Making Meadows

Upstate New York homeowners transformed a windswept hilltop into a naturalistic garden of luminous grasses and native flowers.

Written by Jane Garmey • Photographed by John Hall

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A hilltop may seem to be a wonderful place for a house, but such sites are usually treeless and exposed to direct sun and wind—scarcely ideal conditions for a garden. However, when Jack Hyland and Larry Wente found a glorious hilltop meadow with magnificent views over open fields in New York’s Dutchess County, they were not deterred. Both of them are experienced gardeners, and while their house, designed by Wente, who is an architect, was still under construction, they visited several gardens and thought hard about what might work best in theirs.

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