The gardens at The Mount in Lenox

The Mount is the former estate of novelist Edith Wharton, who designed the gardens herself beginning in 1902, drawing on her deep knowledge of European landscape traditions, particularly the Italian and French formal styles she had studied and written about in her book The Decoration of Houses. The grounds are organized around a series of distinct outdoor "rooms," including a sunken Italian-style garden, a walled flower garden, and a long lime-tree walk. Wharton believed that a garden should be an extension of the house's architecture, with clear axes, geometric structure, and a thoughtful progression from formal terraces near the house to wilder, more naturalistic plantings farther out. The gardens fell into significant disrepair after Wharton sold the estate in 1911 and passed through various owners over the decades. A major restoration effort, guided by historic photographs and Wharton's own writings, has brought the gardens back to something close to their original character. The flower garden, in particular, filled with roses, lilies, and other perennials in a structured geometric layout, is a highlight for visitors. The grounds also feature sweeping views of the Berkshire hills, which Wharton carefully framed through her landscape design — treating the natural scenery beyond the estate as a kind of borrowed backdrop for her more intimate, cultivated spaces closer to the house.