When Hensel "Buck" Heath first founded his restaurant almost thirty years ago, it was his goal to create an atmosphere that was so magical and so moving that it would be remembered by guests for years to come. To do this, Buck created his own moon garden right inside the restaurant, pairing luxurious dark green walls with sparkling candles and pristine white flowers. The result is a truly dramatic and delightful dining room, inspired by one of the most intriguing traditions in landscape architecture.
A moon garden is a landscape designed to be enjoyed after dark by the natural light of the moon. Filled with white flowers, bright foliage and fragrant blooms, moon gardens are a romantic alternative to more traditional options. One of the earliest recorded moon gardens in the United States was designed in 1833 by Benjamin Poore at Indian Hill in Massachusetts, which featured two 700-foot-long borders that were filled with white candytuft, daffodils, lilacs, flowering almonds, foxgloves, lilies, and more.
Moon gardens became increasingly popular throughout the 19th century, and the 1888 edition of the Vaughan’s Seed catalog even featured an illustration of a fashionable young woman standing in a moon garden, surrounded by a moon-flower vine, caladium, and white dahlias. However, the golden age of moon gardens didn’t truly begin until the turn of the century, gaining traction in England, Europe and the United States throughout the 1900s.
Perhaps the most famous moon garden is Sissinghurst White Garden in Kent, lauded by many as the most beautiful white garden in the world. Created by English writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West and her husband, diplomat and author Sir Harold Nicolson, Sissinghurst was originally a rose garden, only to be transformed into a white garden in 1931. To this day, pure white plants are grown there with luminous green and silver foliage to catch the moon’s ephemeral rays.
Inspired by the romance and mystery offered by moon gardens, Buck created such an idyllic atmosphere in his restaurant that couples have gone there to enjoy a first date, get engaged, and celebrate anniversaries for decades. Embrace the experience by sharing a romantic stroll together through the Victorian mansions of Old Louisville, and embrace the perfection of the evening with help from Buck’s beautiful imagination.