The green agenda: Explore the lush parksand gardens of MassachusettsSarah Baxter discovers literary connections and military history on her trip to New England

Sarah Baxter

Friday, 9 August 2013

Although I was 50 floors up a steel-and-glass skyscraper, looking down on one of the larger citiesin the US, I felt curiously close to nature. The view from the Prudential Tower's 700ft-highobservatory made it clear that, though undeniably urban, Boston's heart is green.

The colour courses through the city. Most obvious from my eyrie was the Emerald Necklace, aseven-mile chain of open spaces masterminded in the late 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted(of Central Park fame). From Boston Common – the country's oldest park – it snakes down leafyCommonwealth Avenue, before sprawling to the Back Bay Fens, Jamaica Pond and beyond. To thenorth I could see the green esplanade of the Charles River (where, earlier, I'd watched a turtle diga nest). To the east curved Rose F Kennedy Greenway, created when the elevated highway wastorn down. In all directions there were abundant trees, packed between rows of handsomeredbricks like protective bubble wrap.

The viridescence runs deeper, too. It swirls in the psyche of a city that's 20 per cent Irish-American. It even infiltrates Boston's obsessional sports scene: the emerald-jerseyed Celtics playbasketball at TD Garden; the Red Sox's baseball stadium, Fenway Park, has trademarked thecolour "Fens Green". All of which is to say that this was an appropriate start, because I'd come toMassachusetts to admire its parks and gardens.

Why go to New England to look at gardens, you might ask: Old England has no shortage of itsown. But I had an inkling that by making this my theme, I'd unearth much more than plants.

I was sad to leave Boston. The city, roasting in the summer heat, was alive with the buzz of apopulation used to harsh winters. Like them, I was drawn to the cool of the venerable Common,to the shady old burial grounds (where Revolution greats lie) and to the innovative spaces of theRose F Kennedy Greenway – a triumph of urban regeneration. But, like Paul Revere, leave BostonI must. And, like Revere, my first destination was the town of Concord, 20 miles west.

Revere didn't actually make it here in April 1775: his famed Midnight Ride, to warn of advancingBritish troops, was cut short in nearby Lincoln. I learned all this from local guide Peter Healey,who walk-talked me from Concord's main square to the Minute Man National Historical Park. Thisparticular patch of green, where the river is spanned by the Old North Bridge, was the scene ofthe opening battle of the American Revolution. These days it's a peaceful spot, where a MinuteMan statue commemorates the fallen.

There's more than military history here. Concord, and Massachusetts in general, is overendowedwith literary connections: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, EricCarle, Dr Seuss – they all lived hereabouts. Walden Pond, where naturalist Henry David Thoreauwent to the woods to "live deliberately" for two years (1845-47), is just outside Concord. I wentthere one morning: it sits just off an eight-lane turnpike, and Thoreau's cabin is long gone, thesite marked by pillars and an affectionate cairn. But still, following the 1.7-mile loop around thelake, with chipmunks scuttering amid the trees, I could feel the simple appeal.

I think Thoreau would have appreciated my green-space quest. He once wrote that "each townshould have a park, or rather a primitive forest … a common possession for ever, for instructionand recreation". While my next stop, Tower Hill Botanical Gardens, isn't primitive, the organisationbehind it – Worcester Horticultural Society, founded in 1842 – shared his ethos. "People here usedto have apple orchards, dairy cows," explained Tower Hill's Michael Arnum as we sat on thepanoramic terrace, eating sweet strawberries grown on site. "After the Industrial Revolution, therewas a worry that people were losing touch with their roots."

Tower Hill is designed to inform via flora. All species are labelled; there's a Systematic Garden,planted chronologically to show botanic evolution; there are courses on everything from garlic tomedicinal herbs. Most of all, though, it's a sensory treat, overspilling with lyrical blooms:beautyberry and beardtongue, allegheny spurge and hearts-a-bursting-with-love. I don't know mypickerelweed from my, well, just weed, but I could still appreciate the aromas and aesthetics.

That kind of thinking wouldn't have held much sway with the Shakers. The religious sect, whichflourished in New England in the mid-19th century, believed in pragmatism, not prettiness. ElderFrederick Evans once remarked: "The beautiful, as you call it, is absurd and abnormal; it has nobusiness with us." No surprise, then, to find the gardens at Hancock – a working Shaker villageuntil 1960, and now a heritage museum – were a more utilitarian affair.

