Thursday, April 16, 2015

Garden Inspirations from a Roman Emperor

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need" Marcus Tullius Cicero


Spring is finally here in Rome and if there is anything synonymous with spring, it is a garden. Today I visited two wonderful places located forty minutes outside of Rome, in a town called Tivoli: The Villa D'Este and Hadrian's Villa.  Villa D'Este has the most wonderful gardens you can imagine, and I would post hundreds of pictures if I could.

If you are planning to revamp your garden, why not take some inspiration from these UNESCO world heritage sites?  I'm not an empress and certainly I'm no gardener (I have the brownest thumb anyone can have), but I've found much needed inspiration in the gardens of Villa D'Este and Hadrian's Villa to try to apply to the garden of my humble home. 

Here are some pointers of what I saw today:

1. Consider adding rhythm to your garden: Find something you like and repeat, repeat and repeat. 



2. Add a fruit tree to your garden, they are beautiful and yummy at the same time.  Plus the reward of knowing where your food comes from is priceless!


3. A water feature will make you feel like an empress/emperor



4. Flowers flowers everywhere.  We are all used to flower beds, have you considered having flowers above your head?

5. Multi-Function Shrubs: Rosemary is resilient, edible and has beautiful blooms, if Emperor Hadrian used it so can you.




I hope you enjoyed today's post, if you have any other gardening advise please leave it in the comments section, I need all the help and motivation I can get.

Arrivederci for now,

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