Green Animals Edible Schoolyard

Green Animals Topiary Gardens is the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States. It is among the exceptional collection of house museums and landscapes protected, preserved and presented by the non-profit organization, The Preservation Society of Newport County. Green Animals remains as a rare example of a self-sufficient estate combining formal topiaries, vegetable and fruit gardens, and a Victorian house overlooking Narragansett Bay in Portsmouth, RI. 

Our curriculum brings academic subjects to life, while teaching students sustainable gardening practices, proper nutrition and the role food plays in our social and cultural lives. Our program weaves academic threads from three primary areas:

1) FOODWAYS - The gardens of Green Animals produced fruit and vegetables for the Brayton family of Fall River for almost a century, starting around 1870. Over time, the crops grown at Green Animals changed as Portuguese American preferences introduced by the gardening staff replaced traditional New England gardening traditions as practiced by the Brayton family. Today changes in foodways are explored in relation to immigration.

2) GARDEN DESIGN - As an Azorean garden transported to southern New England, Green Animals represents a garden in the Portuguese Folk Art tradition created by immigrants in the early 20th century. The garden's layout and the plants grown reflect the gardens of San Miguel in the Azores. Students will learn what makes this garden different from today's typical landscape and how it came to be.

3) LAND USE - Green Animals is the only intact 19th century gentleman's farm on Aquidneck Island open to the public. By the late 19th century land use in Portsmouth and Middletown, RI had shifted from traditional family farms to these 'gentleman's farms' that supported other family estates. In this case, Green Animals supplied the Brayton family's main Fall River residence with fruit, flowers and produce. Students will come to understand how land use has changed on Aquidneck Island over time.