we're so successful. He gets it right away.
There's no sort of angst about how he's going to
do this. He knows in his brain and it just
comes out and it's just it's magnificent. So that's very wonderful, that.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Kind of intuition, immediate intuition about a place. So many
people really struggle with that so much. And I struggle
with it because I came here to a farm. No
landscape architect helped me, and I probably would have done
very well to have some advice, because I came to
(16:34):
one hundred and fifty acres and the first thing I
did was build a road, and I didn't even think
about the views from the houses. All I wanted was
a way to get around this whole property. There were
no real roads, so I built the road, and then
I built the paddocks for the horses. They needed, they
needed their home, and then I started to think about
(16:57):
trees and where they should go, and I really didn't
focus at all on can I see anything from the house?
And I should have paid attention to that. But I'm
happy here.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
But it's interesting. I think you're like Fernando in the
sense that when we go to a project like the
ones you've seen, and they're so beautiful, but for Nanda
only focuses on what he should have done better than flaws.
But when you're here, it is one of the most
beautiful places in the world, and you've done such a
magnificent job. But it's when you when you go around there.
You don't maybe necessarily have us in the house, but
(17:28):
you do have those view corridors, those beautiful views as
you see them.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
A few things the properties, but it could have been
so much better a place I was. I was trying
when I did this place. I thought, oh, this is
my last big garden. But who knows? You never know,
do you know? So how do you use water to
define spaces, Fernando, because you your properties, many of them
(17:53):
that you design are surrounded by water or facing water.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Sometimes I'm lucky enough, like in the surf Club for
Seasons in Miami. I did that hotel and there were
nine acres on the ocean. They were emerging of a
historical structure with the richer Meyer towers, and then all
what we have at that time was just sand. So
(18:19):
my experience by being in Palm Beach, it just opened
up a whole set of rules that were not necessarily
applied in Floord in Miami, per se, but it just
brought so much elegant to that particular spot. In other cases,
where I have intercoastal waterways, sometimes I use pleached trees
to block maybe a non desirable house across the inter
(18:42):
coastal and then be able to see the water from
their lower portion.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Of a pleach tree is a tree that who has
a trunk and oftentimes a tall trunk, and then a
shape lease top of the tree right correct, usually a
square or rectangle or a pyramid, kind of a round
pyramid or something. But I love pleach trees me too.
I love polared trees even better, do you Pollard?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
We do that in Florida, not for winter, but we
are we actually do it for managing the canopy of
the trees. That way. I think that probably a lot
of people who start having gardens in Florida used a
lot of English designers, and that actually helps to bring
more character to the tree, especially seagrets, which is a
(19:30):
Florida native and it makes a beautiful silhouette during the summertime.
And you sea grape, We actually pull out some that
also picus aria orbanions also. They get benefits from that
because they have very shallow root system and on a
sandy soil. It's very important to try to manage not
(19:51):
to lose an specimen tree by lowering or making the
canopy smaller.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So I'm trying to Polari is really stunting the growth
of the branches of a shapely tree like a linden.
Linden trees take to pollarding, as do sometimes sycamore. Yes,
I'm doing a sycamore polarted sycamore la.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Now, yes, I remember saying that.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, I'm starting it. We have to do some a
lot of pruning this winter to try to start getting
the They have nubs on them. I call them nubby
trees because each branch ends up in a big cluster
of nubbins, yes, and then all the little branches sprout out.
You know. It's kind of fun. But if you are
interested in shaping your trees, there's so many many wonderful
(20:40):
books talking about pollarding and bleaching and pruning. Pruning is
an art, it's such an art form. Do you have
good pruners?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Well, I work with several companies, so all of them
are incredibly talented. I think that they should have been
in the show if you were to ask me, I agree, yes,
I think that you also have a beautiful cloud a
box with outside these windows. Oh yes, it's quite beautiful.
(21:08):
So you have very good people working here.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Right, Well, we like to we like to clip you go,
and we have very good clippers, both both human clippers
and middle clippers, and we do mostly by hand. All
this what box. A few years ago, I figured out
a new way to cover them. We use the steel
tubing or aluminum tubing from the plastic greenhouses, so those
(21:34):
those temporary kinds of greenhouses, and we use that and
then cover that with burlap. So it works well instead
of bamboo, because bamboo just rots every year and so
you have to and it's harder to insertain the frozen ground.
