On an overcast morning in May, beneath a soft gray sky, Katie Ridder’s Stanfordville garden glowed green. Wisteria hung in full bloom amid clipped hornbeam walls, its purple flowers spilling over a lattice pergola. The beds displayed a quiet spectrum of greens — from soft lime to deep emerald.
Tucked within those hedges, the flower garden feels both precise and alive — a space shaped with the discipline of a designer, softened by time. Ridder is an interior designer by trade, known for her use of bold color and eclectic detail. In the garden, she brings the same sensibility outdoors.
It unfolds in geometric order: 14 rectangular beds divided by bluestone paths, with a glass greenhouse along one side. At the center, a small terrace is shaded by the wisteria-covered pergola. “We sometimes have dinner out here,” Ridder said.
Ridder’s husband, architect Peter Pennoyer, designed the couple’s Stanfordville home. They spend most weekends here, commuting up from the city.
Twelve years in, the garden is shaped as much by the passing of the seasons as by her expert design skills. “I wanted a combination of woodland plants, perennial plants, bulbs, and evergreen plants, and it took many years to get the right mix.”
Today, she tends the beds with precision — and restraint. “Now really, I don’t add anything. I add my annuals… I grow annuals from seed, although I’m slow this year doing that.” Her tulips, planted by the hundreds, are dug up each spring. “I plant like three to five hundred and then I dig them all up.”
She doesn’t cling to what doesn’t thrive. “Things die and I don’t replant them. If they’re not happy, I don’t put them back. I mean, it’s just — it’s too hard to keep things going if they’re not thriving.”
The six-acre garden is aligned along a long east-west corridor — meadow, flower garden, greenhouse, woodland path, cutting garden, and finally the neighboring cornfield. That axial layout balances the more spontaneous plantings within.
Ridder keeps pace with the seasons. “I started at seven this morning,” she said. “Then I left at 12:30 for lunch… normally I would have gardened all day… so like today’s five hours, it normally would be like eight or nine.”
Beyond the greenhouse, structure gives way to a looser rhythm. The woodland path, shaded and quiet, is home to ferns, iris, native ginger, and a favorite ornamental grass. “Do you see that grass?” she asked. “It’s called hakenochloa. That’s — I love that.”
Some plants hold personal meaning. “Whenever it blooms, I think of her,” she said of a plant gifted by her friend Paige, who was visiting the next day. “I have things that people have given me and I always think about them when they bloom.”
Her influences include Wave Hill, the New York Botanical Garden, Hollister House, and Untermyer Gardens.
Gardening, she said, may be distinct from interior design, but the two share a rhythm. “It’s the same in that it takes many years for a house to be — to feel lived in,” she said. “And you just have to live there to realize, again, like the mistakes that you’ve made… and layering. So it’s similar in that gardens take a long time to figure out the layering, to figure out the scale… how big a plant will get.”
Some realizations took time. “All the good gardeners say it’s the leaves that are important, and finally, you know, realizing that’s true. It took me a long time.”
Her plants often make their way indoors. “I cut everything,” she said. “I love bringing things inside. All my plants come inside, and I always love having new things inside, the flowers.” As for color and texture: “Dark leafy things and light leafy things look really pretty together… and textures, different textures, because you won’t always have flowers.”
Katie’s Top 3 Garden Tips
“Know where you’re gardening. Choose plants that are appropriate to the space. If you have a wet garden, don’t choose something that wants something dry.”
“The most important thing is to get good soil and good drainage.”
“Things die and I don’t replant them. If they’re not happy, I don’t put them back.”
This article is part of our ongoing series “A Walk Through the Garden,” which highlights the private gardens of residents across Pine Plains, Ancram, Gallatin, Milan, and Stanford. If you’d like to recommend a garden — or share your own — email editor@newpineplainsherald.org.
