Name: Nicole Brait
Age: 43
Occupation: Landscape Designer and Student at New York Botanical Garden
Place of Employment: Currently studying Landscape Design at New York Botanical Garden
Where you went to college: Colby College
What is your earliest garden memory?
My dad is an avid vegetable gardener. He had probably the biggest vegetable garden suburbia has ever seen. When I was a kid he would wake me up early in the morning on the weekends to weed the garden. We lived near Philadelphia so it was always hot and humid and I hated having to work in the garden so much that when I was a kid I swore I would never have a garden.What made you decide to enter the field of horticulture?
About ten years ago I moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn and into an apartment that had a yard. The yard was a wreck. There were three foot high weeds, chunks of concrete, broken bottles, even a rusty screen door. I started cleaning it out and once it was clear I thought, well, if I have all this outdoor space I really should plant something. I got a few perennials at the farmers market at Borough Hall and planted them in the yard. The plants did okay but not great so I called my dad and asked him what I should do. He said turn over the soil and add compost. I started turning over the soil and went to the garden center and bought a few bags of compost and somewhere in there between chopping down weeds taller than I am and digging in composted manure I started to love gardening.Please tell me about your current horticultural position?
Currently I am doing the Landscape Design program at the New York Botanical Garden. I also do some design projects and am a volunteer gardener with New York Parks Department.
How long have you been in the horticulture business?
About 6 years now.
Tell me about your first plant love?
When I was growing up our next door neighbor had blackberries growing in her yard and she would let me go over and pick them. I can remember taking a bowl of cereal over to her yard, picking a dozen blackberries and putting them directly in the bowl.
Who inspired you in your career and how?
My dad was the first person who inspired me. Even though I didn’t like having to weed the garden as a kid I did like sowing seeds and watching them grow. Now I have a lot of garden heroes. I very much like the New Perennial Movement style so Piet Oudolf and Mien Ruys are two designers I greatly admire. Also William Robinson who is often cited as the grandfather of the New Perennial Movement. Christopher Lloyd is wonderful. Not only was he a great gardener but he was also quite a character. Rosemary Verey for her love of the garden in winter and of Eranthis hyemalis. Panayoti Kelaidis for his vast knowledge of gardening in dry climates and Allan Armitage for his witty and informative books about perennials.
What is your favorite garden setting?
I love a sensory garden although I didn’t know it until I had to write a paper for my Landscape Design History and Theory class about what my personal Garden of Eden would be. I wrote that my Garden of Eden would have flowing water, that there would be lavender near a path so the scent would be released when people brushed it as they walked by, that there would be a constant warm breeze so you could hear the sound of leaves rustling in the trees and that the garden would contain plants with interesting textures and leaves that were soft to the touch. My teacher commented on the paper, ‘This sounds like a sensory garden,’ and I thought, ‘Huh, so it is.’
What is your favorite planting style?
I love the New Perennial Movement. I like to plant gardens that are both beautiful and ecologically sustainable. The New Perennial Movement focuses on planting the right plant in the right place and also emphasizes creating a link to nature for people. I think that is important. Although I would never have a formal garden, I admire the gardens of the Italian Renaissance like Villa d’Este and Villa Lante for their precision and overall impact. I am also a big fan of potagers. I strongly believe vegetable gardens can be beautiful and edibles and ornamentals can be grown together in ways that look very sophisticated.
What advice can you give others considering entering the field of horticulture?
Garden, garden, garden. Formal training is worthwhile but actual time in the garden is irreplaceable. I learned so much just by gardening and watching my plants grow — or not grow! Don’t be afraid to try new things. Listen to the advice people with more experience give you but if you think something else will work try it.
If you could go anywhere to see gardens, where would that be?
It’s so hard to choose just one place. I just finished watching Monty Don’s series Around The World In 80 Gardens and I would love to go to so many of the gardens he featured. If I had to choose just one country it would be England. I’d love to see Great Dixter, Sissinghurst, Highgrove and Gravetye , among others. And if from there I could just sneak over to Rome to see Villa d’Este, Generalife and Villa Lante …
If you could go with any one person, who would it be?
Andre Le Notre. Although Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles are not the kinds of gardens I design he was a brilliant landscape designer and I would love to hear his thoughts on the gardens I like and the garden styles I incorporate in my work. I almost chose Christopher Lloyd but if I went with him I think there would be a lot of agreeing since I love his garden style. With Le Notre there would be a lot of disagreeing about what works and what doesn’t which, I think, would make for lively conversation and an environment where my ideas would be challenged.
What was your most valuable training?
It’s a toss up between doing the Landscape Design program at NYBG and working in my own garden. So far the program at NYBG has introduced me to a lot of different garden styles and will go on to teach me the technical aspects of design which is important. But I have learned so much from actual gardening. When I first started gardening in that once derelict yard in Brooklyn I would take my laptop with me and look things up online constantly. If I bought a basil plant I would go outside to the yard plant and computer in hand and search for how to plant basil. If I needed to prune the Spirea I would google that. I tell my clients who want to become better gardeners to spend ten minutes a day in their gardens. If you look at your plants everyday and see how they change over the course of the growing season you can learn so much.
How can people contact you: email, fb, LinkedIn, Twitter, website, etc.?
email: nebrait@gmail.com
Facebook: Nicole Brait
LinkedIn: Nicole Brait
Twitter: @nicolebrait
Anything else you would like to share?
Gardeners are generous, thoughtful, kind people. The horticulture and landscape design businesses are wonderful industries. If you go into either of these industries keep that tradition alive. I am proud to be among those who call themselves gardeners.
