Spring’s “good things” part II

After what seemed to be weeks of bleak, I struck out yesterday trusting the weather would break and I’d be able to get some pictures of what Martha Stewart’s Turkey Hill gardens had on display for this week in May. The house and gardens have new owners since Martha moved to new digs in Bedford, NY, but thankfully she left behind one of her gardeners of thirty years and, of course, all of her plantings of 40 years. I had the privilege of meeting with said gardener, Levy, who now splits his time between Connecticut and his native Brazil.

Levy met me holding a huge plant encyclopedia-type book breaking out of its binding, stuffed with clippings; pieces of paper; and plant tags. I decided to impress him by identifying the three flowers I recognized as I stepped into the main gardens. He seemed to not hear me… he was inspecting soil, dead-heading and such.

So how does one become a gardener to the doyenne of just about everything, including flowers? Levy grew up helping his dad on their family farm in Brazil and came to the US in 1969. A friend of his was working for a caterer who asked him to deliver food to an event hosted by Martha Stewart in NYC. Well, one thing led to another and Levy found himself employed by Martha to work around her Turkey Hill house fixing things. His fascination with the soil and planting led him to follow around the seven gardeners who were in her employ at the time. Soon he was one of the go-to guys who would set up for her TV shows and photo shoots for her magazine and many books featuring her grounds. Levy explained that the garden plots were always being transplanted and reworked depending on what the feature story was for that photography shoot.