Maintaining the Green Animals Topiary Garden takes TLC

What happens when gardening meets imagination? At Green Animals Topiary Garden, ordinary shrubs have been transformed into elephants, bears, and mythical creatures – each one shaped by patience and precision.

Spread across 7 acres in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the garden is home to more than 80 topiaries. It’s the oldest such garden in the United States, with roots extending back to the 1870s, when businessman Thomas Brayton purchased the property.

In the 1900s, Brayton hired a gardener, Joseph Carreiro, who began creating and maintaining the green sculptures. These early creations laid the foundation for the whimsical landscape that defines the garden, which is part of the Newport Mansions properties and is maintained by The Preservation Society of Newport County.

Over the years, different gardeners have kept the topiaries alive, carefully trimming to maintain the contours of each creature. Today, the trimming falls to just one gardener: Evan Aten.

Now in his third year as chief horticulturalist, Mr. Aten believes that the gardeners before him put in a lot of time and effort to establish the garden. He says it’s his job to preserve what they have built. “As much as I do try and be an artist about it and impart my own personality on the topiaries,” he says, “it’s very much maintaining a tradition and keeping this garden going.”

From mid-May through early September, Mr. Aten trims the topiaries every seven to 10 days – work that takes up nearly half his week. “[People] want to see a clean-looking animal,” he says. “Instead of a bunch of scraggly bushes.”

Mr. Aten’s work doesn’t go unnoticed. Visitor Lauren Coombe says she loves how well-preserved and natural the garden is. “It’s nice to connect with nature and get away from our busy lives,” she says. “To see the beauty that’s outside all the cement walls that we’re used to.”

For more visual storytelling that captures communities, traditions, and cultures around the globe, visit The World in Pictures.