These middle the middle.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Do you have them install on sleeves? So yeah, okay,
oh yeah, we.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Put them in sleeves and pull them out every year.
It works. I'll show you there's all kinds of things
to learn from each other. When you're talking about gardening.
When I visited you in Palm Beach, you showed us
a beautiful garden where you incorporated a real What is
a real.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
There's a small channel where water will travel. And this
particular case, I have a sitting area with a beautiful
diamond shaped traillers on top of it. So I install
some boogambilias on either side of that trailers so they
can eventually give us some shade. But I felt that
(22:31):
that particular spot needed some interest, so the design was
created to actually take anybody who sits in that area
and look across the yard and a connection of three
little fountains, one that is very tranquil, the one in
the middle that has the spout, and at the very
end is a wall fountain that with a beautiful phase,
(22:52):
kind of very classical in style, and that pours water
into it.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh oh great, yeah, I have to I'll come down
and look at that again. Someday. I really want to
do some water features and on this property. And we
have streams, but this summer everything dried up. What do
you do when a stream dries up?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Just wait, cry, wait for next season for the rain
we had.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
We had quite a drought here this or we didn't
have We didn't have rain for more than twelve weeks,
and so we were watering and watering and water to
have deep wells so the well water. And I lived
right near a reservoir which has water all the time.
But boy, it was it was tough. So when you're
doing a landscape job, do you do you always include
(23:38):
in your designs.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Irrigation correct, always, that's very important.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah. I I installed water lines with hydrants, but not
irrigation because I always found that irrigation on such a
big such a big area, when it breaks, it causes
a lot of flooding and a lot of problems. So
do we use hose and hydrants? Oh, that's smart. Well,
it's hard because you're moving hoses and sprinklers everywhere, but
(24:07):
at least you can control what you're watering.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Well, it's very difficult. And on these biggest states we
do where they have very complex irrigation systems and we'll
have twelve zones and then when something breaks and you
get the call, we have a ten thousand dollars water
about what we're going to do, and they have to
find the break so that your ways is much better.
It works, It does.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Work, but.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
It is labor intensive, it really is. It's hard. So
how do you utilize pools as a design element?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Oh, those are a wonderful item to design. I typically
like rectangular pools. I also adventure out in other or
more classicals such as ovals or chevrons. I don't explore
it too much on kidney shaped pools because I think
(24:53):
I need a lot of land to be able to
accommodate something that beautiful.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
When I think of a kidney shaped pool, I think
of palm springs, correct, you know, with the boomerangs and
kidney shape. It fits the architecture out there. But here,
when you when you see a kidney stay cool, it
just doesn't work at all. And this farm is very
reck de linear, So I try to keep it. I
try to keep it your pool.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Here, pool here. But one of your favorite things are
the round pools. And and that project that you filmed
from Martha's Gardens, it has a round pool. It was beautiful,
which is very pretty. And Fernanda also did that. There's
ever been to the the gas Marilla in on Boca
Grand in Florida. It's one of the few remaining wood
(25:39):
kind of grand hotels. Forna did this remarkable pool there
and it's round and it's called the moon pool and
it's very cool.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Well, they were layers to that, so that round pool
I wanted. I saw the idea of the round pool
because I was calling it the moon pool. So it
has pity it at the time when the design was
have perimeter walls raised so you can have advantaging edge.
And then the idea was to have the walls dark,
(26:09):
and then you have a tile design of the pool,
so all of the wall it should have been black
and then the moon would have been tons of white.
But you know, you have to comply on commercial properties
with some regulations of you know, safety for those who
(26:29):
say dark.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Dark bottom is dangerous because someone might dive in the
shallow end and hit the bottom right, something like.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
That, something like that, or a child needs to be
able to see is brown.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Which is why commercial projects are so tough. And it's
sort of like during a movie, because it's a miracle
when a movie there's so many details when you have
a great movie. When you do a commercial property, and
like the four seasons we've done, we've done a couple
of hotels in Savannah, and we're doing a hotel the Panandle.
