Newsday Garden Detective Jessica Damiano takes you along as she explores celebrity gardens on LI.

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She's a model. She's a mom. An actress. An artist. A photographer and writer. A jewelry and fabrics designer. And she speaks French fluently. But the best part is that Christie Brinkley is a gardener and avid organics enthusiast. Call her a Renaissance woman, if you will. 
Brinkley is the first model to have graced the cover of <a href="/topics/Sports_Illustrated">Sports Illustrated</a> for three consecutive years, and, at age 52, she's still representing Cover Girl cosmetics. She has three children, Sailor Lee, 11, and Jack Paris, 14, who live with her at her gambrel-style home, Tower Hill, which is set on 22 acres of rolling hills in Bridgehampton, and singer <a href="/topics/Alexa_Ray_Joel">Alexa Ray Joel</a>, 23, who comes home most weekends, often with her band in tow. (The house is for sale.) 
I spoke with Brinkley last month about my favorite topic, gardening, which turned out to be a shared passion between us. 
&nbsp; 
How did you become interested in gardening? 
I grew up on the beach in <a href="/topics/Malibu">Malibu</a>, and we didn't have gardens there. My house was on a pile of sand. My mom had a couple of ice plants in a container on the deck, so, for me to get my hands in the soil, I was so intimidated. I thought I had to be an expert. I didn't know what to do, so I called a gardener, Scott Chaskey, whose son was on my son's baseball team. He's a major organic farmer out here and he came to my house and demystified it for me. But I still throw the seeds in and read the back of the pack. 
 
What's your gardening style? 
I'm an experimental gardener. I mix and match, and I love it. I have a cutting garden and themed terraces. One of my patios near the house - I call it my <a href="/topics/California">California</a> terrace - I have planted things that remind me of home: orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit trees, and I underplant them with orange nasturtiums that cascade - those grow on the hills in <a href="/topics/Malibu">Malibu</a>. And on my kitchen terrace next to it, I plant things that look so East Coast to me: all my cascading petunias, and I usually have geraniums and dahlias in pots. 
&nbsp;Do you grow vegetables? 
I always mix my tomatoes together, so I have heirlooms and cherry tomatoes and yellow tomatoes all mixed up. And I have perennial tomatoes! They're voracious and vigorous and they come back and take over the entire plot. But I'm a little embarrassed about my vegetable garden because of the weather and my lack of time - launching my new jewelry line took a bit of time. 
&nbsp;Do you have a color scheme? 
I try to do different pinks. I love them all blended together. I always think of hydrangeas as so <a href="/topics/Hampton">Hampton-</a>y. To me, they're such an East Coast thing, and I love them so much. I love picking them when they're young, before they turn blue, when they're still greenish, and in the fall when they're like apples. 
&nbsp;Tell me about your house. 
Tower Hill was built by the Gardiner family of Gardiners Island. It has a folly tower that rises eight stories high so they could always keep an eye on their garden. I go up there to watch the rainbows, the sunset and the storms. Then I have a little shack on the beach, and I plant Rosa rugosaand all indigenous beach plantings, native grasses, Montauk daisies in flower pots. Easy-breezy, carefree stuff there. All my properties are all organic. 
&nbsp;Why organic? 
