Villa Oasis

“There used to be a bigger pool here,” Cooke explains. “Built in the ’70s, it was 20×40 feet and 13 feet deep.” And the old one held 54,000 gallons of water; this one holds 17,000. “It was a lot less money to fill it in, to build a new pool rather than repair the existing one,” adds Musso. “We found some tiles that were appropriate to the period of the house, creating a pool that felt like it would have been in style when the house was originally built in the 1920s.”

A quartet of comfortable chaise lounges greets guests poolside.

Providing a focal point in the lower courtyard is a bronze fountain with a classical theme—an infant warding off a large bird—while a Crown of Thorns tucked into a niche affords an ever-blooming backdrop.

To find inspiration for the water feature at one end of the pool, Musso and Cooke looked no further than their home’s red-tiled roof.

Cocker spaniels Lolli and Aaron watch over both levels of the garden.

Evergreen clematis shades the pool arbor, complete with a table for outdoor entertaining. Tieback curtains and a suspended decorative frame—all readily able to stand up to the elements—do their part to up the decorative ante.

The sago palm is winterized every year, and the TLC has paid off; it’s now a towering version of the three-foot-high plant brought home eight years ago.

The lush gardens of Musso and Cooke are a beautiful blend of both of their talents; Musso, a designer, gets the credit for the well-appointed furnishings while Cooke is the gardener extraordinaire.

Sometimes you have to look for inspiration and, sometimes, you have to listen for it. As it turns out, Bill Musso and Bryan Cooke did both in creating a garden to complement their grand Italian-style villa in Druid Hills.

During the planning stages, says Cooke, “we went to the Carlos Museum to hear a lecture about ancient Roman architecture. [The lecturer] put up some slides and our first thought was ‘wow, that so mimics our house—or our house mimics that!’ There were similar characteristics, such as the central axis from the front door to the back door all the way through the garden. And the main rooms having views into the garden; he talked a lot about how the garden was an extension of the house.”

Before they could create the garden they envisioned, Musso and Cooke had to take it down to nearly its bare bones. In fact, their first step was to call in a landscape demolitionist. But once that work was done, the homeowners immediately took steps to create a formal garden befitting their c. 1925 residence.

There was, for instance, originally a curving sidewalk between the back door and the steps leading to the upper courtyard. “We thought it would be much nicer to get back to that straight axis from the front door to the back door, up through the arch that leads to the pool area,” Cooke explains.

In the lower courtyard, boxwoods border individual areas. “The boxwood hedges have been somewhat of a challenge,” admits Musso. “We started out with dwarf English boxwoods, not realizing that they’re very prone to disease and drought. And, of course, the first two years after they were planted were our worst two years in terms of drought. The originals only still exist in one spot; the rest have been replaced with Korean boxwoods, which grow faster and are much more drought- and heat-tolerant.”

“We like the formality of the boxwoods; it’s kind of a framed-and-contained approach,” Cooke adds. “You can put almost anything inside the gardens as long as it’s nicely framed and contained. That’s the Bill part—the framed-and-contained. My approach is more ‘oh, let’s experiment and see what lives!’ ”

Experiment or not, it’s laid out beautifully. The vistas from the main rooms of the house are dramatic, including lush ferns and boxwoods, Calla lilies and hydrangeas, soaring palms and crape myrtles, classic statuary and fountains—with creeping fig and clematis defining the courtyard walls.

“The thing that gives me the greatest joy is Bryan’s pride in what he has created,” says Musso. “At the end of a stressful day of work, he walks around looking to see what is new, what needs help, or he takes time to admire a bloom or texture combination.”

And there’s a lot to admire. Here, creativity is in full bloom.