Hilltop Paradise

Carlotta Parsons’s Jamestown garden capitalizes on scenic vistas

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When Carlotta Parsons first arrived in Jamestown eight years ago, her new husband’s property was a welcoming place that offered stunning but obstructed views. “The first thing that struck me was looking out to a wall of bush,” she says. “As you drive up the driveway, you see the water. We’re up high and we overlook the entrance to Narragansett Bay, across to Castle Hill, and out to Block Island.” But the trio of enviable vistas were stymied with an abundance of overgrown trees and bushes. It was clear the landscaping was there but hadn’t been tended to, and as plants in fertile soil tend to do when in idyllic conditions, they overtook the property.

“Our first order of business was to move holly bushes from the garden over to the property line by the driveway – they were too big for that site,” she says. A dwarf blue spruce, which Carlotta says wasn’t very dwarf anymore, was compromising the views, so it was also relocated to open the space. “[It] is now thriving in its new location,” she says. “It was hiding a very beautiful rock,” which is now a focal point of one of the couple’s abundant gardens. In fact, indigenous rock can be found throughout the gardens – as walking stones, borders and visual interest. “No rocks were moved there,” she says. “They’re part of the natural topography of the land.”

Though digging in the dirt became de rigeur, the couple didn’t go it alone. They sought the wisdom of talented local green thumbs Mike Yarworth and Jane Case. Jane owns Blue Moon Farm Perennials in Wakefield, a stunning expanse as colorful as it is captivating. “She started that from next to nothing and has made it beautiful,” says Carlotta.

As the couple have experienced, their plentiful garden welcomes as many compliments as it does evasive, hungry critters. “We have had a huge challenge in keeping the deer from eating all the new growth in the garden,” says Carlotta. She’s curbing the issue safely by using American Deer Proofing spray on a regular basis. “As the new buds emerge, I can spray them. We have had huge success, and the deer now walk through our property avoiding the flower garden.”

For Carlotta, the garden brings peace and pleasure. “I get so excited working out there. I love it. I love digging and planting; it’s a joy for me.”

gardens, gardening, south county, carlotta parsons, jamestown, so rhode island

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