That is very, very important to me as a mom. I would rather have my kids running around on weeds and clover than on nitrates and chemicals and scary things they put in fertilizers. And I really believe that buying organic fruits and vegetables is a huge step in helping our planet because, when you think about all that runoff going into the streams and the oceans, we just have to stop doing that before it stops us dead. I really encourage everyone to go green, go organic. A lot of people will say, 'It's so expensive,' but I always explain to them it's so shortsighted to look at the cost of an apple when you look at the cost of health care in America when all those pesticides are causing so many problems all along the line. If we all join in and start buying organic produce, the cost will go down rapidly, and so will health care costs down the line. For my new fabric line, we're using all organic fabrics; we're even making polyester out of recycled water bottles. It's like silk. 
&nbsp;Were there any gardens on the property when you moved in? 
There was not. I actually carved this garden into a hillside. I trellised the hillside and used the terrain and put in all the boulders that were coming up from the earth during the renovation of the house, and I used them in the retaining walls. They hold the heat in the spring and help my seeds get off to a great start.&nbsp; 
What did you first plant? 
I got the most perfect gingko tree to put by my kitchen door, and it grew so perfectly across the kitchen patio you actually have to duck to get into the kitchen. It's just lovely. I added a couple of great Kousa dogwoods. I found a lot that didn't look so perfect, so they'd fit into the landscape. I'm more into the English garden look where things look natural. 
&nbsp;Do you take care of the gardens yourself? 
At first, I made a point of making the vegetable garden that just me and the kids would tend. And for many years we did. I still feel that way, but the reality of my life is my kids have moved on and they're not that interested in the garden anymore, and nowadays I can't always get out there to water, and the caretaker helps me get things in. It's still my garden. 
&nbsp;How much time do you spend out there now? 
Not enough. I deadhead my terraces with my morning coffee. I just pinch my petunias between my fingers. I noticed that my fingertips were a little sore from all the deadheading. Usually sometime in the afternoon I try to get out to my vegetable-flower garden and mainly go out to see what's going on and to cut bouquets, because I cut all the bouquets for the house. 
&nbsp;What are your favorite plants? 
I love dahlias, sunflowers - they're so country and happy, and I absolutely adore peonies. This season, the Chinese tree peony captivated me. I also have some spectacular roses, and I also love simple flowers like daisies and cosmos. 
&nbsp;I understand some of the jewelry in your new Celebrate line is based on your garden plants. Which offered the most inspiration? 
The simple daisy. The eye in the center and the petals. There's something so simple and pure about it. I had a little white sailboat and I named it The Daisy because there's something so fresh and appealing about it. I wanted to do something fresh and summery and I did a bracelet that's like a smattering of little daisies all around your wrist. I also did a turquoise earing that looks sort of like a cosmos but more pointed.&nbsp; 
What do you enjoy most about your garden? 
I literally can get a lump in my throat thinking about my garden and the peaceful moments I've had there and the moments I've shared with my children there. The peace and the gentle conversations. I step into my garden and I feel this peace, this gratitude that just swells up in me. I'm so grateful to have my little piece of Earth. To get there early in the morning and see the little dewdrops. This connection with nature, this deep humbling gratitude for this overwhelming beauty that we're provided with. It just really moves me to be able to have that time to just appreciate nature's beauty. It's a miracle.

