BARNSLEY GARDENS AT WOODLANDS

THE GARDENS  

Christopher continues in his next phase for the Barnsley Mansion at Woodlands scene. The mansion has been completed and he is now building the gardens based on diagrams from the book. Nothing like having the research to authentically replicate a scene. Early construction of the mansion can be found in the list of LABELS in the right margin.

The view to the left is a diagram from Godfrey Barnsley's plan for his gardens. The author refers to this as the parterre "a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern." Wikipedia. We simply copied and enlarged this diagram to a close-to HO scale with selective compression for a  reasonable fit. You'll notice this is pre-mansion given the structures illustrated. Barnsley had not yet built his home.

    The  photo to the right is the gardens from the mansion's 2nd or 3rd floor. Although very post civil war, they stayed close to the original design concept. 

Below left you see Chris slicing hedges from Faller. Although a bit tedious as it is a fibrous foam product (nothing new for Chris), smaller lengths are a great fit. A foam-core base allows Chris to remove it while he constructs the garden. And to the right you see the addition of the first hedges and a sense on how the scene will come together. My wife, Ku'uipo, is looking forward to adding the flowering plants, ornamental trees and the green roses that Godfrey horticultured. She loves real gardening so those of you looking to involve your wife, significant other...