We Spent 6 Months Building This Secret Italian Garden.

Welcome back to the renovation project of a lifetime as we show today the last six months of work to make the Italian gardens that once adorned this palace using historical records that we've found and inspiration from nearby villas to restore one of the most vital parts of this property. Locked by the Italian state for all these months from painting the interiors, we take out our frustration on a passion project that completely consumed us over the summer. Building from zero, an Italian garden that honoured the past but used the best of modern technology to make sure it could withstand the sands of time. At last able to enjoy these spaces inside and out for the first hosted event this palace has seen for almost half a century. Today's episode is as much about sentimentality as it is about a dramatic transformation as we've secretly been baking in the background over the last six months and during this long hot summer, a change to the palace that is truly reminiscent of its golden age. Welcome to what we call the North Garden, the space where we have this mysterious antique well at its heart and that is the oldest courtyard of the entire property. At first just about able to stay on top of it in terms of maintenance but of course during our months away over last winter, coming back to it being overgrown but revealing an interesting outline. Perhaps you can see it. You see we've long since known an elegant Italian garden used to occupy this space Barely visible now, but very much so when looking at one of the original paintings of the property that we found from the old auction magazine. We also have this old photo, showing it in real life as it were, from the 1930s, and not only that, this postcard from the 1950s shows a closer detail of how the stone balustrade used to be adorned by these gorgeous statues, of course no longer there. And so in early spring of this year we visited one of the best examples of these Italian-style gardens that we could find at Villa della Porta Bozzolo near to Lake Maggiore, demonstrating a remarkably similar formation to what's been lost at the palace, lined with cypress trees and flanked by those same stone balustrade details. But with no drones allowed, the only way to see it from above was to climb that monumental garden. At the foot of the hill, this grotto style fountain that reminds me so much of the folly that we have at the end of our long sweeping south garden. A glimmer of what it could one day be. And from above, it all becomes clear. So valuable to have a true to life and almost identically proportioned example to build our plans from. So after much studying, it was time to begin. We began by using this all-weather string to draw the outline and to guide the formation that we would be starting to carve out. We braved the aggressive mosquitoes of the early summer, we peeled away the weed-lined old boundaries that still indicated where the old formation used to be, using a spade to first cut the lines and then hacking away to create a proper barrier between the weeds and the grass. Already in my mind's eye, I could see the garden that it was about to become. And so next, we carved away the remaining infill of those pathways. And as those early summer weeks rolled on by, the initial shape was reborn. Next, clearing the decay of the sands of time, these old dead ivies that have been intentionally planted in lunettes that circled the perimeter of the garden. These too given the attention to be unearthed and put to one side, at least for now, waiting for the wider project to come together before their return. And before we could add any more to the garden, an important additional step, running subtle and soon to be hidden systems along the silhouettes. Thank you very much. for both lighting and hydration so that the beauty and maintenance of the garden can be automated. And with this predisposition work done, it was time to make sure that those weeds could never return with the use of industrial grade heavy woven fabric. And as this past summer heat wave scorched on, we would wait for the sun to pivot to a point where we could work in the shade, giving us just a few hours a day that we could edge this project forward, but cumulatively with the lunettes restored and at least the initial outline to be Time to be tidied up later, established, finally getting somewhere. Meaning that the real grunt work was about to begin with the ordering in of the first batch of gravel. But not only that, M's excellent work in sourcing us the most cost-effective yet gorgeous and mature citrus trees that we could possibly find on the local secondhand market. And so the first pass of this more coarse gravel that would form the foundation of everything else that was to come, gradually began to fill in these pathways. I'm taking the opportunity to then bring life to these electrical predispositions and then for everything to be compacted on top. You'll also notice these rough metal frames there to support the delineation and to be removed later. Now midsummer and our hopes of watching that famous solar eclipse scuttled at the last minute by what seemed to be the only cloud that emerged the entire season, it was time for the gravel of the actual pathway to be delivered, more elegantly sized and in pallet with those sandy tones of the property. And here's where I show you what much of our summer looked like, shoveling into a convoy of wheelbarrows on the one side of the property that the heavy machinery could arrive at to deliver the gravel and wheeling it through to the other side. And with the back-breaking and sweat-inducing work of bringing dignity back to these Italian gardens, it's with great thanks to today's video sponsor Wyld for helping me do the same, keeping me fresh throughout the day with their rechargeable and gorgeously scented lip balms, cleansers and antiperspirants, which has given me a low-waste, low-hassle but highly personalized way to stay on top of feeling my best. But what first drew me to Wyld was the concept of the the disposable element being plant-based, while the permanent element element being a high quality and customizable metal case. It made me take pleasure and a little bit of meaning out of my daily rituals of freshening up. But what made me stay was the huge selection of fragrances on offer, more than 20 alone for the deodorant stick. But being a professional renovator, it was the cleanser that was going to be the real workhorse of this product line. And I'm happy to report that the environmental credentials do not compromise on quality and the feeling of softness after washing. So treat yourself to a better way of staying fresh by scanning this QR code or clicking the link below and using the code JORDANK to get 20% off for a limited time only. And so the work continued, the summers here in Italy are long and so too was this aspect of the project. But with a quiet bloody-minded persistence, we finally got towards the end. But it felt so worth it, with this approach we'd taken even though time-consuming, meaning that this work should be able to endure for decades and generations ahead without the earth swallowing up the gravel as it had previously done and replacing them with weeds once more. And seemingly impatient to want to get the pathways completed, we went ahead and got these hefty terracotta vases, taller than a full height peanut. Now on to giving life to the many lunettes that circled the garden, this time choosing jasmine as the vine of choice, a more gentle and colourful option that would create a wall of intrigue throughout the different seasons. Makes sense. It was also a relief that after all of these works are now embedded within everything we'd done, M's predisposition work had come together and the testing of these systems were a huge success. The only thing missing now were the full-size citrus trees themselves. Having previously been a bit underwhelmed with what we'd been able to find locally, going a bit further afield and enlisting the help for the transport of these full-size beauties. So large, in fact, that it was almost tricky to get them to fit through those very generously-sized doors. So one by one, we planted and settled these majestic trees into their new home. Sixteen in total, each playing a critical role in forming a new relationship with the palace. One which pays homage to the past, but that looks to the future. A dance of perfect harmony between humanity and nature. A relationship the palace had once known long ago, it's been the honor of our lives to be so intimately involved in this initial stage of giving back the palace her Italian gardens. But there's still so much that we had planned, the adding of box hedging and topiary, as well as the actual furnishing of these gardens with dining and lounge spaces, not to forget the restoration and reactivation of that centerpiece well. Well, And so it's for this reason that you would have seen at the end of my last episode our work to create this dining area directly adjacent to this space. Us now reaching early autumn and knocking on the door of Halloween, everything was completed just in time to throw our hat in the ring of attempting our first hosted event, that of a gothic Victorian themed dinner party for Halloween. In reality only able to invite a handful of close friends who were comfortable enough to be crashing on the sofa, because of course we didn't yet even have any guest bedrooms brought online. But when has a little detail like reality ever gotten in our way? And so we had our fun, a little tongue-in-cheek way to have a taste of what's to come, soon restoring back the dining space to an area that remains front and centre of being able to enjoy the literal fruits of our labour. The next time we return to the north garden we'll be furnishing it, planting those box hedges and unfurling those wisteria and so much more. What a difference a season of work can make. So you know what to do, make sure you're subscribed with that bell icon checked so you don't miss it and I'll catch you on the next one. Thanks again to today's video sponsor Wylde which you can scan the code of on screen right now We'll use the link down below, inserting the code JORDANK to get 20% off.