At Baruch College, Karen Shelby is a sought-after associate professor of art history. Her many books, publications, and seminars explore the interplay of national history, architecture, and gardens in commemorating World War I dead. In and around her Maplewood neighborhood, Shelby is a master garden designer and a generous educator and mentor on all things plants.
In both the academic and natural worlds, Shelby understands how living things interact with the built environment and the design principles that different disciplines share. Currently, in her academic life, she’s writing another book. In her horticultural life, it’s high season for her food and flower gardening service, Lowery Farms.
“Drive around town — many professionally landscaped yards have a one-size-fits-all, generic look,” Shelby said. “My interest is in designs that are sensitive to the architecture of the home, the light and soil of the property and the needs and wants of the homeowner.”
Shelby designs gardens large and small. Vegetables, fruit trees, perennials, container annuals and water features serve as her paint brushes and sculpting tools. She starts with a site visit — from there she creates individualized portfolios with four season sketches that consider preferences, budget, and the client’s desired degree of participation.
Always the educator, instruction on plant care is included in the consultation. “Knowing how to water is key,” Shelby said. “If a client wants native pollinator plants, I educate people about how each plant works. Native inkberry looks fine when first planted, but it hollows out. You must layer it from the back.”
Shelby comes from hands-in-the-soil people. Her dad and aunt are painters, artists who gardened. Her grandparents farmed. She grew up both in the Midwest and the West Coast absorbing what and how to plant.
“I’ve never formally studied landscape design. I first became interested when part of a student art history study program in Italy,” she said.
Among the students were a group studying landscape architecture. Years later, while studying for her PhD at the City University of New York, Shelby tended a neighbor’s Roosevelt Island community plot. Moving to Maplewood in 1999 meant an art studio for husband — acclaimed artist Jay Pingree — and a garden for her.
Shelby assesses each garden-in-progress as an artist considers a painting still wet on the easel. Her gardens are living, evolving designs. She visits each garden often and free of charge may make a substitution. “I might switch out some plants or relocate, much as Jay will paint over an element on his canvas,” she said.
As with her forebearers, Shelby is fully hands-on. “I dig out old plant materials and shrubs and plant alongside my longtime, three-man crew,” Shelby said. “If I stop to step back and check placement, the team will rib me for slouching off.”
Shelby’s specialty is potager gardens: edible vegetables, herbs, fruits grown together with or without floral material. If a backyard lacks sun, a potager garden in the front or side yard is the solution.
But it’s also glorious flowers. I spoke with architect Christian Graff, who heads South Orange’s architectural design firm, Graff Guild. Since 2004, Graff and family have lived in a Queen Anne home in the village’s Montrose neighborhood.
“The house’s front yard plantings were disconnected to its architectural style. Karen and I worked together. We talked about the romance of Queen Anne homes. We created a free flowing design in shades ranging from pale pink to deep red,” Graff said. “We simultaneously hit on anchoring the design with a tree visible from both the street and looking out from the front bay window.”
Many other art and design professionals rely on Shelby. She advises artist Elyse Carter and musician Tom McGee on transforming the steep front yard of their West Orange mid-century home. South Orange visual artist Sybil Archibald has been working with Shelby for years, including pandemic plant-purchasing excursions.
“Karen has touched so many gardeners and gardens in this town,” Archibald said. “She has extensive knowledge; the plants that she suggested are thriving in my garden.”
Archibald shared multiple views of her suburban backyard transformed into a secret garden of shifting seasonal colors an oasis of beauty, contemplation–and playing with pooches. Blink, and you may just see elves and fairies dancing in those blooms.
