A new one-acre garden, designed by the renowned Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, is taking shape at Oyster Bay’s Planting Fields Arboretum, and locals as well as visitors will soon get the chance to stroll the space.
The Oudolf Garden, scheduled to open this fall, will be located directly behind the Blue Pool Garden, also known as the Italian Garden, and adjacent to the historic Rose Arbor, designed by James Greenleaf in 1906. The site, long an open and largely undesigned area, will be Long Island’s first public garden by Oudolf, whose many projects include the High Line in New York City.
Gina J. Wouters, president and CEO of the Planting Fields Foundation, said the idea grew out of ongoing efforts to both restore historic Olmsted Brothers landscapes and add contemporary layers to the 409-acre estate. Wouters described the relationship between the early-20th-century arbor and the new design as a “really beautiful and interesting dialogue” between contemporary and historic elements.
“So we sometimes like thinking if the Coes” — the family who owned the property — “were alive today, building Planting Fields, who would they invite?” Wouters said. “So Piet Oudolf is definitely within that realm. He’s regarded as the greatest living landscape designer of our time.”
Conversations with Oudolf began in 2023, with Wouters visiting him in the Netherlands before Oudolf traveled to Oyster Bay to view the site. After the space behind the Blue Pool Garden was deemed an ideal location, plans accelerated quickly.
Oudolf is widely known as the father of the new perennial movement, which designs gardens to naturally mimic wild plant communities. His designs often feature naturalistic, meadow-like compositions.
“It’s absolutely an inherent part of his ethos as a designer,” Wouters said of the garden’s environmental focus. She added that Oudolf’s work values “seasoned beauty,” and recognizes the importance of plants in four stages, from seeding to “when it’s blooming, when it’s dead, when it’s decaying, all of that.”
Of the 24,000 perennials and trees to be planted, more than 90 species have been selected, many of them native to the United States and pollinator friendly. Foundation officials wrote in a prior statement that the garden would “honor Long Island’s native species and biodiversity” while offering a four-season experience for visitors.
Hanna Packer, a Long Island-based landscape designer who has worked with Oudolf since 2010, is the project manager for the garden. “For the first time, we are getting renowned garden designers for a public project here on Long Island,” Packer said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Oudolf’s approach at Planting Fields, she said, will include matrix plantings, dominated by a single grass species interwoven with perennials, as well as block plantings of large grouped species with accent plants, whose unique colors and shapes both contrast with and highlight the other plants and grasses, creating what Packer described as a “very harmonious and very beautiful, colorful scheme.”
Preparatory work is already underway. The garden is currently fenced off while soil solarization takes place. This occurs as the original grass is buried beneath layers of cardboard and mulch to eliminate turf and weeds without chemicals. State park regulations prohibit the use of glyphosate, an herbicide.
“Hardscaping,” the construction of walkways and other non-botanical features of the garden, is expected to begin early next month, with trees and shrubs planted in late April or early May. Oudolf will come to Long Island in late May or early June for the planting of 24,000 perennials, a meticulous process he prefers to oversee personally. More bulbs will be planted in the fall, after the grand opening.
The project’s estimated cost is $1.5 million, but the foundation aims to raise closer to $4 million to fund an endowment supporting long-term maintenance, including a full-time landscape curator.
The Planting Fields Foundation recently announced a $100,000 grant from Bank of America to support the garden’s development.
"Honoring Long Island's native species and biodiversity, the Oudolf Garden at Planting Fields will allow visitors of all ages to explore the intersection of art, design and the natural world," Marc Perez, president of Bank of America Long Island, wrote in a statement announcing the donation. "In partnership with Planting Fields Foundation, we look forward to cultivating connection and curiosity at the Oudolf Garden and across Long Island."
In addition, people can sponsor individual plants for $25, $50 or $100 through the foundation’s Sponsor a Plant program.
“That was also important for us,” Wouters said, “that there were entry points for everybody in the community to participate in the creation of the space.”
While deer and other wildlife remain ongoing considerations at the arboretum, Wouters and Packer are optimistic that the garden’s location and plant selection will help mitigate browsing.
Ultimately, Packer said, the garden represents a rare opportunity for her, as both a landscape designer and as a local resident who has been visiting the estate for decades. “Now Planting Fields becomes a destination,” she said. “I feel it will be a magnet for a lot of visitors, which is great.”
To donate to the project or learn more about the Planting Fields Foundation and its work, visit PlantingFields.org.
