SOURCE: Boston Home Magazine, Best of Boston Home
WHY WE LOVE IT
When landscape architect Gregory Lombardi accepted a job to design the exterior plantings for a large Georgian estate, he encountered a neglected garden created by the office of Frederick Law Olmsted. Rather than raze it or slavishly follow the highly formal 19th-century plans, Lombardi used the Olmsted drawings as a guide to create a romantic landscape that feels just on the cusp of decay. The lush plantings—white euonymus, Royal Burgundy, and boxwood—have a loose, somewhat overgrown appearance that suited the client’s aesthetic. Lombardi also restored the existing stone cherub and small pond, and designed a new gazebo fitted with a fanciful red swing and a custom plaque inscribed with the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote “Earth laughs in flowers.”