Welcome To the Scribner's Garden
To walk through the garden at Scribner’s Catskill Lodge on a warm summer day is to discover a dazzling array of pole beans and peppers, heir-loom striped zucchini alongside neighboring Persian cucumbers.
The garden, nestled in a wind-protected knoll towards the entrance road of the lodge, consists of a series of raised beds — a tightly packed cornucopia of vegetables, herbs and flowers. It serves as a guest amenity, an event space to host dinners and cocktail parties, and a chef’s garden for Prospect, Scribner’s restaurant just up the hill.
“The chef gave me a wish list and I did my best to follow through,” says Andrew Koehn, Scribner’s gardener and groundskeeper, referring to the symbiotic relationship between what’s grown and what’s served. “It becomes a give and take, and an educational experience for both parties — the chef is not a gardener, and the gardener is not a chef.”
Because a great deal of organization is required to ensure the garden is in ever-replenishing abundance, Koehn plans the season the day after New Years, purchasing all the seeds at once. “It’s a science, in one respect,” he says. “And of course - it’s all up to mother nature’s whims.”
Growing anything in the Catskill Mountains presents a unique set of challenges even for an expert like Koehn. For one, there’s a very short growing season due to the region’s late springs and early winters. And then there’s the issue of elevation. Raised beds at 2,000 feet, especially at Scribner’s where the soil is separated from the ground below, dry out at a more rapid rate than if the plants were directly in the ground. “If it doesn’t rain for one day in season, I’m watering.”
This year, he’s hoping to use the central greenhouse — “the hottest spot in the garden” — to its full potential, which means growing plants that need high heat in order to flourish. Charentais Melons are one such example — an heirloom French variety that is super sweet with an ambrosial fragrance. Koehn’s also seeding Persian cucumbers (Lebanese cucumbers), which thrive in temperatures of about 95 degrees, and will sit in large pots within the greenhouse. Add to that some white pumpkins (“we’re famous for our white pumpkins”) and tropical Hibiscus for a touch of color. “When the plant is at the point that you want to harvest it, you’re about to destroy it, so you want to have parts [of the garden] that look picture perfect.”
That’s where flowers come in handy. By summer, snapdragons, Dara, (a variety of Queen Anne’s lace known for its pink, burgundy and rusty gold flowers), and Mexican zinnias that form “clouds of flowers,” will serve as visual potpourri for hotel guests and visitors alike.
For those who feel inspired to create a garden of their own after a stroll through the flourishing flora and fauna, Koehn recommends to “start small and have success.” This is especially important because the majority of the guests at Scribner’s are from New York City where size creates constraint. “It’s a completely different world in a ten-inch pot.”
The growing process itself is deeply rewarding for Koehn. “As a gardener, watching something start as a baby that goes to maturity is really satisfying. You grew something from a seed, and now there is something you can behold.” It also doesn’t hurt that where he’s working is expertly designed and constructed. “It’s like gardening in a palace,” says Koehn. “People don’t garden like this...it’s a real luxury.”
By Alyssa Benjamin
Photography by Read McKendree
