Madoo*

The gingko grove at Madoo is underplanted with boxwood trimmed into balls.
The plantings invade the path in an intriguing breaking-the-fourth-wall sort of way.

brightly painted details are part of Madoo's personal, idiosyncratic charm

photo by Madoo Conservancy

the Chinese bridge with vintage Lloyd Loom bench

 

 

The garden paths all vary—each with different inlays.
These are slices of telephone poles.

Inside Dash's "summer house": hand-splattered floors and painted wicker

the painting studio

Bob Dash, Rain Across Sage Fields, 1975

Bob Dash, Pasture on the Hill, 1964

Bob Dash, The Terrace, 1975

Dash in the garden, photo by Madoo Conservancy

Robert Dash in the summer studio building, 2009, photo by Edible East End

Madoo, the petite and poetic garden tucked away in Sagaponack on the South Fork of Long Island, is the legacy of the late Robert Dash, poet, painter, gardener, eccentric personality and acerbic wit. It's just shy of two acres but brimming with personal flourishes and historical references. The now verdant hideaway was barren land when Dash stumbled upon the property in 1967. Only a few ramshackle 18th and 19th century barns and out buildings delineated the plot which sat amidst neighboring potato farms. Dash set about creating the garden “blunder by blunder, increment by increment,” moving and renovating the buildings, adding antiques, statuary, cast-offs—fashioning enchanting tableaux in miniature along meandering pathways. It is this labyrinthine quality that imparts an Alice in Wonderland feel. Within its compact confines, Madoo features a "summer studio", the winter house, a "knot garden" (ground cover clipped into a woven motif) based on Tudor designs, a rose walk and rill complete with forced perspective, a quincunx bed, and an herb and vegetable kitchen garden recalling medieval potagers, among other highlights. The garden's "ever-changing" roster brings together roses, elephant garlic, yews, laburnum with ivy and clematis, ginkos and boxwood, and asparagus left to feather. I know next to nothing about gardening but it was just this mashup of high and low, historical and whimsical that enchanted me. Director Alejandro Saralegui, who gave me a personal tour in June, keeps Madoo a vibrant cultural presence with classes, tours, and events.

Dash was a poet -- starting off in the Beat era of the 1950s and 60s—and a self-taught painter of some renown. There is a show of the work of Dash and Fairfield Porter (a friend) at the Parrish Art Museum in WatermIll, through October 26.

*Madoo is "my dove" in Old Scots.

Madoo Conservancy, 618 Sagg Main Street, Sagaponack, NY 11962 (631) 537-8201

Madoo Conservancy PO Box 362/618 Sagg Main Street Sagaponack, NY 119 - See more at: http://www.madoo.org/#sthash.Rbik05GT.dpuf

The Madoo Conservancy PO Box 362/618 Sagg Main Street Sagaponack, NY 11962 Tel. (631) 537-8200 - See more at: http://www.madoo.org/#sthash.Rbik05GT.dpuf

The Madoo Conservancy PO Box 362/618 Sagg Main Street Sagaponack, NY 11962 Tel. (631) 537-8200 - See more at: http://www.madoo.org/#sthash.Rbik05GT.dpuf