" Tell me, is the garden original to 1772 date of the house?"

" Parts of it are, we believe."

" And is it walled garden throughout?"

" Yes. That was a tradition brought over from Europe."

" How large is the garden?"

" It's large for Charleston. It's one of the two largest in the city. It's something under an acre."

" Wonderful."

" Bob, do you know what this is?"

" No, I don't recognize this tree. It's a beautiful color."

" It's a pomegranate."

" Pomegranate?"

" Yes."

" Oh, not my favorite fruit but it's an awfully pretty flower. I do love hydrangeas though. They are in full bloom here already in May."

" We value them so much in this hot climate because they give a cool feeling to the garden."

" Sure. Suzanne this portion of the garden is very formal. Would it be original to the house?"

" Yes, this parterre garden shows the French influence on our gardens in Charleston. It very likely it does date from the 18th century. It's one of the only part that does. Most of the garden was laid out in 1920 by Loutrel Briggs who is Charleston's best known landscape architect."

" Uh huh, and what's the concept?"

" The concept is a garden has a series of rooms."

" Sure. Well what's the next room? I hear water bubbling."

" Well that's the Court of Myrtles. Let's go back there."

" Sounds pretty. Now the crape myrtle is a tree that I really do associate with the deep South."

" Yes, I do too. To me, the real beauty of crape myrtle is its bark."

" Do they bloom?"

" Yes. They have a showy bloom about mid summer."

" White?"

" Well different colors. Some are white. Ours are the color of water melon."

" Oh really. Now this I recognized. This is a Magnolia tree, right?"

" Yes, another showy flower. Here, let me get you one. I love that heavy southern scent."

" It's just marvelous, it's just marvelous."

" So this garden room is quite large and again quite formal with the boxwood parterres around the edge and the trees in this beautiful fountain."

" The stone is limestone. Mrs. Washington Roebling, whose husband and father-in-law built the Brooklyn Bridge, is the one who had the garden laid out and was responsible for this fountain being here."

" Wonderful. So the Roeblings own the house back in the 20s?"

" Yes. By that time, Washington Roebling was dead but she owned it."

" And they built the Brooklyn Bridge."

" Yes."

" What's this little structure over here?"

" Oh this is the summer house."

" Well the summer house like this is really a garden folly. It has no roof but it's not a shelter."

" Yes. We think it is part of the original garden from the 1770s but this freeze probably dates from 1850 or so. It's limestone. And may have imported from England or possibly France."

" Yes it could. It certainly looks continental though, very pretty. Now, tell me, what changes have you brought to garden?"

" When we first bought the house and the garden, it was a ruined and very overgrown. The neighborhood children called it the secret garden when they played in it. But it had wonderful bones, we have the plans and we dug down and have restored it as much as we could, always keeping in mind that we'd like to keep its mystery and it's air of romance that it has."

" Have you added any new rooms or features to it."

" A swimming pool. "

" Oh neat."

" Suzanne, this pool seems as if it's always been here?"

" Our designer thought it was important to have a square pool and to put it right in the center of this alley, from the house to the back of the garden."

" Right, it's right on an axis and it's a square shape which is unusual."

" What's the size of it?"

" It's 25 x 25."

" Nice and I like the fact that they didn't finish it off white, because when you finished your pool gray like that, you get this wonderful rich color to the water."

" Yes, a little more natural look to it."

" What about your picket fences, it is new?"

" Loutrel Briggs, who designed the garden did this wonderful fence and many others in town and behind that, I'd just keep have a proteger. I grow vegetables and my husband grows vegetables and herbs and cut flowers for the garden."

" Nice. And then let's wonder down the alley here."

" Okay."

" Well this alley is really an access with the pool and with the back of the garden. That's part of the 1920s design."

" Yes. That was the intention. Exactly right."

" This is just beautiful though as you approach the house. And what's this little building over here? It looks like we're in France."

" This is the kitchen house and the carriage house. The kitchen house probably predates the house. It is made of Belgian block, which was probably ballast on the sailing ships."

" That's a great story."

" That came in the 1700s."

" That's a great story and of course you shade it here right up next to the house by this wonderful live oak trees."