The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, Inc. (ARF) hosted its 30th Anniversary Garden Tour  on Saturday, June 18th.  One of the longest running garden tours on Long Island, the ARF Garden Tour featured five magnificent gardens in Bridgehampton, Sagaponack and Wainscott, including: the garden of Susan Calhoun and Charlie Moss, the garden of Nancy Corzine, the garden of Gillian Spreckels Fuller, the garden of Bettysue and Jeffrey Hughes, and the garden of Rosalind and Ken Landis. The tour also permits free entry to The Madoo Conservancy for “Much Ado About Madoo and The Annual Garden Market.”

The garden of Susan Calhoun and Charlie Moss was designed by noted landscape designer Edwina von Gal. Their house was originally the Wainscott post office, which Susan and Charlie moved from Main Street in the spring of 1978.  Comfortable outdoor spaces and transitions from lawn and garden to meadow and view, with each component of the landscape gives the freedom to grow as it wishes. Renowned furniture designer and interior decorator Nancy Corzine was most excited about her garden when she was building her dream house in Bridgehampton. She filled the grounds with indigenous bushes, trees and grasses, picking each piece herself, always with an eye toward restraint. Her greatest pleasure is the wildlife that the garden attracts.

When Gillian Spreckels Fuller bought her home in Sagaponack, the first thing she did was replace the tennis court with a garden. The garden occupies her mind year round and she looks at it as huge experiment. She aims for something English, but admits she is not quite sure how to accomplish it, as the borders have been extended four times. The Garden of Bettysue and Jeffrey Hughes in Bridgehampton, which was created by Edmund Hollander and featured in his book Gardens for the New Country Place, were designed to fit the architecture of the house and its surrounding landscape. The stepped gardens between the house and the garage building are linked by a brick path to the semicircular stone terrace traced with creeping thyme.

Edmund Hollander created an English garden for Rosalind and Ken Landis with perennial borders and a cutting garden for this traditional shingle-style house, overlooking Georgica Pond, when it was newly constructed. After eighteen years, the grounds had outgrown their intended look and were ready for a redesign and renovation. Christopher LaGuardia Design Group removed plants and opened up the view to the water, and with strategic plantings added depth and texture to the property, guaranteeing color all season long.

All proceeds from the tour benefit the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, Inc. (ARF), the leading no-kill animal shelter on eastern Long Island. The ARF Adoption Center is located in Wainscott, NY and open every day from 11 am to 4pm. Since its founding in 1974, ARF has found loving homes for over 22,000 cats, kittens, dogs and puppies. Photos in this feature by Kelli Delaney