As we’ve all experienced, “life happens” — which also relates to a garden. Storms roar in and decimate an elegant knot border. Or a new home owner isn’t quite as keen about pruning the tall, cloud formation boxwood hedge as the original owner and the hedge is removed..
Or the divinely singular playhouse is moved offsite to a new home.
Or the maintenance of a too tall beech hedge becomes onerous, allowing the owner to install a long-considered new design for this garden crescent.
In other cases, an avid gardener chooses to re-think a new garden in place of the original.
Whatever the case, these are the times that make me especially thankful that my two books, Living Newport and Private Newport, documented what is no longer — and why we can say, “Gone, but not Forgotten.”
While it would be difficult to capture the original charm of this gardener’s potting area nestled into the corner of her clapboard home, this image can still provide inspiration galore.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Am new to your website and am loving it. How many mansions are still standing in Newport and do any of them have gardens open to the public?
Hello Debbie and welcome to PrivateNewport. Yes, many of the old mansions are still standing, thanks to the Preservation Society of Newport County and other preservation groups.
Their gardens are noteworthy, too. I recently did a blog on The Elms sunken garden which is worth a look, and of course The Breakers, Green Animals Topiary Garden and Doris Duke’s Rough Point.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
What an appropriate message for Valentine’s Day: treasure what you have in this moment. Thank you.
As a transplanted gardener from both Oregon and Skaneateles Lake New York I enjoy seeing again the beauty of green lawns and lush gaardens. Here in Arizona there is an overabundance of sand and cactus the beauty of which escapes me entirely. I have visited the Newport Mansions and their lovely gardens and plan to visit again.
That is quite a difference in locales! Hope a taste of Newport every so often will inspire you.