From DESIGN-Northern Kentucky's Home, Garden & Lifestyle Magazine-September 2002
Pots overflowing with lush flowers and greenery line the front steps and porch. Rex begonia, ivy, wandering Jew and million bells bask in the dappled shade. The tiny front garden blooms in all white. A serviceberry tree stretches its flowery arms above "Delaware White" azaleas, sweet woodruff, ferns and "Deutschland" astilbe. Myrtle tosses out a lavender bloom from time to time. Shiny green holly bushes add to the cool feeling of this shady garden.
Gerri Jones lives and tends her garden on Mansion Hill in the Historic District of Newport. It is one in a row of narrow red brick houses, on the National Register of historic Palces, and is the third house that Gerri and her husband Bill have renovated in the Newport historic district.
In back is the Italian-inspired garden. This garden, although only a year old, was featured on the pretigious East Row Garden Walk last spring.
Before Gerri transformed it, the walled back garden consisted of scruffy grass and a brick walk accented with weeds. But Gerri saw the potential for an enclosed garden such as those she admired on visits to Tuscany, Italy.
Gerri had help in tackling the project. Allen Brothers Landscape designed and planted the hardscape and installed the garden's "bones," including the major tress and shrubs and some groundcover.
It's a collaborative effort. Ben and Joe Allen developed the landscape plan and then worked with Gerri and Bill to perfect it. Says Gerri, "I have lots of ideas...we put our heads together. They brought out samples of things and we selected our favorites. They met us at the nursery to choose the larger plants."
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