It's a big resort, but you have to go through
value engineering, you have to go through a committee, and
then the killer is life safety because you have to
(27:00):
think about things kind of fire truck turn around and
not go over any bushes. It's really hard. So when
you see good hotels, it's remarkable how talented people that.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Are that do that.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
So how do you choose pool colors? Because that people
are always asking me, you know, how do you choose
a color for a pool.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
We like it dark because the reflection not only the moon,
but it reflects the in Florida, the night, the light,
but you reflect the trees, the sky, and so we
love dark poles. We try to push those, but a
lot of people don't like them.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Most of my gardens actually are green and green just
because the light in Floyida I saw intense. But I
just enjoy that so much because you notice other things
within the garden, the shine of the leaves, the shapes.
And then when you have a dark bottom pool, then
(27:59):
you capture the reflection of the sky and sometimes we
have beautiful afternoons or beautiful mornings, and that bring a
whole different dimension to a backyard.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
And what's the service of the pool that's black is
that is the concrete pourd black.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Is Actually we can do it with tiles. You can
do it with a material called pebble tech or wet
jet industry, similar to what could it be a plaster pool,
but it has pebbles in it and the pebbles do
not change color.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
So my first pool was black in Westport, Connecticut, and
I called it the black hole because it was very
deep and it was fifty feet long and twenty feet wide.
And I was the painter because it was at that
time we painted pools and it's the most horrible thing
(28:53):
to do in the early spring. You drain your pool
and you paint it. And I was down there with
rollers and gallon on some paint painting at black every
every single year. It was the most horrible job. That's
before they had gunn I think it was in an
old concrete pool. It was a horrible job, but we
laughed about it, but it was a beautiful. I loved
(29:14):
the blackpool. Since then, I'm going for much more like
almost natural concrete color.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Which you inspire me because when you buye me over
and we were talking about your pool, and at that
time you were installing the granite patio from But these
granite pieces were giant and they were restored or.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
They came from a they came from a Catholic church
parking lot in Boston about that and they are big,
thick pieces of granite and they're sort of a pinkish brown.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
But the one thing that it just sort of like
surprised me that most was the bottom of your pool.
It felt like you were on a creek. So it
was supernatural and I absolutely love it. And actually I
applied in one of my projects. I was so shocked
when the color was applied because it was occre It
(30:10):
was ok. It was not until they actually do the
pressure wash to explore the aggreg Oh my god, I
have such.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
A yellow mustard color.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yes, I was so afraid. Oh my god, what I
have done.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
So you must have lots and lots of tricks to
draw people into your landscapes. Yes, a little entry or
a big entry.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
It depends on the property. Once again. Sometimes we can
create mystery by winding a dryway to the property. Sometimes
we use shadows so larger trees will be part of
the front entrance and then you let the house kind
of be revealed by the sunlight. It depends on where
I am, because I could be in Coconut Grove and
(30:55):
core Gables, or I could be on the beach. It
depends on the house.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Oh I had, I had a favorite house and Coral Gables,
the one right next door to Viskaya. Oh, there's a
beautiful old white house. Yes, and I told every realator
down there that if the owner ever died, please call
me because I would buy that house. I love this Skaya,
don't you. Yes, Viscaya has A is a beautiful place,
(31:22):
and it's a It was a Venetian house with a
Venetian kind of landscape right on the waterway there. It
was what what body of order is that same bag? Yeah,
what a beautiful place. If you have not been to Viscaya,
please it's it's open to the public. It is a
it is a public garden and mansion in the Venetian style.
(31:44):
Please try to see.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
That house was as remarkable as yours because they used
to have a sue. They used to have like.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Originally it was thousands of acres. It was from John
Dee or Cormack. That's right, and they used it for
two years or two months out of the year, and
it is one of the most remarkable houses in America.
It feels like you're in Italy.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Oh it's so beautiful there, then feels.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Like, yeah, it really does. So that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
What inspires you, Fernando and your outdoor designs? Besides history, of.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Course, yes, recently, I just really enjoy going to resorts,
sort of like my splurgs of marketing research and find
out what's new, and I always trying to be inspired
by that. Hotels. Hotels are a great source of inspiration
for me. Also historical homes. We are members of these
(32:38):
wonderful organization called the Garden Conservancy. So every time that
we go to a tour of these gardens, which happens
to be in the garden, your house happens to be
in the garden tour as well. You get so inspired
by what other people do. So it's quite nice.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
It's really important that there's a great dyna reallying quote
that needs to travel. Wh's in paraphrasing, but basically you
have to see things if you're a designer to be inspired,
and so we travel quite a bit, and we were
very lucky we.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Were doing a bit.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You are never home, Well, we need that I to
be inspired, I know, but.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Isn't it fabulous to be able to and and once
once you're known as a landscape designers as as these
two guys are, you get invited to all these other
places too, and you can just call up and say,
I'm for an end while I would like to see
your property. But it is wonderful to see all these places, really.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
And it's also nice with gardeners because all gardeners like
to show your garden. You like to show your work.
