One Timeless Garden

James Morton, a museum designer, antiques dealer, and expert gardener, opened his gate to the tour last year. (Although not in this year's event, it's open to his antiques shop customers on East Jones Street.) A stone walk meshed with formal brickwork leads into a paradise where statues of cherubs peek out among his bonsai collection. The middle point of the garden features a topiary compass. Nearby little tufts of ferns grab a toehold on the base of a fountain, enjoying every drip of cool water. "My garden gives the feeling of holding back nature to form civilization," James says. We see what he means with the delicate lichens growing on a 17th-century Italian olive oil urn exhibiting the crest of the Medicis.

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