An Estate's
By Mike Dahl, LC/DBM
28 LC DBM
Above In Millbrook, N.Y., Mark Eliot Design was hired to enhance the grounds on a 40-acre estate. Besides cleaning up vast forested areas
and maintaining 16 acres of turf that had never before been thatched, fertilized and overseeded, the landscape company owned by Mark
Sosnowitz designed, installed and cared for raised beds filled with fruits and vegetables. To match the perspective of the estate's large resi-
dence, six of them were built, and each designated for specific plants. The only ornamentals in the beds were marigolds, which according to
Sosnowitz, act as a natural pesticide as their scent repels bugs.
A
As a master gardener, Mark Sosnowitz has installed and cared
for many types of botanical plots in his long career. One of the
most interesting was at a 40-acre estate in Millbrook, New York.
There he was tasked with putting in and maintaining a raised
fruit and vegetable garden, as well as upgrading the unkempt
grounds by grooming the lawns and opening up the woodlands.
The house on the property was quite sizable so Sosnowitz
decided that the garden should be of similar scope. Instead of
one large plot, he settled on six separate ones in a fenced-in area
that already had nine fruit trees. And along with the contract
to design and install the planters, and improve the rest of the
grounds, came an agreement for his company, Mark Eliot De
-
sign, to nurture and harvest the bounty and manage the care of
a total of 16 acres of the estate.
The first step after the design was approved was to stake out
the gardens' areas and rototill the ground down to the bare dirt.
Edible Garden