They met one late fall evening in 1981 in a "darkened room"· at a Tribeca gallery. Duncan made jokes and Julia laughed. The rest is history ... As it turned out they had college friends in common.

Duncan went to Princeton where he was artistic director of Theater Intime. Previously at Collegiate he acted and dirccted. He even taught theater to classmates. Since he was "so sure" he would be a theater director, Duncan decided to get experience with film to make money. He lived, and worked in LA for three years, long enough to know, "I didn't want to pursue a career in the film business."

Julia majored in Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard and played violin in the orchestra. Through highschool she had studied violin with Broadus Earle, at the Yale's Department of Music. After Cambridge, she received a master's in painting at MICA (the Maryland Institute, College of Art) in Baltimore.

As their relationship grew, new plans formed. According to Duncan, "Meeting Julia marked the beginning of a multi-year transition in which I gave up my goal of becoming a feature film director. After reading Russell Page's The Education of a Gardener, I set it down and decided to pursue a career in landscape design."

As for Julia, "Around the same time, my ambition to be an exhibiting artist fell away. After a period of years, I decided to join with Duncan's ambition to form GardenLarge."

From the start, Julia took over the business aspects of GardenLarge. She created the plant and image database which they still use today.

"Julia was my art tutor." says Duncan. "I had experience with theater and film, but Julia taught me about art. I learned the difference between inspiration and imitation. Julia had me wanting to create original gardens."

After 7 years of rooftop, backyard, and suburban gardening work based out ofBrooklyn, they sought land and home close to the city. After leaving Brooklyn, they rented, while exploring a 75 mile radius around the city. "We were looking for an appealing town, well-located for our landscape design company. In Pawling we have enjoyed an ever­expanding community of neighbors and friends of all kinds. The ever-burgeoning scene in the Village of Pawling is remarkable."

After moving from Brooklyn, they had an outdoor wedding south of Pawling in Hortontown, NY, featuring Cambodian food prepared on the spot. Directly after the ceremony, they plunged into a chilly pond for a dip with friends.

In 1990, when they moved to Pawling, Julia was "very pregnant" with their first son, Kyle. (Nonetheless, Julia assisted the surveyor who mapped the property.)" Duncan's first conversation in Pawling was with Nancy Tanner in her Book Cove. Now, decades later, they still love their our special neighborhood distinguished by the historic Bluebird Inn.

Their first home came with two acres. Ten years later, they purchased the next-door neighbor's house with its four acres. The total, six acres, comprises the BrineGarden.

"We love the rural and historic quality of our neighborhood. Our property was part of Sheffield Farm, which supplied 50,000 bottles of milk a day to New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. Their old water tower is in the field east of Hurds Corner Road."

They love Pawling's natural aspects: long ridgelines, the Great Swamp, the Pawling Nature Reserve, the Appalachian Trail and strive to echo Pawling's ambiance in the BrineGarden.

"We value our proximity to wildlife and share our lives with birds and with bobcats, bears etc., living adjacent to us."

The Brines are avid supporters of FrOGS and take part in the annual Friends of the Great Swamp Celebration, which takes place at Christ Church on Quaker Hill. They discuss pollinators, invasive plants, and, most importantly, native plants, with children and their parents. The new president of FrOGS, Ken Luhman, posts remarkable pictures of the Great Swamp on Facebook. It's amazing to see all the wildlife that's thriving just across Route 22 from the BrineGarden.

The Brine family has long been a part of the Pawling Community. Kyle, 32, is their oldest son. He majored in philosophy at Brown, discovered the outdoors, traveled around the country, clearing and making trails and doing fuel reduction work in state and national parks. Recently, he discovered a passion for botany and is working and. living in Fort Collins, CO. Kyle is @kylephyte on Instagram. His parents' Pawling friends follow him, noting his scientific nomenclature and sly humor. Keep an eye on his hashtags.

Alden, 26, their younger son, lives in Poughkeepsie. Alden is a classical pianist. He's fortunate to study with his teacher of many years, Margarita Nuller. Margarita is a masterful, Russian pianist who keeps Alden challenged, recently with Rachmaninoff, Bach, and Scarlatti. Alden challenged, recently with Rachmaninoff, Bach, and Scarlatti.

They adore their black and white tabby, Maybelline. She's a true Pawling native, discovered as a kitten under the GardenLarge porch. Maybelline has inspired Julia's memes, such as "Maybelline, Ship of State."

The GardenLarge ...BrineGarden Story.

GardenLarge is a naturalistic landscape design/garden care company specializing in native plant, residential gardens, since 1984. their work is featured in the New York Times, Horticulture Magazine, American Gardener, Hudson Valley garden books, and yet other landscape design books. The author of the game-changing, Bringing Nature Home, Doug Tallamy, and his wife, visited the 6-acre BrineGarden to celebrate its 20th anniversary. GardenLarge, principal landscape designer, Duncan Brine, conducts the annual naturalistic landscape design seminar at the New York Botanical Garden. The BrineGarden's open days with the Garden Conservancy are in the fall. Garden clubs visit for tours with Duncan and Julia throughout the growing season.

"Although the BrineGarden is created for the public to explore," says Duncan, "my most immediate audience is Julia. In a way, the garden is all for her."

The goal of a naturalistic garden is to reveal the nature of a place. When he first discussed naturalistic landscape design with a publisher, they said, "What's that? You can't write books about something people don't already know about:" Now, years later, naturalistic landscape design is vogueish. It's popularized by non-other than Piet Oudolf, the designer of the High Line and many other public gardens in the US and Europe.

Naturalistic gardens are arranged for dramatic and emotional effect. Naturalistic landscape design is about revealing, connecting to, and blending with landscape.

If you know the Brines, you know that they are not all work and no play. You regularly see them hanging out at one of Pawling's wonderful bakeries, marveling at how lucky we are to have such quality food here. They are often the first to try a new restaurant in the area. Duncan and Julia enrich our town with their art, their sense of fun, and sophistication. They know how to live the good life!