Outside

“She’s more the horticultural end of it,” says Charlie, “and I’m more the structural end of it. Clerk of the works.” He loves talking about those works, particularly the vast and intricate irrigation system: Water is pumped from a pond at the bottom of the hill, up through a utility main and into underground holding tanks. Hydrants are hidden among the boxwoods. The construction of the pergolas—their concrete-and-steel casing underground, their steel flitch beams, their Western white cedar—is another favorite subject. Another is the illusions Stick created in the tapis vert (the hornbeam-lined “green table”), making it seem as if the space drops off the edge of a cliff at the far end, simply due to artful placement of a few tall pyramid arbor vitae. Says Stick, “It’s not what the eye sees; it’s what the eye does.”

Even more, though, Charlie loves talking about how the collaboration among the three of them resulted in the final look of important elements in the garden, including pergolas, stairways, the octagonal terrace and more. A favorite instance took place around the exedra—the space at the end of the garden farthest from the house, where the Eros statue stands, a commemoration of the Seilheimers’ 40th anniversary. “An exedra, as I understand it, is a terminus for a long axis and also a beginning toward other experiences,” says Charlie, “to give you new pathways. I saw this as a square room. Charles said, ‘No, it must be round. Must be round.’ And he’s right—it lets you keep going, it doesn’t get you stuck in corners. So then he designed it all with bluestone.” Charlie wanted brick as well, so he added two rings of brick to the design. Stick suggested adding the points of the compass. When the craftsmen came with rectangular bluestone, Charlie called Stick and asked, “‘Shouldn’t this be cut on the radius?’ And [Stick] said, ‘Yes, but we’ve already exceeded an unlimited budget. You do realize they’ve got to cut every one of those stones on every side, and they have to piece them all in.’ I said, ‘Yes, but it’s the right thing to do, isn’t it,’ and he said, ‘It is.’”

Mary Lou sums it up. “I think that nobody would question that this is a better garden because each of us contributed—Charles, Charlie and I. Not just plants from me and structure from [Charlie], but, overall, Charles Stick deserves credit for a brilliant design. We all worked together to fine-tune it, improve it.”