Deep Thoughts From a Shallow Grave: Epitaphs to Die For (Rizzoli) celebrates life in its humorous and often satirical confrontation of death. Conceived, written and drawn by restaurateur, bar owner, and designer, Anthony Martignetti, these tongue-in-cheek illustrated tombstones were first shared with friends who needed a laugh, bringing some (albeit dark) humor to their days when they were otherwise going through tough times. More than one hundred of these off-kilter meditations on life and death are now collected in this book. Handwritten epitaphs such as “Waiting to inhale” and “There are fifty better ways to leave your lover” will have readers chuckling and prompt reflection on the absurdity of this fleeting and precious thing we call life.

Join us for a book signing with Anthony Martignetti in Landcraft’s Ruins, to celebrate the release of Deep Thoughts From a Shallow Grave: Epitaphs to Die For (Rizzoli). Meet the author and his wife, Angela, as they also share the first vintage of their locally-grown wine from Old Sound Vineyard.

Anthony Martignetti is a New York City restaurateur, bar owner, and designer—currently with Melody’s Piano Bar and The East Pole restaurant on the Upper East Side, and The Palace nightclub in Tribeca. He is renovating a 200-year-old historic haunted grist mill, called The Old Mill on the North Fork of Long Island, which is famous for being the secret weekend getaway for lovers Carol Lombard and Clark Gable in the 1930s. Anthony is also a vintner and the founder of Old Sound Vineyard, also on the North Fork of Long Island. He has been drawing cartoons most of his adult life to entertain his friends and family. With New York locked down and his restaurants closed, he had the opportunity to spend much more time drawing, and in 2020 had his first cartoons published both in the New Yorker and Airmail. Deep Thoughts From a Shallow Grave is his first book.

Old Sound Vineyard is on the south side of an old farm road, just outside the village of Mattituck, on a gently sloping field hidden in plain sight behind an ancient oak tree. Once a farm, and still home to a barn that was the village blacksmith shop, Old Sound Vineyard is where Anthony Martignetti and Angela Ledgerwood live, where they host their friends and family, and where they grow their grapes. Old Sound wines are an expression of this place, the season, and the people who help farm the grapes and make the wine. They grow Cabernet Franc and Merlot grapes on their property and in May 2024 they planted Gamay and Alberinõ in their back fields. They’ll be sharing a selection from their 2022 vintage that includes Pet Nat, foot-stomped (skin-contact) Chardonnay, a carbonic chillable Merlot, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc.

Meet four rehabilitated raptors – and one groundhog – up close and personal! The birds of prey will include one or more species of owl, hawk, vulture and/or falcon. Learn how each bird had been injured & rehabilitated by the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center to become a wildlife ambassador to help humans learn how raptors live in the wild and how to coexist with them. You’ll also meet education animal Allen McButterpants, a groundhog who is very popular with children.

Sun printing is the art of reverse shadowing; it relies on a series of chemical reactions to capture an object’s outline and transparency when exposed to sunlight on treated paper. The effect is ethereal. Combine this wonder of science with Landcraft’s enormous palette of leaf shapes, marginalia, and arrangements to make compositions as ghostly and gorgeous as the gardens. Learn the science. Learn the plants and their morphology. Then design using the power of sunlight and water. Fair weather only.

Pilobolus is a Fungus is an interactive performance for families and young audiences based on Branches, a site-specific dance piece commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow.  In this show, the audience takes a journey through nature, perceiving the sounds, shapes, colors and movements of birds, water, trees, and of course, our namesake fungus, in new and unexpected ways.  With the help of the Pilobolus dancers, audience members learn to express their deep connection to the world through movement and dance. Young people 18 and under attend for free if accompanied by a paying adult. For more information about Pilobolus, go to https://pilobolus.org/.

This is the first-ever Summer Benefit for the Landcraft Garden Foundation and the first-ever performance by Pilobolus on the North Fork!

All ticketholders can arrive early for a pre-performance garden stroll and glass of wine; performance starts at 6:00 pm. Your ticket purchase supports the mission of Landcraft Garden Foundation to inspire, educate and promote gardening, horticulture, and the preservation of our natural environment. Sponsors of the event underwrite opportunities for children, teens & families to participate in a Pilobolus Interactive Family Performance on Sunday, August 13th, at 11:00 am. For more information about Pilobolus, go to https://pilobolus.org/.

Mix sunshine, chickens, puppets, and a garden full of wonder and get a fun-filled Friday for the family. Landcraft Garden Foundation is thrilled to welcome the not-for-profit travelling puppet truck Goat on a Boat to its vegetable garden where founder Liz Joyce and troupe will perform her award winning The Doubtful Sprout. Explore soil science and plant growth in an entirely novel and entertaining way. Come early and stroll the garden in all its summer vibrancy.

