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Richard Schipul’s job, one might say, is to bestow upon his clients the gift of beauty.
“I think what I do is giving more pride in home ownership to my customers,” the 47-year-old New Milford resident and owner of Designing Eden said recently as he sat in his home on a 10-acre farm in the rural Merryall section of town. “I want them to enjoy their homes, and I believe they can do that more by having beautiful gardens and landscaping. I know they feel this way after our work is done because I hear from them and we exchange Christmas cards with many of our clients.”
Since he was a young man, Mr. Schipul has had his hands in the good earth, making land come alive with his landscape and garden designs … his life’s work, really. He grew up in Trumbull and loved the outdoors so much that he headed off to the State University of New York in Farmingdale to acquire a degree in horticulture in 1989.
“I was going to get a two-year degree and return home and cut lawns for a living. But during college I took a trip with a friend to The Bayberry nursery on the eastern tip of Long Island and saw the amazing beauty of this property and knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—making properties beautiful.” So, Mr. Schipul’s dreams turned from cutting lawns to designing the gardens that surround the green oasis. He enrolled in the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Landscape Architecture in 1992.
He shortly thereafter founded Designing Eden, which began as a landscape maintenance business in Trumbull, Conn. As the company developed, Mr. Schipul saw a need for a landscape company that could create memorable outdoor environments by combining creative design solutions with fine craftsmanship. Armed with his training and skills as a horticulturist and landscape architect, he moved Designing Eden into the planning and construction part of the industry, specializing in landscapes for historic houses. His business has been based in New Milford for the past eight years.
“My parents have a summer home on Candlewood Lake and I kept seeing this piece of property being advertised in New Milford,” he recalled. “I kept thinking that I should buy it with an eye on living there someday. So, three months later I did. When my wife (Christine) and I were married we moved to the property and lived in a small house that was on the land. It was 550 square feet and I had all my clothes in a three-drawer dresser,” he adds with laugh.” Along came two children, and the Schipuls built a large home on the property that also serves as a nursery for many of the company’s plantings.
“This is a perfect place for us. It is quiet and beautiful and much of the land around us is preserved as open space.” The property has a renovated barn and carriage house, and the Schipuls are in the process of clearing the land with a plan of building a horticultural showplace to include a design office, growing fields and display gardens to excite the senses.
As Designing Eden’s name indicates, Mr. Schipul’s overriding passion is to create unique and stunning gardens and landscapes for his clients, many of whom live in Litchfield County. He shows his visitor photos of a three-acre wildflower field he created for a client in Kent, as well as a garden for a historic home in Ridgefield center.
“The wildflower field is alive with color throughout the year and works, even though it butts up against the modern design of the home. The Ridgefield project is one of my favorites. The property was without much landscaping when we were hired and we were able to create a small, yet beautiful garden by mixing about 70 percent perennials into the landscape surrounding the house with 30 percent annuals; the latter we replace three times a year. It’s a historic home right on the town’s main street and the owners say they constantly have people coming up to the door and asking about the gardens.”
Although the firm undertakes projects on all types of properties, its specialty and affinity is renovating gardens of period homes, as well as creating old style gardens for new homes meant to look old. Mr. Schipul says his landscape designs are well thought out, environmentally sensitive and highly personalized. The landscape designs are created to complement the architectural style of a home, while also meeting a homeowner’s needs. The designs provide year-round interest by creating plant combinations with contrasting forms, leaf textures, colors and varying bloom times. Designing Eden installs and maintains gardens. Continued…
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