You're you're very generous about letting people see things and
opening up to different organizations like the Garden Conservatives.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
So yeah, it's important too. Once you do the amount
of work that one does to make a garden, to
share it is also a very nice thing. I love
having garden chores here. Not only do people learn, they
can ask questions. Ryan is very knowledgeable and I try
to try to be here usually on a garden tour
(34:04):
and let people in. You have visited so so many gardens.
Tell us three of your favorites.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Well, if you are find yourself in Florida, come to Miami.
There's several beautiful examples, and one of my favorite is Viscaya.
The other one is the fair Child Tropical Garden, which
is completely different than the one I just mentioned. And
there's one more is the Compound, and the Compound is
in Coconut Groau and has all kinds of examples of
(34:33):
tropical free trees. So and also is Mbiscay Bay and
tim my favorite.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
I think Versailles is one of the most remarkable things
I've ever seen in my life. I also think the
interesting one is bucking and Palace if you can do
tours there, and that has a really beautiful garden. Just
because of the fact you're in the middle of London,
you have this giant expanse.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
My favorite partners well the Orangerie at Versailles, which I
had a private tour of during the Olympics this year
because I was there because that's where the equestrian events.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
We saw you snoop, Yeah, I was a snoop dogg.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But what a beautiful, beautiful place. And the Orangerie is
one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
And the gorgeous, gorgeous citrus trees. I love that place.
I also love Mount Vernon because I live in old
American houses and I just think Mount Vernon is a
very beautiful place. I also love the gardens of Jens Jensen.
(35:36):
He did a lot of gardens in gross Point. He
did the like the Chicago Parks. Jens Jensen. It was
called the Prairie Architect. And I love the the serenity
and the and the openness of his designs. He's a
really fine landscape designer. And I own a Jens Jensen
garden up in Maine. My house has the only East
(35:59):
Coast gens and garden. That's great. That's Skylands. That's amazing,
really lucky to have that place and try to maintain
it so it's basically a forest. Fernando, you've been called
one of the most important landscape designers in America by
Architectural Digests. What does that mean to you and how
does that raise the bar for projects that you take on.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Well, it's really nice to beat.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
In a short period of time. You are really, I
mean fabulous. It's so wonderful to see that your success
and your accolades for the work that you've done. People
love your work.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Well, we tried to make it really fun, so I
think that we are quite a pair. So we make
things interesting and fun. But I think that we do
it with such a joy. And when we were talking
just early on about how is my process when I
design something, I do it, I don't know, three or
five different options, sometimes just just for the pure joy
(36:58):
of it.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, it's great. So you give your customers an option yes,
or two or three and they can choose and discuss.
And how long does it take to design, say, say
a three acre property in a fancy neighborhood like Palm Beach.
How long does it take you to design a garden
like that property?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
In my mind, I can design it instantly. Is just
the aspect of putting into a drawing and then work
with geometry and you know, line of sights in that
kind of condition, I probably will say maybe two months.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Yeah, And how long does it take to build a
garden like that?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It depends because then we.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
Can plan to something that looks good.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So if you are just doing planting, for example, you
can put together a garden maybe in six or eight months.
And then if there is a house that is not
being built yet, there's about eighteen months to two years
where the house needs to be built for all of
the planting to take place.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
But usually it's years, and most of our projects it's
two to three years, whether it's a big renovation or
new construction.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
What are some of your most memorable projects?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Memorable?
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Your favorite?
Speaker 2 (38:10):
My favorite? I definitely like a Sally Trail, which happens
to be the cover of the book because many many
years ago, probably in two thousand and two, his parents
gave me a book called Gardens by the Sea, and
I used to admire those pages, and little that I
know that project will fall into my desk as a
(38:33):
potential client. So it's sort of like you know that
sometimes life will give you and send you a whisper
who knew that I will have a chance to restore
these wonderful historical home and the garden and the other one,
which actually is when you went to in Palm Beach,
which was a house. We lived further south, so we
(38:53):
drove by it every day. That just sat rotting for
ten years, and we loved the house.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
And then those two guys.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Two guys took it over. It's a beautiful Regency.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Persian casts, the biggest Persian casts you have ever seen.
