For all the many reasons we love traveling, my top one is bringing home new ideas for the garden… or new ways to do something I’m already doing! “If we but open our eyes,” as my wise mother used to say. And for me, no part of the world can inspire that in us as the Lake region of Northern Italy. Those lakes just shine and shimmer as no others I’ve seen. So many “take homes” I’m going to be doing not one but two posts. Enjoy… and I hope you pick up some ideas that will inform the beauty of your garden!

Azaleas and rhododendrons were almost in full bloom during my trip; at Villa Carlotta’s garden I found this (feature image above) an appealing and creative way to show off their glory…makes me want to run up the hill in their embrace.

Such a masterful entrance!…the detailing of the arch, the elaborate stone potted “flowers” atop the pillars, the oval niches in the side walls. It well annouces that one is entering a special property.

I love the way the villas of the Lake District use wisteria as a design feature…here, succeeding iron arches run all the way down to the water.

A statement unto itself! Imagine pruning a tree of this height and scale into this shape…a popular form that we’d normally expect to see in small scale (ie. 6′) in a garden.

Here’s to making a statement! Thundering clouds of I-don’t-know-what, but this tops any cloud- pruned “hedges” I’ve ever seen! Truth be told, it has probably way outgrown the original location where it was planted.

One of the oldest garden design dictums is the use of repetition to create interest, and here you have it in spades…the arches, the balustarde, the pots atop the blustrade, the row of conifers in a line at the top. I also love the “broderie” of flower-filled scrolls on the lawn.

Another statement using this design concept of repetition…and there’s also drama in the scaling of the large globe-pruned standards and the pots along the water’s edge.

Reminder to self: always edge a stair with stepped ledges upon which to place identically designed pots (repetition!)

For a simpler, at home example of repetition (love the metal pot holders). Note that the pots also repeat the soft terrra cotta wall color of the building on the left.

I’m closing with one of the prettiest views in Tremezzo on Lake Como, Villa Carlotta. The visually light-as-a-feather gate with its massive pillars, supporting very large statues…and then an elegantly shaped pond ringed with broderie-clipped decoration in the pebble path…making for a perfect view from the second floor.

Stay tuned for next week’s Part 2 of inspiring garden and landscape design details. Grazie!