The exterior gardens at the Museum are an extension of the interior gallery spaces. Directly next to the cloistered interior on the first floor is the space that Gardner dubbed her “monks garden.” This early reference to the garden was formalized and it is now known as the Monks Garden. In 1908, Isabella wrote to art advisor Bernard Berenson, “I don’t have time to read, because I trot about with the gardeners. And the little monk’s garden at Fenway Court is very dear too.”

During Mrs. Gardner’s time the Monks Garden was planted in an Italianate style with tall, vertical evergreen trees in rows along part of the main walk and along the edge of the brick wall. Over time she added a large pergola covered with vines and the beds along the pergola were planted with flowers, a design that is reminiscent of the Italianate garden at her Brookline estate.

In October, 1907, a close friend of Isabella’s, F. Marion Crawford, wrote “…so you are going to enlarge the Monks Garden! I wish I could be of use. I have just built a XIIIth century wellhead over the reservoir in my garden…and it is a great success.” As Crawford describes, sculptural and architectural elements were as much a part of the garden as the plantings. During the building of Fenway Court, Mrs. Gardner was on the construction site every day, directing the workmen to place architectural elements, which she considered artworks. Not one object was allowed to be placed without her approval. Fragments can be seen installed within the garden walls, and features of interest include secluded seating and an ancient sculpture from Zagarolo, Italy.

Photographs show some of the changes to the Monks Garden and the South Garden that occurred during Mrs. Gardner’s lifetime. After her death in 1924, Morris Carter, first director of the museum, immediately made changes to the garden. Although he was an avid gardener, Carter did not share her taste in gardens. He added shrub plantings and a rock garden in the Monks Garden, noting that he was working upon the layout that Gardner had designed. While Mrs. Gardner’s will strictly governs the arrangement of the artworks within the galleries, the outside gardens were not described. She wrote, “I prefer that the vacant land shall remain open, but if the Trustees deem it necessary for the protection of the museum, they may erect buildings thereon…"

Archival photos:

• Monks Garden, photo by T.E. Marr and Son, 1903-1907.
• Monks Garden, photo by T.E. Marr and Son, 1922.
• Monks Garden, 1946.
• Monks Garden, 1971.

The campus surrounding the Gardner Museum originally included two garden spaces enclosed by a tall brick wall, designed and planted by Isabella Stewart Gardner: the Monks Garden and the South Garden. While aspects of these spaces reflect the hand of Isabella Gardner, significant changes have occurred over time. Plants and sculpture have been added and removed and subsequent museum directors have made changes to the gardens that reflect personal and contemporary gardening tastes.

With the new building project, the museum campus will once again be transformed. New gardens will reconnect the museum to the adjacent Evans Way Park and provide a visual relationship between the Palace, new greenhouses and the transparent visitors spaces on the ground floor of the new building.