Garden Conservancy Open Day

Saturday, July 8, 10 am- 4 pm

Fueling America’s passion for gardens, The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program annually celebrates the country’s most exciting, creative, and innovative private gardens. Through this program and in partnership with garden owners, gardeners, communities, horticulturists, garden designers, and historians,  The Garden Conservancy works to preserve outstanding gardens across America, often historic or under threat.  The Landcraft Garden Foundation is proud to be a supporting garden in their mission to educate, inspire and preserve America’s Garden Heritage.

Rites of Spring Music Festival

Saturday, June 24, 2023, 5:00 pm

Join pianists Vassily Primakov and Natalia Lavrova for a remarkable performance of The Rites of Spring by Igor Stravinsky on one piano with “four hands”. This Juilliard-trained duo was established in 2010 and has been praised for their brilliance, depth, and poetic vibrancy. Doors open at 4:00 pm to allow guests time to enjoy the garden and its beauty prior to the 5:00 pm concert start time.

Pop-Up Tuesday

Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

By popular demand, the Landcraft Garden will be open for a pop-up day on Tuesday, June 20th. (Finally… something that’s open on a Tuesday!) Join one of our Garden Guides for a tour at 10:30 or explore on your own, anytime between 10 am and 4 pm. If you haven’t been to the garden recently, you are in for a treat! As each week passes, the garden grows and transforms — both on its own and with the helping hands of our dedicated gardeners Kerry Ann, Chris, and Santiago. Be sure to talk to Store Manager Jamie about plants for sale that will brighten your own backyard garden, container display, or indoor collection. In addition to unique plants, check out our merchandise, including new t-shirts and garden umbrellas.

Slow Food East End Walk & Wine at Landcraft

Friday, September 23, 2022, 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Join Slow Food East End at Landcraft Garden Foundation for an evening of sipping local wines and strolling through their imaginative gardens. Wine sponsors are Rose Hill Vineyards and Croteaux Vineyards.

Be inspired and learn more about naturalizing landscapes from the experts at Landcraft who will share tips for pollinator friendly, biodiverse landscaping best suited for our local ecosystem and your backyard.

Ticketed guests are welcome to stroll through the gardens at your own pace and stop along the trails for tastes, sips and chats. There are four acres of cultivated and naturalized garden spaces to enjoy surrounded by almost 10 acres of natural meadows with mowed paths providing easy access to view native plants and abundant wildlife.

Educators’ Saturday

September 17, 2022, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Educators, show your school I.D. and enter the gardens for FREE!  Come explore the many opportunities for outdoor education.  Staff and Education Committee volunteers will be available for your questions.

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Saturday, June 11, 2022, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Knitters who show their work in progress at the entrance will receive $5 off admission to the garden. There are many beautiful places to sit and knit in the gardens:  the West Terrace, the Ruin, the Tiki Hut, and numerous benches along paths and in garden nooks.

Rites of Spring Music Festival:  Sounds of Nature

Friday, June 10, 2022, doors open at 4:00 pm

Landcraft Garden Foundation is delighted to partner with Rites of Spring Artistic Director Paolo Bartolani to bring you an enchanting symbiosis of music and nature. The centerpiece of the evening is Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola, and harp — with other musical works by French composers Maurice Ravel and Francois Devienne.  Also being performed and written six months after Debussy’s sonata with the same instrumentation is English composer Arnold Bax’s the Elegiac Trio. Musicians are Ginevra Petrucci (flute), Matthew Cohen (Viola), and Ruth Bennett (harp).

Most of Debussy’s music evokes the natural world in some form, and his critical writings and personal correspondence argue passionately for a symbiosis between music and nature: “I wanted music to have a liberty it contains within it perhaps more than any other art, not being limited to a more or less exact reproduction of Nature, but possessing mysterious correspondences between nature and the imagination”

We invite our guests to enjoy the garden’s natural beauty before the performance; doors open at 4:00 pm.  Concert begins at 5:00 pm.  Dress appropriately for the weather. Light refreshments will be serve immediately after the concert.

Slow Food East End Walk and Wine at Landcraft

DATE: Saturday, September 18, 2021
Rain date: Friday, September 24, 2021
TIME: 4:30 – 7:00pm
EVENT DESCRIPTION: Be deliciously inspired by people passionate about the beautiful East End. Join Slow Food East End and Landcraft Garden Foundation for an evening of sipping local wines and strolling through the beautiful Landcraft gardens.

Rites of Spring Music Festival: An Evening of Shakespeare: Words & Music

While originally many of Shakespeare’s works included “songs,” the music of these songs was lost. Over time, many composers have been inspired to complete these songs with music from their own imagination. This concert will focus on the lesser-known music of two Jewish immigrants, Erich Korngold and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.  Both composers escaped World War II by coming to America and both, in this period of strife, turned to Shakespeare, demonstrating the timeless quality of his works. Music motivated by the plays Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As you Like it, Othello, Hamlet & the Tempest will be interwoven with monologues from these works. 

Date: Sunday, August 1 2021
Time: 5:30pm