By Chiara Sebastiani
From the passion that started it all to a company that has grown through people, projects and new skills. For Garden Stone, a garden is never just a green space: it is something that takes shape over time, together with those who live in it.
The history of Garden Stone was born from a passion that preceded the company itself. Giovanni Venturi approached the world of greenery on the benches of the Agricultural Technical Institute of Pescia, following an interest that has accompanied him since he was a boy. After a few years spent in the body shop, his father encouraged him to return to what he felt was truly his calling: working with plants, the land and outdoor spaces. He started out on his own, mainly focusing on garden maintenance. He started on his own, dealing mainly with maintenance. Over time came the first collaborators, the first projects and an increasingly precise awareness: taking care of an existing garden can be satisfying, but it is in the possibility of imagining and building something new that work finds its most complete expression. This is how Garden Stone was born, with interventions that experiment with rocky corners, stone, corten, sheet metal and materials that, especially in those years, were still an uncommon choice in the gardens of the area.
Over the years, the team has also grown. And it is precisely within Garden Stone that the professional career of Michele Barsanti and Andrea Stefani begins, initially collaborators of the company and today its owners. The change of ownership represents a new chapter, but not a break with the past: Michele and Andrea have known and experienced the company from the inside, sharing its daily work, construction sites, projects and relationship with customers. Today they follow the management and development together with Giovanni, who continues to be part of the company dealing mainly with the commercial field. His experience and relationships built over time remain an important asset, alongside the skills and new perspectives of the two new owners.
At the heart of their work is one guiding principle: a garden should first and foremost be a place to live in. It is not enough that it is beautiful as soon as it is finished. It needs to work in everyday life, adapt to the people who use it, and continue to do so over time. This is why every project starts from listening: understanding who will live in that space, what their habits are and what they really want from the outdoor environment. A garden can become the place to dine on summer evenings, welcome friends, spend time with family or simply stop. It is from these needs that the project was born, seeking a balance between aesthetics and functionality. The design therefore concerns the space as a whole. Vegetation and materials dialogue with flooring, lighting, irrigation systems and, when provided, swimming pools and other elements of the outdoor environment. Each component is conceived as part of a unitary project, in which the harmony of the whole counts above all.
This is also where the idea of the garden as a painting comes from. A base is built, but space is left with the possibility of evolving: plants grow, needs change, new elements and new interventions can arrive. A garden, precisely because it is alive, is never really still.
The same attention concerns maintenance. A project must be sustainable for those who will have to live and take care of it: a space that is too complex to manage risks transforming a pleasure into a continuous commitment. This is why Garden Stone also pays particular attention to the integration of technology. Intelligent irrigation systems, automations and solutions for plant management make it possible to reduce waste and control some aspects of the garden even remotely. Technology does not replace the experience of those who work with greenery but becomes a tool to manage it better.
Even size does not determine the value of a project. In small spaces, indeed, every choice acquires even more importance: a few square meters can be transformed into a real outdoor room through the correct relationship between vegetation, materials, furnishings, lighting and water.
Over the years, Garden Stone has extended its activity from Lucca to Versilia. In Forte dei Marmi it also works in collaboration with architects, contributing to the creation of outdoor spaces in which greenery enters into a relationship with the architecture, materials and specific characteristics of each project. The link with Lucca remains particularly strong, where Garden Stone operates not only for private individuals, but also for the Municipality. Among the interventions carried out there are various urban green arrangements, such as the roundabout in Via della Formica and Piazza XX Settembre, through compositions that combine plants and corten and contribute to characterizing the public spaces of the city.
The same approach is maintained when intervening in places that already have their own identity. In these cases, designing does not necessarily mean erasing what exists to replace it with something new. A plan, an avenue, a grove or an element already present can become the starting point, recovering and enhancing what belongs to the history of that space. Over the years, this way of working has also allowed us to build lasting relationships. Some customers continue to rely on Garden Stone after decades, transforming an initially professional relationship into a bond based on knowledge and trust.
The future looks to an ever-greater integration between nature, design and technology, without losing the principle from which it all began: to create spaces that are not only beautiful to look at, but that make you want to be experienced. Because a garden is not something static, nor a project that ends with the end of a construction site. It changes with the seasons, grows, transforms together with the people who live there. Like a painting that is never really finished: a brushstroke today, another tomorrow. And Garden Stone continues to build it over time.
Info: Garden Stone, Via Pisana 415, Lucca / Tel. 366 2225526 / info@gardenstonelucca.it / www.gardenstonelucca.it
