The gardens at Malvern House, my home, restored from the original blueprints. My wife's great-grandparents built the home on a high bluff overlooking the Ohio River in East Louisville, Kentucky. It was passed it down to her grandmother, who took special pride in the fourteen-acre garden laid out by the Olmsted Brothers, who were an influential landscape design firm run by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted.

When we purchased the property to bring it back into the family, the gardens were in a state of disrepair. I teamed-up with landscape designer, Tracy Williams for the restoration. Countless hours were spent on this project just to clear it out and reveal the skeleton of the original gardens. We placed an emphasis on finding disease-resistant bulbs, shrubs, and ground cover that could also compete with the existing root structure of mature trees. Bluebells, sages, valerian, white azaleas and boxwoods were brought in by the truckload. Every detail of this restoration was scrutinized to ensure that the original intent of the Olmstead Brothers to embrace the terrain, rather than chang it, was maintained.