UUPeople

Garden party: Personal vision planted firmly in UUPer’s backyard

On a small piece of land tucked into a hillside near the Atlantic Ocean, Robert Reganse has made his backyard a composite of the ancient world. He has transformed a one-time desire to be a classical historian into the creation of an enchanted garden filled with Greek, Roman, Etruscan, French and Egyptian statues, surrounding a pond filled with fish waiting to hear their stories.

“The whole idea is to create a sense of serenity,” he said of his three-year project.

Reganse, who teaches math at SUNY Farmingdale’s Educational Opportunity Center (EOC), bought a tiny, new house in Rocky Point, on Long Island, and set about changing his small, sloped backyard into a paradise of the past. He put in a lower-level patio, a retaining wall with 17,000 pounds of blocks, and hauled in 23 cubic yards of dirt to even out the yard. He made a long courtyard off the side of the house as well, so it is almost as if his yard has outdoor rooms.

In the side “room,” Reganse — a UUP chapter vice president for academics — has a large painted cast cement lion’s head fountain which, combined with the Renaissance block wall, gives the effect of a ruin. A chiminea — or small, freestanding fireplace — set in the corner is a replica of an Egyptian pharaoh. Bronze sculptures of Pan, Cupid, Psyche and a Rhine maiden seem to weave their mythology through the blades of grass.

A plaque of Apollo hangs across the back of a fence Reganse had installed. Apollo looks out at the pond, which Reganse had his son and friends dig in the main courtyard of the garden. The water is draped with lilies and filled with bursts of color as red and orange fish swim through it. Goldfish, koi, golden orbs and rosy reds make their home here. Ornamental grass sways in a breeze.

On an outside gate, he has hung a plaque of Medusa, a figure that ancient people put on doors to keep away bad spirits.

Scattered throughout the garden, which Reganse planted lovingly by hand, are a faux marble replica of the Three Graces; Hepe, a cupbearer who personifies youth; Venus and Aphrodite; and an Etruscan bust, from pre-Roman civilization.

As a graduate student, Reganse spent two years in Italy, studying Roman hist-ory and “hanging out with the Italians,” he said with a laugh. “I’m 100 percent Italian. I learned a lot.”

However, he had difficulty learning the range of languages needed to become a classical historian, so eventually he decided to pursue other teaching ideas. At Farmingdale, where he started as an EOC adjunct, he created his own history course comparing American history with events in ancient Greece and Rome. When the EOC social science program was eliminated, he worked as a recruiter, and now he is an associate professor of math and economics. He has been employed at Farmingdale for 28 years.

At night, the lights shine on the statuary in his yard and the waterfall plunging into the pond. Lanterns and candles are scattered throughout the yard.

The music of the ancients comes through the copper pipes of a giant wind chime Reganse created.

In the fall, he puts down a net to catch falling leaves, so they don’t clog the pond. In the winter, he leaves the waterfall fountain running because it makes a little hole in the ice and releases toxic gases for an air exchange so the fish can survive to enjoy their role in this mythical garden.

— Liza Frenette