HANGING GARDENS OF FLORENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 14

HANGING GARDENS OF FLORENCE

How would .you like to plant your garden on your roof? Why, it would be rather fun, wouldn't it . . .a garden with nothing to overshadow it, all open to the sun? But first we would have to persuade our skies to remain always gentle and warm as they do in -Florence. , ..In that very lovely, city many beautiful gardens are perched high on the house-tops, and the beauty of the buildings is framed to make unforgettablo pictures. . •: These hanging gardens are often invisible from the street, as they are :mostly;made high up among'the-tiles. JTrom one of them, perhaps, beautiful architecture and faint distant hillsides are seen between a vine or'rose-trellis. To make or keep one of. these roof gardens, soil has to be carried up innumerable stone steps, and such things as lemon trees, oleanders, and even the humble squash need quite a weight of it to thrive.

. Sometimes one sees quite mature trees, such as cypress or pine, and ■their dark foliage certainly contrasts better than anything with the pale gold and mulberry of the houses below, but they are doubtless brought up to need the least possible amount of earth, and do not attain any great stature.