Gardens

Secret Gardens of Charleston

Historic Charleston Foundation celebrates its 70th Annual Festival of Houses and Gardens beginning March 16. Step into three of the city’s most charming private green spaces

Photo: Tim Bower


Garden on South Adger’s Wharf
This hidden treasure cannot be seen at all from the surrounding cobblestoned streets. During the festival, explore the formal parterre garden with ferns, lemon trees, and a miniature allée of palmettos underplanted with dwarf bamboo.


Garden of the Vincent Le Seigneur House
Crushed limestone pathways divide the garden rooms into parterres filled with shrubs and climbing roses, primarily in shades of green and white.


Garden of the William C. Gatewood House
The four-year restoration of this antebellum masonry home included an overhaul of the gardens by the noted landscape designer Deborah Nevins, who added a boxwood-lined plunge pool surrounded by Charleston standards—wisteria, azaleas, crape myrtles, and Sabal palmettos.


CJ Lotz Diego is Garden & Gun’s senior editor. A staffer since 2013, she wrote G&G’s bestselling Bless Your Heart trivia game, edits the Due South travel section, and covers gardens, books, and art. Originally from Eureka, Missouri, she graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she tends a downtown pocket garden with her florist husband, Max.


tags: