2009 by Hearst Communications Inc
After falling in love with the formal grounds at Paris's Rodin Museum, fabric designer Michael Devine transformed a 25- by 120-foot patch of dirt into a backyard idyll -- in just three months flat.
WRITTEN BY SUSAN HEEGER
PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUCAS ALLEN
Not long ago, Michael Devine lived in the last spot you'd expect to find a gardening fanatic: an apartment smack-dab in the middle of New York City. For 20 years, he could only imagine a more relaxed, better-tasting life in the country -- where organic tomatoes didn't cost $5.99 a pound and where he might have just enough land to grow them himself.
[Photograph]: Michael Devine's splashy 'Purple Prince' zinnias demand a closer look.
Devine knew such places existed. In fact, he grew up in one: the small north-central Illinois village of Grand Detour, onetime home of farming-equipment pioneer John Deere. As a teen, Devine rode a mower and tended a vegetable garden: "I was the type A kid in 4-H," he admits. But the farms of his youth weren't what the fabric designer had in mind when he considered his ideal potager. Instead, Devine had tucked away a mental image from his first visit to Paris in 1986: the grounds of the Rodin Museum, a formal landscape of cropped lawns and crunchy gravel paths, softened in spots by lively planting. He recalled that seductive look of ordered nature for years, while his dream garden slowly unfolded in his head.
[Photograph]: Devine turned a standard toolshed into a dreamy outdoor dining room by adding a faux-thatched roof, finials, and French doors.
Devine finally got his own plot in 2006, when he and his partner, interior designer Thomas Burak, bought an 1840s storefront building in the upstate village of Kinderhook, New York. Here, they renovated the second-floor apartment and converted the downstairs into a shop called Michael Devine Home.
[Photograph]: Michael Devine (foreground) and his partner, Thomas Burak, relax in their backyard garden.
After the overhaul of the inside of their new home, Devine turned his attention to the backyard: a forlorn, rutted patch of dirt, punctuated only by stands of deep weeds. This was no Rodin Museum -- it wasn't even an Illinois farm. Devine's vision would have to be packed into this less-than-fantastic space, a skinny plot just 25 feet wide by 120 feet deep.
But the designer proceeded, undeterred. "I wanted to make something small but exquisite on a modest budget," explains Devine. "We had to use a lot of imagination, and I devoted myself to the details."
His devotion paid off. Today the old yard is gone, a lush garden in its place. A tiny wood building -- a prefabricated shed, customized with French doors and a roof that looks thatched -- stands at one end of the space, where the couple hosts friends for dinner on summer nights. At the opposite end sits a terrace where Devine and Burak drink their morning coffee and read the paper. These two spaces are linked by four raised, willow-trimmed beds filled with tidy rows of vegetables and flowers. The beds' jewel-box chic is enhanced by Devine's technique of "mirror planting," so that the spacing of the rows in the right- and left-side beds lines up across the grass path that runs between them.
But don't be fooled by the beauty here: This garden works as hard as any farm. Growing vegetables organically, without pesticides, was a must for the designer, who harvests from late April (peas and greens, like lettuces, chard, and sorrel) into summer (tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers) and early fall (turnips and tubers).
He also made room for plenty of flowers to yield bouquets for the house -- planting larkspur and lisianthus for cutting and to splash painterly color throughout the beds. The overall aim was to evoke a traditional French priest's garden -- "both structured and informal," says Devine, "producing herbs, fruits, and vegetables for the table and flowers for the altar." His version seems effortless, mixing vegetables with flowers that attract pollinating bees. And because almost all the plants are annuals, this garden goes from bare to burgeoning in a single season.
Devine says he's learning to be a disciplined gardener, as strict with his plant choices as he was with the garden's layout. "In a space so limited, I can't afford plants that don't produce," he explains. After a little trial and error, he now plans to introduce more herbs. "The strawberries didn't pull their weight," he says. "I won't invite them back next year."
Devine takes stock of last season's horticultural hits -- and one miss.
1. 'Ronde de Nice' squash "The blossoms are small, cute, and just as delicious as the vegetables themselves. We like to fry the flowers up in a beer batter."
2. Purple cabbages "After a hailstorm destroyed our purple Brussels sprouts, we used these to fill in with deep-colored foliage. It was an ideal, quick emergency fix."
3. 'Early Sensation' cosmos "The petals look so delicate and airy -- but they're actually quite sturdy, and very easy to grow."
4. 'Frosted Queen' bachelor's buttons "We love to use these pink flowers in bouquets around the house; they're great on the bedside table. They remind Thomas of growing up upstate."
5. 'Precoville' petits pois "We chose this pea variety because it's so compact. We eat the vegetables raw, sprinkled on salads."
6. 'Milkmaid' nasturtiums "The seed package promised pale-yellow blossoms, but orange appeared instead. Still, I think they'll look marvelous cascading down from our flower boxes on the second floor."
7. 'Victoria' salvia "It's shocking how well these took off -- they started from seed and shot up to be 30 inches tall. Salvia is easy to maintain and great for cutting. We'll scatter the seeds around the fence this year."
8. 'Purple Prince' zinnias "We grow these because they say 'summer' to us -- plus the flowers last a really long time."
9. Fraises des bois "Yes, these strawberries taste delicious -- but they take forever to pick, and we planted only enough to yield about half a coffee cup of berries, which is barely enough to put in a bowl of cereal. So as much as we enjoyed them, they simply aren't worth the trouble."
Prettier raised beds
Raised beds give gardeners greater control over soil makeup and condition, but they rarely look this fine. Devine's inspired trick: He faced his utilitarian, rot-resistant cedar frames with ornamental willow fencing (from $36 for a 4- by 8-foot sheet at mastergardenproducts.com) -- the outdoor equivalent to icing a cake. Just be sure to stain the boxes before nailing on the fencing, advises Devine, so the not-so-lovely lumber won't peek through.
[Photograph]: Devine draped the walls and table inside the shed with his own linen fabrics. The flea market chandelier is powered by good old-fashioned candlelight.
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The ultimate outdoor retreat for less than $1,000!
Follow Michael Devine's lead by turning a workaday storage shed into a gorgeous garden getaway. This 12- by 8-foot Heartland Stratford model from Lowe's costs $998 and arrives as a kit that includes a wood floor, a window, and prehung doors. Though the building doesn't require a foundation, it should be sited on level ground. For an extra $800, builders from Lowe's will install the shed for you. (To get $100 off the installation price in May, bring this issue of Country Living to the store when ordering.)
Three inspired ways to upgrade your shed
Heather fencing
$57.60 for two 6' x 15' sheets (butlerbamboo.com )
Faux-thatched roof
Nail a sheet of decorative heather fencing to each side of the roof to mimic the look of thatching.
Urn finial
$105.60 for two (fypon.com for stores)
Finials
These knobs give the roofline added flourish; large roof mounts ($35 each, Lightning Rod Supply; 877-866-3189) will help hold the polyurethane finials in place.
Custom Jeld-Wen French doors
$794. (lowes.com for stores)
French doors
Swapping out the shed's opaque doors for a glass-fronted set lets in more light -- but will cost you a bundle. For an exact fit, custom-order prehung doors for the 64- by 70¼-inch opening, then hire a carpenter to install them, as reframing may be required.
Los Angeles-based writer Susan Heeger is working on a book about heirloom vegetables.
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