
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103190081
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN                    PAGE: LG-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY/ HOMES EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ITALIAN-STYLE GARDEN IS WORK OF ART IN PROGRESS

The Roanoke city block where Roanoke artist Eric Fitzpatrick lives is as American as it can be. A fire station is in view of his front porch. So are a neighborhood grocery and a pharmacy and a 7-Eleven store, where neighborhood youngsters park their bikes and buy junk food.

But, behind Fitzpatrick's traditional square brick house on Richlieu Avenue Southwest is another world. It is a world that speaks of romance and history, and one that also represents a considerable amount of physical labor.

"I wanted to recreate Italy, my favorite spot in the world," Fitzpatrick said of his garden-in-progress.

The artist has lived and studied in Italy on several occasions. The Virginia Tech orange moped parked on his patio is not there because he is a Tech graduate - which he is - but because Italians love their scooters.

The garden, just two years old, is surrounded by a privacy fence that shuts out the trashcans in the alley, but not the view of Mill Mountain. The mountain view was one of the pluses of his backyard, he said, and he wanted it as part of the outdoor environment he is building.

Building is the right word for what has gone on in Fitzpatrick's yard. Four-by-fours have been laced into an open roof for the patio just outside Fitzpatrick's studio. The beams already are being covered with grapevines and wisteria. Holly bushes outline the patio and are themselves outlined with upended red brick that set off the white pebble walkways circling through the garden.

Fitzpatrick and family and friends planted 110 holly bushes as part of the project. The only portion farmed out to professionals was the goldfish pond that already supports four fat fish and is the bowl for tall water grasses and lilies. With the fish pond as a center, the garden has been engineered into holly-lined berms on which bricks create architectural patterns.

This spring, plantings will go into flower beds inside the bricks.

Along the fence, lattice with curved arches has been designed into grottoes for statuary, such as boy with paint brush and pallette and a couple of satyrs. When he finds something he likes, he fills in the blanks, Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick bought the statues at a roadside shop in Rockingham, N.C., on his way to the beach. The formal columns that support the patio trellis were bought from a man who salvaged them from an area house demolition. Cement planters boasting Roman freizes were found at a Roanoke Valley shop.

Just as an artist seldom knows where his art is going when he begins to sketch or paint, Fitzpatrick isn't sure where his garden design will end up either.

"I made a few sketches," he said, "but I'm not sure yet that I know what it's going to look like."

He said he learned, however, that building a garden takes the same kind of creative energy that he uses in his art. While he gardened, he said, he did little artwork.

by CNB