I've been in touch with the reader, Oh God, sending
me pictures of these amazing casts that she has.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
They're so big.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
I don't know if I can I don't know if
I can handle how big these You.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Got a lot of her.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
But that project was so great because the two guys
who've met, who we'd done things with them in Miami,
were the nicest people in the world. But it was
sort of a unicorn project in the sense they hired Fernando,
they hired Miles Red and Sharon and boys and Sharon.
What's a great architecture from New York classical architects And
they we did our presentation and we did we do
these three D movies. We show them the three D movie.
(39:38):
They said, we love it. Let's get going. They just
kept sending money. There were no meetings and they did,
oh my gosh, it doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And how long did it take?
Speaker 3 (39:46):
It took a couple of years, but there were no meetings,
and they thrilled with it. They're thrilled and they let
Miles do it. It's the best thing, Miles ad It's
coming out in Architectual Digest, and it's on your show,
Martha's Gardens. So to be an a d but that
wasn't credible, that whole process, and it's one of the
best things Fernando's ever done. And this is an interesting
a little bit of gossip. It just went on the market.
They're selling it furnished, completely furnished for forty nine million,
(40:11):
so definitely million.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
How big is the property I forgot him.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
It's almost an acre, almost an acre.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
It's quite an extraordinary place and lots and lots of room.
So if you have forty nine million lying around, So
if you want to design, say a homeowner just wants
to redesign quickly a garden, or you give me three
or five pointers.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Well, work always with get a tree survey so you
will know the inventory of what you have. Then working
your pedimitter of planting for privacy, and then you can
bil upon stages. If you get those two things done,
you'll be in your way to create something that we
(40:55):
I also.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Think it really does help to hire a professional and
there's there's different there's a professional landscape designer for every budget,
and even there's there's landscape designers that do small projects.
But one of the great things is even if you
can't afford to install the whole thing, get a plan,
and then you can do it in stages slowly if
you just want to do something on your own. I
(41:17):
think one of the biggest things, and if you'll notice
about all the Fernando's gardens is he does little rooms.
And it's sort of counterintuitive because you would think that
by breaking up the space it makes it seem smaller.
But in the same way that when you go into
a room and a room seems smaller and there's nothing
in it and you put the furniture in, I guess
this was really a big room. The way your mind
reacts to different spaces is it actually thinks it's bigger
(41:39):
than if it was just one big open space. We
try to break it up and make little rooms and
do a few corridors and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Yeah, that helps. I have that my favorite saying for gardening.
When you want to be happy for a year, take
a wife, or you can say take a husband. If
you want to be happy for a decade, get a dog.
But if you want to be happy for the rest
of your life, make a garden. Isn't that nice?
Speaker 2 (42:05):
It's really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Written by a sourpuss old man, probably who already builds
a fabulous garden is engraved in his in the stairs
to his property down. I think it's in Maryland.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
Oh, I wondered where that came from because you said
that I'm pump Beach. And then I think it's on
that that documentary.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Yes, and now it's everywhere.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
It's kind of it's become a cultural PHENOMENA six year old.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Nephew of mine is walking in through the garden and
he's quoting that he loved the idea. There's so much
more to talk about, and but I just want everybody
to know that Fernando Wong and and Tim Johnson have
created some of the most beautiful gardens in America and elsewhere.
(42:48):
And you can access a lot of the visuals by
getting the book The young Man and the Tree. It's
available on Amazon. Who published this book. Von Dome published
the book and uh And you can watch Fernando on YouTube.
There's some some pieces from shows and things with with
(43:09):
Fernando on the YouTube, and you'll see how how much,
how lively, and how intuitive these two guys are about
garden design and about the implication of these garden designs
on a person's property. This is it's so nice to
be talking to both of you about all of this.
(43:30):
Just keep doing your great work, and I applaud all
your efforts and and your success in a field that
needs good taste and beautiful plants and wonderful gardens, and
you do all of that.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Thank you, Martha, thank you, thank you, Martha, and thank
you for writing the forward to the book, which I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
I forgot it says right on right on the cover,
and I love writing forwards to books that I really like.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Well, we really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
For writers that really do things, and so both of
you do that.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Thank you so much, Thank you. M. H.
Host
Martha Stewart
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