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In the garden with Christie Brinkley

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For the past six years, celebrity chef Ina Garten has been a fixture on The Food Network, where, on her "Barefoot Contessa" show, she shops, cooks and entertains, demonstrating for viewers that simple is not only easier - it's better. Not surprisingly, her casual elegance carries over from her kitchen to her garden. 
I spent an afternoon with Garten earlier this month at her East <a href="/topics/Hampton">Hampton</a> home, a 3,500-square-foot shingle-style house set on 2 beautifully maintained acres, with a studio-kitchen (recently built in a separate building she calls "the barn"), where she also develops new recipes and writes cookbooks. 
The gardens behind the house are formal, yet casual, with mostly purple-, blue- and green-flowering plants randomly placed within perfectly trimmed boxwood frames connected by gridlike walkways. Annuals, perennials and vegetables share the space, while the herb garden, behind the barn, boasts lush plantings including rosemary, chives, thyme and catmint, which one can smell immediately upon entering. 
Garten is as warm and unpretentious in person as she is on TV, and she seems genuinely honored that her kitchen and herb garden have been chosen by House Beautiful magazine as "kitchen of the year'' and re-created for public display this week at <a href="/topics/Rockefeller_Center">Rockefeller Center</a>. She offered me cookies and coffee, and I sat with her in the barn and chatted about her life and gardens. 
&nbsp; 
What came first for you - cooking or gardening? 
Definitely cooking. 
&nbsp; 
When did you start gardening? 
When I moved to East <a href="/topics/Hampton">Hampton</a> in 1985, I rented a house that had woods behind it, and I just started clearing the woods and underplanting. And one day, a local nursery started delivering trees and my husband said, "I think you need to buy a house," because it was a rental. I was landscaping a rental! 
&nbsp; 
Do you still tend your gardens yourself? 
I did for a long time, but I just don't have time now. I started the way I started my stores, in a small garden, up to my elbows in dirt, but now I have so much else going on, I have terrific people to do it. 
&nbsp; 
What's your gardening style? 
Organized but messy. I have very tight boxwoods, but inside them, it's messy. And when you have something that's messy, it's important that you have a very tight color palette, so it has blue, purple, orange - and lime green to give it life. But if you start adding all sorts of pinks and other colors, then it looks just like a big bowl of M&amp;Ms, which is OK, but not in the garden. 
&nbsp; 
What's growing now? 
I have verbena bonariensis, lime green alchemilla, lime green nicotiana, salvias, irises, roses and rows of hydrangeas that I use for cutting. I also cut snapdragons and dahlias. And I have vegetables and orange nasturtiums. 
&nbsp; 
Which are your favorites? 
Always hydrangeas. And on the side of the house, there's a huge long row of beach roses called Blanc Double de Coubert. It's a very fragrant double-flowering white beach rose. It blooms prolifically around <a href="/topics/Memorial_Day">Memorial Day</a> weekend and then a little bit during the summer and it takes no work whatsoever. I love blue, lime green with a little bit of oranges. I love the flowers on the chives, they're just gorgeous. I have carrots that are fantastic - they're red on the outside and yellow on the inside and they're so sweet and delicious. My favorite are the English cucumbers. My favorite thing in the herb garden is my fig tree; this is its second year, and I'm hoping we have figs this year. 
&nbsp; 
Do you cook all your meals at home? 
No. Do you? Does anybody? I either go to a restaurant or to somebody's house or I cook. 
&nbsp; 
I see you snipping herbs on your show. Do you eat what you grow in the herb garden? 
We use the herb garden all the time. The show is a very small part of my life. It's just about two or three weeks, twice a year. The main part of my business is my cookbooks, so what I do every day is test recipes for my cookbooks, and that's what we use the herb garden for. 
&nbsp; 
What's your favorite herb garden ingredient? 
Fresh thyme. I like thyme with lemon. I like thyme with garlic, and I'm known for my roast chicken, which is a very simple roast chicken with lemon and a big bunch of thyme in it, and onions. That's the thing I probably make the most. 
&nbsp; 
What's your favorite item in the kitchen? 
Wusthof knifes and All-Clad pans. You can't do anything without either one of them. They're really good quality, they're really simple and you don't need a million of them. You just need some, and they last a lifetime, both of them. 
&nbsp; 
On your show, you're always either dining al fresco or in the house with a bunch of friends. Are you really eating and are they really your friends? 
They're absolutely really my friends. We're really eating. We're really having a party. A lot of people ask me, "Is that really your husband or is that your TV husband?" It's really my husband. I think if you make it up, it looks made up. When I'm filming a show, I invite people over and I say, "Come for a party," and we actually really do have a party. 
&nbsp;PERFECT ROAST CHICKEN 
&nbsp;By Ina Garten 
&nbsp;One 5- to 6-pound roasting chicken 
Kosher salt 
Freshly ground black pepper 
1 large bunch fresh thyme 
1 lemon, halved 
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise 
2 tablespoons butter, melted 
1 Spanish onion, thickly sliced 
1 cup chicken stock 
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 
&nbsp; 
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 
2. Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of the lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Scatter the onion slices around the chicken. 
3. Roast the chicken for 11/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy. 
4. Remove all the fat from the bottom of the pan, reserving 2 tablespoons in a small cup. Add the chicken stock to the pan and cook on high heat for about 5 minutes, until reduced, scraping the bottom of the pan. Combine the 2 tablespoons of chicken fat with the flour and add to the pan. Boil for a few minutes to cook the flour. Strain the gravy into a small saucepan and season it to taste. Keep it warm over a very low flame while you carve the chicken. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve immediately with the warm gravy. 
5. If you want to roast vegetables with the chicken, place 8 whole small red potatoes, 4 carrots, cut diagonally, and add them with the onions. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables for roasting. 
Serves 3 to 4. 
&nbsp;Copyright "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook," Clarkson Potter Publisher 
&nbsp; 
House Beautiful tour in Manhattan 
Tour a reproduction of Ina Garten's kitchen and herb garden on the site of the <a href="/topics/Rockefeller_Center">Rockefeller Center</a> ice rink, all week long. It's open from 2-4 p.m. on Monday, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The <a href="/topics/Rockefeller_Center">Rockefeller Center</a> Tastes of Summer food festival runs alongside the kitchen on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

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In the garden with Ina Garten

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Inside celebrity gardens

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