Walt Cudnohufsky - Landscape Architect
This spring I was privileged to sit in on some of the landscape design sessions that Walt Cudnohufsky holds for working designers. Cudnohufsky, founder of the Conway School of Landscape Design and for 20 years its director, now concentrates on his own practice, but he maintains a close connection with the school, and can’t stop looking for students to teach. He is a born teacher and the workshops were a revelation.
For 25 years I have been gardening, reading books about gardening and talking to gardeners, but I never understood in a holistic way all that goes into planning, not just a pretty or productive garden, but a sustainable, functional and beautiful landscape.
I think that most of us want a beautiful garden which means that we instantly start making up lists of plants that we like. We may even go so far as to list them by height or blooming season so that we won’t plant the phlox in front of the verbena.
However, after spending a few hours with Cudnohufsky I realize that it takes more than pretty flowers to make a garden that is beautiful, welcoming and comfortable. As he says, “Any design must first serve clear and legitimate functions; then it will be beautiful.”
Cudnohufsky recommends that we first come to understand our site beginning with consideration of how the house is oriented. Its relationship to the sun and wind will strongly influence what spaces are usable for what activities.
Another thing to know about a site is the way water travels through it. This obviously has an effect on the planting scheme, but water can be destructive and that potential must be considered. At the same time with more and more discussion about drought we also want to keep as much water on site as possible.
Understanding the soil is always important. Is it fertile? Is it sandy or clay? Is it deep or is there ledge three inches down.? All these things will affect plant growth. Some conditions are more easily moderated than others.
Are there slopes? How steep?
After all the elements of the site are considered including views, trees, stone walls, etc. we have to think about those unromantic concerns: legal restrictions, boundaries, zoning, and utilities.
Then there is the gardener. How does the gardener and the family use the yard? Play area for the children? A barbecue and outdoor dining space? A hot tub? How do guests arrive and enter?
With those questions answered we can start to think about what the gardener needs. Privacy? Protection from the wind? Shade in summer?
It takes time, but the answers to these questions and other questions provide the WHY of any design element. Only then can the designer, or homeowner, come up with an efficient, effective plan that will protect and improve the land.
Cudnohufsky took me on a tour of his own landscape. His house and office are right on a dirt road in Ashfield. “The problem was privacy from the road which was very close. We also needed a corral for the cars, and a graceful arrival.”.
The answer was a wide gate between existing stone walls. Parking is outside the gate which opens on to a handsome stone terrace providing that graceful arrival. It is also wide enough and strong enough to allow a car to come to the door to unload heavy groceries. By using durable materials it will not need much maintenance.
In addition the terrace has a water garden and a carefully thought out planting bed. Cudnohufsky says, “Key spots, like plantings around the entry get lots of attention with interest for each season. The other spots can be calmer.”
Cudnohufsky laughs when he talks about being his own client. It always takes him longer to make decisions at home. And then there is his wife. “She resisted my ideas. ‘I can’t picture that. I don’t think that would work’ she’d say. But eventually we worked it out. She was more influential inside the house and I could be more assertive outside. Of course sometimes we’d be out visiting and she’d see something and say, ‘Oh, is that what you meant. That’s OK then. We can do that.’”
The terrace leads to the main entry to the house. “The entry was in the northeast – which is a skiers dream, but the armpit for an entry. When we added this small addition we moved the entry as far east as we could. The glass door lets you look (across the entry to the rear windows) to the sunny meadow beyond.
A path to the left of the terrace leads to Cudnohufsky’s office in the renovated barn. It is sheltered from the road by a planting of lilacs and trees. The stone pathway itself is an ‘irresistible curve’, noticeable but very subtle. This area also illustrates Cudnohufsky’s use of levels, trees, then understory shrubs, then groundcovers or perennials.
To the right of the terrace is the original front door, which is rarely used. Again, privacy is provided by a grove of trees in the front yard, making a shade garden with large plantings of groundcovers. In his designs for sustainable gardens Cudnohufsky looks for ways to reduce labor. This means eliminating as much lawn or cultivated area as possible. “People don’t understand how little maintenance there is with a shade garden,” he said.
The circulation path around the house is rich with interruptions, all carefully arranged. Even the natural looking rise out in the meadow planted with larches was devised because Cudnohufsky felt the view of the flat field contained too little mystery. “The larches provide sculptural interest and color that changes with the seasons.”
Cudnohufksy’s designs are not self conscious. Everything is carefully calculated, but the effect is uncontrived.
Like his old New England house and barn, Cudnohufsky’s landscape meets the functional needs of the land and his family by a thrifty use of native stone and plants, and thrifty expenditure of labor. The result is an unassuming beauty.
May 2007