'Found' landscape design

Driftwood arbor, Shelter Island, N.Y.

A New York City native, Baker says he discovered his love of nature during summers at his parents' vacation home on the North Fork of Long Island. Son of a landscape-designer mother and a photographer father, he tries to use found wood, "pieces that would otherwise just be laying there unused and wasted," he says. He chooses the wood himself from his expeditions or by searching local lumber suppliers.

Here, Baker turned driftwood he found on a Long Island, N.Y., beach into this gate for an arbor in his family's yard. Baker used locust wood in the supports and roof of the arbor. He often uses this type of wood in outdoor structures, citing its interesting shape, strength and natural resistance to rot and insects.

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Outdoor shower, Shelter Island, N.Y.

Baker says he wanted this outdoor shower to be simple and retain a rustic quality that felt like a shower at the beach. To achieve the natural look, he planted sea grasses at foot level. He then used stones he found along the shore to create the faucet handles.

The simple and unpolished look is important to Baker — as are the materials. "I like how these stones get warm from the sun and how their look and feel changes in water," he says. 

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Outdoor shower, Shelter Island, N.Y.

Baker says he finds a lot of his wood on the North Fork. "I'm usually looking for root structures and felled trees that have washed up on the shore," he says.

He says that whenever possible, he tries to use materials that are native to the area and that blend in with the surrounding plants and trees.

This shelf is a flat piece of wood from a dock he found floating in the water — "so it was weathered already and tied in with the other wood used in the shower," he says. Baker adds that he did not cut the wood because evidence of the cutting would spoil the look of the piece and damage its integrity.

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Pergola, Darien, Conn.

A pergola is a freestanding structure or one attached to the side of a house that provides a shaded sitting or walking area. Plants and flowers that grow over the structure shield residents from the sun.

This pergola is relatively new, and Baker hopes that a newly planted wisteria vine will provide that shade in the coming years. "I love to see nature kind of taking over my pieces and adding to them," he said. "The deck was built around the posts to create the illusion they pop out of it."

He again chose dense, heavy locust wood because it's plentiful, grows relatively quickly — which reduces his environmental impact — and is native to the Northeast, where much of his work resides.

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Gate and fence, Connecticut

Baker says his goal is to have his work fit in with and complement the property, even if it includes rustic materials. Here, the design includes a gridlike motif for a fence that encloses the garden.

Baker used unpeeled Eastern red cedar for this project. "It's a wood I use a lot, because not only is it beautiful in its look and feel, it grows very straight, and it's great for creating more orderly, geometric shapes," he says.

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Gazebo, Connecticut

In literature and movies, a gazebo is where lovers meet for their secret rendezvous. Maybe that's because a gazebo is slightly secretive, an enclosed and tranquil haven somewhat shielded from sun and prying eyes.

This one was constructed on a large property surrounded by a woodland garden that Baker's mother, landscape designer Martha Baker, created. It was one of Baker's first collaborative projects with his mom, he says. She chose most of the plants surrounding the structure.

A flourishing grapevine now grows over the gazebo. This creates a green and welcoming canopy and a cool place to while away a summer afternoon.

Note the lamp in the center of the gazebo; it, too, is made of repurposed sticks of wood.

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Climbing frame and fort, Connecticut

Baker doesn't just build for adults. This kid-friendly fort includes climbing ropes, a climbing mesh, a swing set and even a zip line.

The unit is set between two growing evergreen trees, with cedar posts also incorporated in the design.

Kids seem to connect with Baker's work, he says. "Maybe it's all the woven twigs and things that they appreciate," he says.

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Climbing frame and fort, Connecticut

Baker used a saw to slice down the middle of unpeeled Eastern red cedar logs to create these benches.

"The real difficulty was working out the pitch of the back supports and making the benches comfortable to sit on," he says. This meant trying new angles with the wood.

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Arbor and seating area, Connecticut 

This example of a tranquil arbor, deep within a leafy Connecticut garden, combines natural materials and ingenuity. The supports, unpeeled Eastern red cedar, release their own oils to repel insects and protect it from rot caused by moisture.

Underground, air and water can decay wood even faster. To combat that effect, Baker avoids harsh chemical solutions and instead chars the outside of the wood that will be buried or applies a coat of tar to combat moisture.

"I like to create natural, whimsical pieces while remaining aware of the practical considerations," he says. 

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Garden passageway, Indianapolis

This sculpture looks as though it had been made specifically for this garden location. But it's actually a re-creation of a piece Baker made for a Hermes holiday window display on New York's Madison Avenue in 2010. Write-ups in The New York Times, New York magazine and Landscape Design magazine spurred Indiana homeowners to commission Baker to build it on a larger scale in their yard.

"It's constructed with grapevine, willow, pieces of driftwood and bittersweet," Baker says. "Eventually, the homeowners intend for it to form a passageway into a hedged-in 'outside room.'"

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