Restoration
Rebuilding Before and after Building the pool and gardens Furnishing History Contact us Renting information |
Building the pool and gardensAfter buying the house in 2001 we dreamed about creating gardens and a pool. We cleared weeds repeatedly, mapped the land, made a scrapbook of images and sketched out our ideas.
What we finally achieved in 2008 is even better than we imagined, thanks to the support our architect, Giancarlo Bergamaschi and his team at www.studiobergamaschi.it Steps lead down to a sheltered wisteria terrace, formerly the site of the chicken coop. A path under rose arches leads to the octagonal ‘bandstand’ terrace (shaped to fit between overhead wires) and down the central staircase (made with deep treads ‘to fit David’s feet’) to the ‘prato inglese’ – a piece of English lawn that is a triumph of man over nature. At the centre of the garden is a monumentally large flowerbed, richly coloured throughout the summer, most unusual locally. Next to the pool are the ‘wild’ terraces that we bought to have somewhere to put the spoil from this project. In 2011 we planted fruit trees, a willow tree, and daffodils as a reminder of England. A little orto (vegetable garden) on the top terrace is the next challenge! |
Before and after
A shed for hens ... becomes a terrace and path A field of nettles ... becomes a pool and gardens
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