There's still a medicinal plot, full of foxgloves and apothecary rose, and a textile garden, whereflax is sown for linen. The vegetable patches, now run as a community agriculture scheme, wereblooming with many of the same crops that Hancock's Shakers grew. "Our members get freshgreens, lots of lettuce," explained Todd Burdick, director of interpretation, as we strolled amid thesite's historic buildings. "And an increasing number are becoming mangle-beet fans."

Ironically, as the Shakers strove for usefulness, beauty was an accidental by-product. Their ovalboxes, rocking chairs and even their rolling pins are spartan but exquisite. The round stone barnhere is a particular revelation: everything about it is designed to make farming less effort. Forinstance, wagons can be driven up a ramp to a mezzanine, so hay can be thrown down intostorage rather than having to be hoisted up. The barn's circular structure means those wagonscan be ridden right around and out, without the need to reverse the horses. Simply beautiful.Sorry, Fred.

Simplicity wasn't the aim at my next set of gardens – far from it. The Berkshires, the line of hillsedging far western Massachusetts, and equidistant from Boston and New York, are a cultural huband have long been a popular retreat for the well-heeled. The Astors, the Vanderbilts, theCarnegies – all built opulent "cottages" amid these undulations. One such is The Mount, EdithWharton's country escape. Wharton, whose first book was non-fiction guide The Decoration ofHouses, designed the white stucco mansion and gardens herself, a riposte to the vulgar décorfavoured by many of her nouveau riche contemporaries. Although she lived here only from 1901to 1911, they were her most creative years – she wrote The House of Mirth here.

My favourite spot was the terrace. From here, the formal grounds – an Italianate giardino segreto,French-style flower garden, a formal alley of linden trees – drop away from the house and mergewith the countryside beyond. Henry James, who visited several times, called it "a French châteaumirrored in a Massachusetts pond".

It was a similar set-up at Naumkeag, a Gilded-Age villa of turreted redbrick and shingle thatbelonged to the Choate family. The gardens were their pride and joy, a mix of peony terrace,parterred Afternoon Garden, iconic Blue Steps, a Chinese enclave. Indeed, the landscape dictatedthe whole set-up. The Choates selected the plot because of a fondness for a particular old oak;when the original architect (Mr "Central Park" Olmsted again) recommended chopping down thetree to make way for the house, he was replaced.

I sat under that tree, on an Adirondack chair, and thought I'd rather like to be a Gilded Age-ee. Icould get used to pottering amid the roses or rocking on the patio, waiting for the dinner gong tosound. It's a life easily imaginable at Naumkeag: in 1958, Mabel Choate passed the house directlyto the Trustees of Reservations (a sort of National Trust for Massachusetts), so all the originalfurniture, wallpaper and knick-knacks remain. The result is an authentic, lavish yet liveable home.

The same could not be said of my final Berkshires stop. Completed in 1912, Ashintully was onceknown as the Marble Palace, a glimmering Georgian-style mansion on a hill, fronted by four greatDoric columns. But it burnt down in 1952; now only the columns remain, lonely stanchions,supporting air. The gardens are well tended; a stream trickles under a bridge; statues dot thelawn. But it was the view from that ruined terrace, over the Tyringham Valley, that entranced.

"See that rise?" Garden-keeper Jeb pointed to a near tree-cloaked ridge. "That's where theAppalachian Trail runs through." Ah, the Appalachian Trail, the most tantalising of long-distancehikes, 2,200 miles from Georgia to Maine. And here were the gardens of Massachusetts segueingright into that great untamed garden beyond. An inspiration in green.

Travel essentials

The writer travelled with Virgin Atlantic (0844 209 7777; virgin-atlantic.com), which flies fromHeathrow to Boston from £500 return.

Seeing there

Emerald Necklace Conservancy (emeraldnecklace.org)

Rose F Kennedy Greenway Conservancy (rosekennedygreenway.org). Minute Man NationalHistorical Park (nps.gov/mima).

Tower Hill Botanical Gardens (towerhillbg.org).

Hancock Shaker Village (hancockshakervillage.org).

The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home (edithwharton.org). Naumkeag (bit.ly/Naumkeag).

Ashintully Gardens (bit.ly/Ashintully).

Staying there

Colonial Inn, Concord (concordscolonialinn.com). Doubles from $159 (£106).

The Deerfield Inn, Deerfield (deerfieldinn.com). Doubles from $165 (£110).

Nine Zero, Boston (ninezero.com). Doubles from $249 (£166).

More information

Massvacation.com