Text: Chris Shonting
Photos: Kathy Lo
Where I’m from, a landscaper is a guy who drives around in a truck all day drinking beer and cutting lawns, sometimes even weedwacking the occasional rose bush by accident from time. Trust me, I used to be one of those guys back home. The type of landcaping that Brook Klausing does, is NOT the type I’m accustomed to. Brook’s landscaping is, as my white rapper friend would say, “on some famous shit.” It is bursting with creativity, inginuity, and personality, as well as an abilty to adapt to New York’s always slightly off-kilter spacial enviromentsm. Here’s a little Q & A with Brook about being New York’s high-end green thumb.

Hey Brook, my most pressing question is this: Who in their right mind moves from Kentucky (THE BLUE GRASS STATE) to New York City to do landscaping? Why not bring a weed wacker up to Everest and look for work?
I bet you if I did take a weed wacker up Everest it would be the first climb sponsored by Stihl. I think life sold me on the idea of the move. I started a landscape management company with my brother when we were kids and at 24 it all seemed scripted to me. One day you wake up and think, “Man am I going to do this shit my whole life?” I like the idea of being a small fish in a big pond rather than a big fish in a small pond. I lined up a job with a celebrated rooftop gardener in the city and made the move. New York seemed to me like the Wild West of landscaping when I moved here seven years ago. The work was plant-centric but style was the motivating factor. I love the whole picture and how spaces feel. Landscaping in NYC allows me the opportunity to create spaces that suburbanites might not value as much. When you see one of our gardens out the back window of a town house or on a roof, it becomes another space to inhabit rather than a just another yard.

Were you doing this stuff before you came to NYC?
I was only doing installation and landscape management down south. Container gardening was new to me along with NYC politics. I used to sell jobs to corporate property managers and Mrs. Jones’. I gladly left behind the whole production of kiss ass customer service. My job is to deliver a great product and make the process comfortable and sit well with clients. Business in New York just seems more about being real and loving what you do; manners and keeping clients happy is the standard. I still have my Southern drawl but it’s a lot faster and to the point.

What things do you draw on to figure out how to approach each project?
Each space and every client is different.. We aim to create gardens that compliment the client’s personalities and preexisting conditions. Some beautiful aspects should be highlighted, and there are some things that need covering up. Both engineering and building codes play big parts in the process, but all things can be overcome with creativity, as well as the desire to push and a solid budget. Classic European garden design in modern mode is at core of every project. It’s kinda like religion. You’re raised Catholic, you believe in those principles but your allegiance is not to the Church, it is to be a good person. The client’s aesthetic will tell us where and what gardening style we can take ideas from. From there we mix, match, and edit. Spatial intelligence rules most of the games we play.

What is your favorite type of foliage and why?
I love evergreens because they offer sculptural qualities and weight when you least expect it, and a year round garden is important to me. Summer is the peak season, but when you look out your window at that extra piece of real-estate you want to have a comforting effect when needed the most. It’s not for all my clients but I’m into Dr. Seuss looking plants, and black foliage has become a favorite. When paired up it makes any other foliage look rich and pop.

What is the benefit of talking to the plants? Does that actaully do anything? Do you suggest playing Beethoven to your gardens?
Do you believe in God? If so go ahead and talk to your plants too. From a horticultural standpoint, it ain’t worth a damn. From a love standpoint, sometimes the universe listens. All things are connected and if you’re talking to your plants, chances are you care more than the average Joe. If they still get sick, try Beethoven and let me know if it works.

Do you guys find yourselves doing a lot of work outside of just with plants to make the whole things sit together nicely?
Plants are just a percentage of what we do. Our average job consists of 80% construction and 20% plants. This is the best part about gardening in the city, architecture matters and how the plants relate to that is behind every success story. When space is limited, everything matters. Our stone walls offer overflow seating, our bench planter boxes have storage built in, lighting allows you to use the garden anytime, and looks hella sexy. We installed walk-on glass over a lot of existing skylights so the client could maximize the use of his 20′ x 20′ Soho roof top. Now instead of 4 stories, he has 5. A lot of my friends do high-end interiors. We offer that same thing outside in a space that is often under-utilized.
Do you bring in other folks to handle the carpentry that seems to be incoporated into most of the stuff?
I’ve been very lucky to have such a talented group of craft people to work with. Our staff manages all aspects of a project but can’t always do everything in house. We’re often juggling multiple jobs, depending on the schedule we may subcontract out components of a project. When I’m interviewing potential employees or subcontractors, I look for people that love what they do. Every medium has different quirks and variables. The more specialists I work with, the more value it adds to every project. I’ve collaborated with an architect friend of mine for years now on certain projects that deserve a second opinion. When you love what you do, focus on that. Don’t act like you know it all because you don’t. My favorite woodworker is more than happy to tell me if I’m making a design mistake, and she is always ready with a better move. You listen then you read what feels right after you fully understand. We are equal parts passion, craft, and style.

What  is the oddest or most challenging request a client has come to you with for their home garden, patio etc?
We built a custom armoire for a client and had to have it craned through a second story window. It was not a request but to pull off all the engineering aspects of what the closet offered, it couldn’t make it up the stairwell to the bedroom. This piece was a challenge and we obsessed over it. I generally start out loving something, get in the thick of it, hate it, and love it again when its done. Getting a twenty-foot, 500 pound steel I beam through a townhouse and to the second floor was also a challenge. All request within reason, from there we decide if we want to partake or if it is just best to walk away.

Have you ever just been stumped on how the hell to make something work?
I have a history of construction work and I know renovating is always a can of worms as opposed to starting with a clean slate. In NYC it seems rare to have a clean slate with most of the buildings and properties here. One of the toughest spaces I did was pimping out an existing 9 x 7 deck. They wanted a gas grill, storage for the kids toys, a place to sit four and for it to feel like a private garden. I love that shit! Once you pay some attention to the problem an answer generally presents itself. There are not rights or wrongs, it’s more a series of choices that please the audience you’re talking too. I have a catalog of tricks for every challenge we have faced to date, and every job we do there’s a new and different problem, it’s rare that you get to start from scratch, and a lot of good solutions come from those challenges.

You ever find yourself just sitting around with a couple of beers and watch Little Shop of Horrors?
You’ll definitely find me chillin sipping on a brewski. Little Shop of Horrors was rad when I saw it in the fifth grade … “Feed me Seymour.”

Do you have any new or interesting projects coming up? For isntance I know there’s an outdoor glider thing. But I don’t quite get what the hell that is.
We are juggling a few projects. I’m most excited about an outdoor glider I’m collaborating on with a friend of mine. It’s inspired by the classic old metal love seat gliders but with a taste of modernism. They will be made with random reclaimed batches of wood like Coney Island’s boardwalk and redwood from a deconstructed water tower. All I’ve done is “one-off” custom pieces over the past few years, so it’s sweet to be doing something for ourselves. I’m a sentimental sap, and this piece is designed with the nostalgia for sitting on the patio as a kid just rocking the day away down south. We will be offering them on the website this spring in a single or a love seat version. Keep and eye out on the web for all the cool stuff happening.