HOME & DESIGN

Landscaping for Privacy

By Anne Halpin
March 3, 2016

Whether you spend time in your East End home during the summer season or all year ‘round, privacy is probably important to you. And it seems harder to come by all the time. There’s more traffic on the roads. The quiet of a weekend morning is often shattered by whining leaf blowers and buzzing lawnmowers.

Effortless And Eye-catching

By HRES Staff
September 22, 2015

Fall is the time to plant bulbs that reward us with beautiful flowers next spring and summer. Nurseries and garden centers offer the familiar daffodils, narcissus, crocuses, tulips and lilies now. These classic garden flowers are favorites, but there are many less well-known but equally beautiful bulbous flowers you can plant now for effortless, eye-catching color in next year’s landscape.

Heavenly Hellebores

By Anne Halpin
August 20, 2015

Summer is in the rearview mirror, and all too soon autumn will be winding down. Winter waits in the wings. For those of us who live here year-round, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could have plants in bloom in the winter? That winter miracle is entirely possible…even easy to attain.

Versatile Vines

By Anne Halpin
July 23, 2015

Vines are seldom the stars of the garden or landscape, but they play important supporting roles in many successful landscapes. Vines enhance the focal points and features of the garden, and in the right location at the right time of year can have their chance to shine, too.

Pembrooke Fine Landscapes

By HRES Staff
July 23, 2015

One of the Hamptons’ hidden treasures is Pembrooke Fine Landscapes, a boutique landscape design/build company that for ten years has worked with select clients. Pembrooke’s founding partner, Bill D’Agata, is as talented as he is meticulous, overseeing the smallest detail.

Hydrangea – Add Beauty to Your Hamptons Garden

By Anne Halpin
July 1, 2015

The billowy blue hydrangea is the iconic summer flower of the East End of Long Island. Bushes covered with blue balls of blossoms echoing the summer sky are everywhere in summer gardens on both the North and South Forks. Much as we love it, the classic hydrangea is not without its downside. Deer love to eat them, especially in winter when they will nibble the tips of the stems.

Ways of Seeing

By HRES Staff
May 28, 2015

“What do you see when you look at a tree on your property? What do you think about?” This is Bill Miller speaking from his Water Mill office. A slight man with deepset eyes and a squirrely pony tail, Miller is an arborist, one of our very best. His talent is overshadowed only by his humility: he has no web page and does not advertise, and in conversation he is not given to self-promotion.

A Taste of the Tropics

By Anne Halpin
May 28, 2015

It’s time to savor the warm weather and glorious sunsets of summertime on the East End. After the seemingly endless bitter cold and snow we endured here this past winter, it’s time to unleash our inner beach bum. One way to make the most of summer this year, even when you’re not at the beach, is to create your own little tropical paradise at home.

Add Color to Your Hamptons Garden

By Anne Halpin
April 30, 2015

In summer on the East End we revel in color, from the sea and sand, of course, and from the flowers that fill gardens everywhere. A big flower garden can be a lot of work, but you can get a lot of dazzle for not a lot of work with two classic summer flowers that you can plant in spring and enjoy in summer.

Creating your perfect landscape

By Anne Halpin
February 5, 2015

Winter is the perfect time to assess your home landscape to see if you are happy with the way it looks and functions, or if there is room for improvement. Planning now for changes or additions you want to make in spring puts you ahead of the game. You can consult with landscape and design professionals to zero in on changes you want to make, then get your project into their schedule before the spring rush hits.