Gardens

Seeking Paradise

In 2011 the World Heritage Committee designated The Persian Garden as a cultural landscape, incorporating and reflecting outstanding universal values. As a visitor with Farzin to several of those exquisite gardens in Shiraz, Isfahan and Tehran I can testify to the unique and elegant artistry that incorporates architecture, plants, flowing water and even a mysticism.

At our home in Marshall, Virginia Farzin took a barren canvas of earth, designed and built our home, laid out an irrigation system (which I would repeatedly run over with the car), and planted seeds from almost every city we visited. Hundreds of trees, shrubs and flowers would be propagated from cuttings and by gathering seeds from spent flowers and vines.

Farzin applied his architectural training, artistic temperament, and spiritual quest for refuge to our garden in Virginia. He integrated the surrounding vista, soft sounds of whispering water, birdsong, and the alluring fragrance of honeysuckle and roses in a most profound sense.