One of the featured properties is Robert and Del Viarengo’s Plover Hill home which a rosa rugosa hedge that lines the driveway.
HEATH – The between the Mohawk Trail and Main Street in Heath Center is overshadowed by lush green – the chartreuse of the new growth on the evergreens mixed with their deep green needles, the hunter green of the deciduous trees’ leaves and the ubiquitous moss green of the fractals of the ferns that line the road.
But once you leave that evergreen world, cross the main street and ascend the driveway at Robert P. and Del Viarengo’s Plover Hill home, the pink blossoms on the rosa rugosa hedge that lines the drive give a welcome pop of color.
Indeed, color accents the periphery of their home, the original part of which was built in 1779.
Their well-manicured lawns are punctuated with gardens, brimming with green and generously punched with color, notably the purple lupine that on a late spring evening blankets the back wildflower meadow that also blooms with daisies, sweet William, coreopsis, yarrow and golden rod.
A leisurely walk around the house offers a veritable palette of color – depending on the progress of spring and summer – from the white blossoms of the old apple trees which still bear cider-making fruit to the purple lilacs and lavender, mock orange, honeysuckle, lilies of the valley, day lilies, yellow roses, myriad irises, foxglove, columbine and so many other varieties.
“I like them all,” Del Viarengo tells a visitor.
She has been gardening since she was a child, raised by her grandmother on a South Carolina farm with large flower gardens.
Since then, she has gardened wherever she could; while living in New York City she gardened vicariously at the nearby Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary.
There were “very pretty plantings” at her home in New Jersey, but this home in Heath has the most expansive gardens she has ever had.
She and her husband spend “a lot” of time in the gardens, and they have some part-time help with them.
Del Viarengo particularly enjoys the Heath property – which has tennis and bocce courts – because of the quiet, the peaceful sense of well-being and the town itself. “The people who live here are just wonderful – helpful and friendly,” she said.
An artist, she also appreciates the history of the house, built by Samuel Gould, which was once the summer home of two forward-thinking, well-traveled sisters who taught in Boston and often entertained “erudite” friends here and had socials to raise money for a mission in Africa.
The Viarengos’ 50 acres of conserved land is a testament to their appreciation of the beauty of the landscape and a reflection of widely held local values of open land, vistas and a peaceful, quiet atmosphere.
Though the Viarengos have added significantly to the gardens and tamed some of the overgrown areas present when they arrived, some aspects of the landscape harken to days gone by, like the field stone walls.
Robert Viarengo, a retired corporate executive, has spent nearly 20 years rebuilding about a half dozen walls on the property. “I thought it was important to preserve them because they have a past,” he said.
Some of the walls create a backdrop for gardens (and a resting place for the couple’s black cat, Juno), and strategically placed in them or around the property there are sculptures, some created locally. Some, like a family sculpture in the front meadow and an abstract sculpture in the front garden, were made by Mrs. Viarengo’s brother, Lyle L. Rudloff, of Rhode Island, a metal sculptor and welder.
The public will have an opportunity to visit the Viarengos’ garden as part of the Franklin Land Trust’s 23rd annual farm and garden tour.
The self-guided tours will take place on June 25 and 26, from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. each day, and include private gardens, unique farms, artists’ studios and historic sites in Heath and Charlemont on the scenic Mohawk Trail. A picnic lunch is available for $12 at one of the garden sites in a renovated barn. Lunch tickets must be reserved in advance.