Garden
Lope spent many hours of his life in this house taking care of the trees and flowers in his garden. And the vegetable garden was daily entertainment for the poet. Everyday, first thing in the morning (before or after first mass), he wandered through its corners while he read his breviary. He returned in the afternoon, to let the work of the day settle, when he had finally, tireless writer that he was, put his pen down.
"Que mi jardín, más breve que cometa,
Tiene solo dos árboles, diez flores,
Dos parras, un naranjo, una mosqueta,
Aquí son dos muchachos ruiseñores,
Y dos calderos de agua forman fuente
Por dos piedras o conchas de colores".
In his verses he wrote of the garden and small kitchen garden's appearance, where there were always birdcages, where he sat in the protected doorway in the winter, and in the shade of the grape vines in the summer. In regard to the trees, there are references to orange trees, the pomegranate, laurel trees, cypress and the fig tree, although it is when he talks about the flowers when Lope seems to enjoy himself the most.
There was a variety of flowers: roses, rose hips, jasmine, honeysuckle, tulips, iris ("que dan hojas de espada"), violets, carnations, white lilies, marigolds ("que parecen llamas"), daffodils, hyacinth, gilly-flowers, Valencia jasmine ("para Madrid son flores delicadas, / pero tendrán al hielo resistencia")... And lastly, in the kitchen garden, asparagus, artichokes, strawberries, and herbs.
Lope's love for this privileged corner of the house was very much respected during the restoration and encouraged some individual donors to give trees and flowers for the garden. The laurel tree, which still grows there, was a present of the Álvarez Quinteros brothers, which was planted with black soil sent by Cecilio Rodríguez...
