- To be at a property like this, to come to a garden like this and spend my entire day here, putting in the time and effort that I've always put into gardens in the local community.

But to have this garden in particular under my thumb, it is a huge responsibility.

- [Pamela] A responsibility requiring a big green thumb to tame these large, "Green Animals."

That's the name of this Portsmouth property.

Evan Aten says there are 80 geometric hedges, including a menagerie of two dozen topiaries.

Aten is their caretaker.

- So I care for them as if they were my pets.

That's... Yeah.

- [Pamela] He says, these shrubs are not trained on frames.

They're made the old fashioned way by manipulating branches.

Some metal poles inside, stabilize them during storms.

Carved from Privet, U, and English Boxwood, Aten has his work cut out for him, snipping, (scissors snipping) clipping, (shears clipping) and then, (gas motor revving) comes the big guns.

- Now I'm just gonna add a little depth to the wing.

Clean it up a little bit.

So... How you start with it is, you're gonna take a look at it, you're gonna see the lines.

I'll take a walk around, make sure I'm seeing what it is I want to be cutting, the lines I want to create.

And then it's just slowly whittling away, it's...

I don't think it's much different from say, an artist who works in sculpting, clay, pottery.

You're chiseling away bits and pieces as you go, shaving it down, until you get it to where you want to be.

Generally, I'll work top down, so foliage can fall to the ground.

It takes time, (shears clipping) it takes a number of tools, a delicate touch, lot of control.

(children playing) - [Pamela] The result is a wild kingdom, both winsome and whimsical.

And there's more.

- One of the great things about peonies is that they last forever.

- [Pamela] Jim Donahue is curator of historic landscapes for the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Flowers, herbs and orchards abound at Green Animals.

So here we are, it's a zoo out here.

- Yeah, literally.

(chuckling) It's about seven acres of zoo, and it's been here since the turn of the 20th century so it has quite a history.

- [Pamela] A history, Donahue says, dating back to 1870.

Thomas Brayton, Treasurer of the Union Cotton Mill in Fall River, bought this pastoral farm in Portsmouth as his family's summer home.

- And they chose it because it was on the Fall River railroad line.

And they also could take their boat down from Fall River as well.

- [Pamela] The property holds a commanding view of Narragansett Bay.

Brayton wished it to be a self-sustaining farm, so he hired one of his mill workers, an immigrant from Portugal named, "Joe Carreiro."

- Thomas Brayton heard that he had family that worked in botanic gardens in the Azores.

And so, he offered him a job of being his gardener here at Green Animals, not knowing what his skills were beyond just gardening.

And over the course of four decades, Joe Carreiro created this garden really out of his mind.

There was no plan.

- [Pamela] However, Carreiro's design was firmly rooted in his homeland.

- And so, you think of an English garden or a French garden.

You have an image of order and of axial sight lines.

A Portuguese garden is much different in that you don't see the whole garden at once.

There are a series of very small garden rooms, all abutting each other that are all different.

So you move from an orchard space into a formal garden space, into a perennial garden space.

And they would mix plant material as well.

So there's annual, perennial, vegetable, fruit, all mixed together.

- [Pamela] Donahue notes, the concept comes from the Moors, who occupied the Iberian Peninsula for centuries.

- And the Muslim garden influence from Persia, never seeing the entire garden at once.

You were meant to walk through the garden and discover it as you walked, and not see it all in one expanse.

- So it's to draw you in?

- And also to make it a private inward looking experience.

You're not looking at the greater landscape.

You're having a contemplative walk through the gardens.

- [Pamela] Everywhere you meditate or meander through the gardens, you are greeted by green animals.

The art of topiary emerged in Portugal in ancient times.

Carreiro's daughter married George Mendonca, who became the next caretaker.

Carreiro and his son-in-law wanted to create the greatest show on earth.

- And at that time, circuses were considered very exotic.

And if you saw a camel or an elephant or a lion, I mean, you just didn't see those things.

And so, he based that formal garden on those exotic circus animals.

But then over time, I think, as people began to visit, they just widened out they're thinking on it and did things that people would love, like the teddy bear.

- [Pamela] And to make it a truly enchanted garden, there's a unicorn.

You'll also spy a reindeer, giraffe and birds.

Eventually, the property was left to Thomas Brayton's daughter.

- She was a character.

Alice Brayton inherited the property in 1940.

She had never married and she made this her primary residence, and she named it, "Green Animals."

And she lived until 1971 into her nineties.

And during that entire time, she entertained all the elite of Newport here in her gardens.

She had clam bakes and martini bars and Ferris wheels.

And she really became known in Newport as that lady out in Port Portsmouth with the topiary who has the parties.

And that was her entree into Newport Society.

- [Pamela] High society.

Brayden hosted a party at Green Animals for Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, the year she was Queen of the debutantes.

Later, she would bring her children, Caroline and John, here.

Another first lady also visited, Mamie Eisenhower.

Even singer, Bing Crosby, wandered through one summer day.

- So in the summer, if you were to come here you'd see these huge gourds hanging down above your head.

That also is a Portuguese tradition.

- And he planted grape barbers too?

- Yep.

Right across the way, there's a grape barber for wine and fresh eating.

That was the first thing they planted.

- [Pamela] The vegetable garden is planted just as it was at the turn of the century.

Last season, some 2000 pounds of food was grown.

- So all of that produce now gets donated to charity.

We've been giving it to Lucy's Hearth in Portsmouth or the King Center in Newport.

So it actually is a win-win situation.

We not only have brought back the productivity of the garden, but we've been able to help people out in the process.

- Oh, there we go.

It's who we were looking for!

(children playing) - [Pamela] Everyone seems to have a favorite green animal, even Aten, although reluctantly.

- I don't like to play favorites because they all need care and attention.

But as of right now, the one I'm most partial to is the Rhode Island Red Rooster, it being the quintessential Rhode Island piece in the gardens.

The Rhode Island red features the Barberry with those little sharp points and gives it that wonderful red color for the chest of the chicken.

- [Pamela] Aten says, he hopes to keep tweaking, maybe adding some colorful azaleas to the green animals, but for now, he's busy lopping a little off the top.

- So everyone needs their haircuts from time to time so... And a little bit like a barber in that, yes, I can make a mistake and it will grow back.

Being here at Green Animals, I get to experience that every single day, the joy that it creates for people and the sense of wonder and relaxation and peace that they have when they come here.

- [Pamela] And that peace extends to him.

- Yeah, it feels that in all this work.

It takes patience and time, and in that slow methodical time, taking respect.

I've heard it compared to the Garden of Eden or Gardens of Babylon.

And while it's neither of those, it is a very special place on this island.

(symphonic music begins) (symphonic music fades)