BRINGING A BIT OF ROME BACK HOME TO THE GARDEN

A Garden at the Villa Aurelia, Rome

What a surprise when we turned a corner into the courtyard of the Villa Aurelia and saw these amazing 5' squares of grass and white marble chips. Each pot contained a perfectly sculpted tree on a standard (in the next weeks replaced by lemon trees).

Our first thought was, "can this be done back home?' Hmmmmmmmm!

To the Drawing Board

That night, at the Academy, we drew plans suited for our existing terrace garden which was in transition and needed a change. Boy, what a change!

Well, they say Rome was not built in a day...hey, no problem!

We consider the size and climate of our garden and how to adapt a garden in Rome to a garden in New Hampshire.

With the Garden Conservancy "Open Days" Tour looming, Michael G., brother of James, volunteered his services and his technical skills and precision (a former pilot) as well as being handy with a shovel.

Green Gem Boxwood

We called a reliable source, Doug at the Mixed Border, Hollis NH, to find us the best boxwood for this project. Here they are lined up waiting their turn to get hair cuts and then be planted.

We had 3 existing lilacs ( meyeri palibin) we kept from the former garden, now the 4th was being added by James.

The grid work is complete. The outer area of pea stone is complete and the boxwood are all planted and given a good watering. Next decision, what will be the color of stone that will be in the alternating squares?

We decide to use the same granite pea stone, slightly lightened with a measure of white marble.

The garden is just about complete. A view looking across the new terrace garden to the petite allee.

The GC tour is two days away!

The boxwood........ready for the tour.

Here is the new garden on the day of the garden Conservancy Tour. Thanks to James and Michael the garden is complete.

For all of us preparing the gardens have meant an enormous amount of work.

This garden is a sweet reminder of Rome.