VIP at Home: A Living Legacy

Story by Amelia Bowen

Photography by Harris Visual Media

Tucked behind the Rabold family home, surrounded by the steady pull of downtown Bowling Green, nearly 150 years of garden history continues to grow. Tall hemlocks create green walls around winding stone pathways. Terraced beds overflow with lilies, native plants and mature trees. Water moves through a pond carved into the shape of Kentucky while birds, butterflies and the occasional rabbit have made a home among the leaves. Yet much of what appears so effortless today is the result of years of research, restoration and an understanding that preserving a historic garden requires far more than just putting plants in the ground. For Mitchell, bringing the Rabold Garden back to life has meant learning what once grew here, studying how the landscape was originally intended to function and figuring out how to honor that history within a garden that is still very much alive. “The first time I saw it, it was very overwhelming,” Mitchell recalls. He had good reason to feel that way. The garden dates back to the 1870s and, according to the Rabold family’s research, stands as the oldest continuously maintained private garden in Warren County. The property itself carries an even earlier history. The property sits within the former encampment of Civil War era Fort C.F. Smith, where thousands of Union soldiers were stationed. Portions of the stone walls behind the home are connected to the fortifications that once occupied the land. Generations later, the landscape became closely tied to Ruth Rabold, whose influence on gardening in Bowling Green extended far beyond her own backyard. Fortunately for Mitchell, Ruth left behind something invaluable to anyone attempting an authentic restoration: documentation. Historic photographs capture the garden through every decade. Receipts, records and family journals provide further clues, creating an unusually detailed archive that allows Mitchell and Nick Rabold, Ruth’s great grandson, to look back before deciding how the landscape should move forward. “There was always photography of it throughout the years,” Mitchell says. “You could see as it transitioned.” That visual paper trail has become an essential guide as Mitchell works to reestablish the garden’s plantings with historical intention.

Rooted in the Past

Long before Mitchell found himself responsible for a garden of this scale, plants were already a big part of his life. Raised on a Kentucky farm, he grew up surrounded by vegetable gardens, tobacco fields and dairy goats. His mother shared an interest in flowers, while stories about his grandmother, a gifted gardener herself, further sparked his curiosity. As a student, Mitchell joined FFA and competed in floriculture, discovering early on that working with plants came naturally to him. Though he never pursued horticulture professionally, he intentionally kept gardening as something personal. “I didn’t ever pursue that for the reason that I wanted it to always be my passion,” he says. “I don’t ever want to feel like I’m going to work.” At the Rabold home, that passion found a deeply meaningful outlet. Nick and his parents, Bobby and Lisa Rabold, had already tackled significant work to restore the garden’s structure, including hardscapes, trees and shrubs. Privacy was particularly important. Hemlocks had once towered around the property, creating the dense, enclosed landscape Nick remembered from childhood, but a severe drought around 2002 killed many of them. Replanting those hemlocks helped restore more than privacy. It brought back the Rabold Garden’s original sense of place. From there, Mitchell could focus on bringing its floral landscape back into bloom. Rather than choosing plants simply because they are popular, Mitchell considers the garden’s historic records, existing conditions and the way each selection contributes to the space as a whole. Lilies were particularly important. They were among Ruth’s favorite flowers, and an old portrait inside the home depicts her with a rubrum lily. Today, Mitchell has incorporated that exact same variety back into the beds. “There are several of those you’ll be able to see blooming right now,” he says. “You can see why they were her favorite because they are just magnificent.” Some plants offer an even more direct connection to Ruth. Several specimens survive from her time, while others have been replaced with the same varieties whenever possible. But recreating the past is rarely as simple as planting whatever appears in an old photograph.

A Garden That Changes

A garden is not a room that can be restored and left untouched. Trees grow. Light changes. Plants spread. Weather reshapes the land. What thrived in one location decades ago may no longer survive there today. Mitchell has learned to adapt to all of it. In one portion of the garden, more than a century of erosion had slowly washed away so much soil that established boxwoods were left without enough ground to support them. Restoring the area required rebuilding the terrain itself. Elsewhere, plants have been moved as trees matured and shade patterns shifted. Some varieties that initially worked well eventually had to give way to something better suited to the garden’s changing conditions. “It’s fun watching it as it transitions over the years,” Mitchell says. That process has also given him room to introduce his own touch while respecting what came before. Kentucky native plants are mixed among historic varieties, creating habitats and food sources for local wildlife. Coneflowers attract goldfinches. Serviceberries feed birds. Native blooms welcome butterflies, honeybees and other pollinators. Even local rabbits have made themselves comfortable, occasionally at the expense of one of Mitchell’s plants. “The goal is for it to be beautiful, but also part of a little ecosystem itself,” he says. The result is not a static recreation of the Rabold Garden at one specific moment in time. Instead, Mitchell is preserving its original character while allowing it to function as a healthy, living landscape today. That distinction matters. Modern landscaping is typically driven by whatever plant trend is popular at the nursery. Mitchell approaches this property differently. For a landscape that has already survived for generations, longevity is everything. The question is not simply what looks good right now, but what belongs here and what has the strength to endure.

Through the Seasons

There is no single best time to experience the Rabold Garden. “There is interest in this garden each season,” Mitchell says. “Even in winter.” Spring is his personal favorite, when irises and peonies begin emerging across the beds. Summer brings the lilies Ruth loved along with a wave of rich color and texture. Later blooms, berries and fall foliage carry the landscape through autumn. By winter, the experience shifts entirely. Without heavy foliage and flowers softening the space, its architecture takes center stage. Stone walls, urns, pathways and mature trees step forward, revealing the bones beneath the garden. In warmer months, the overall effect is completely immersive. The landscape drops nearly 40 feet from its upper entrance, a dramatic change in elevation that the garden uses to its full advantage. Tall trees draw the eye upward before pathways narrow into green corridors, curve around corners and open into wide, surprising views. “It is possible to engineer an intense sense of space,” Nick explains. Fragrance, sound and movement are just as intentional. Flowers perfume the air. Birds move through the branches. Water provides a constant, calming sound. From certain spots within the garden, the surrounding city nearly disappears despite having several neighboring homes close by. For Mitchell, those sensory details are simply what a real garden should be.

“When you see it across the nation, these parks call them sensory gardens,” he says. “You can see it, you can smell it, you can taste it. I’m like, that’s gardening.” Over time, some areas have become so well established that the garden essentially helps design itself. Annuals reseed on their own. Plants migrate into unexpected spaces. When one variety fades, another often fills the opening naturally. For the first time in recent years, Mitchell found himself needing to plant very little. “It’s just established,” he says. “If something didn’t make it, something else replaced it.” After years spent actively rebuilding the land, watching it begin to sustain itself brings its own kind of satisfaction.

The Rabold Legacy

To understand why preserving this garden matters so deeply, it is impossible to separate it from Ruth Rabold. Ruth was among the founders of the Garden Club of Kentucky and played a major role in Bowling Green’s local garden club. Her influence extended across the broader community, including her work shaping the landscape at Fountain Square. For Ruth, gardening was never just about creating beauty for herself. Nick still keeps bylaws from the Bowling Green Garden Club dating back to 1936 that reflect a strong emphasis on civic engagement and sharing gardens with the community. That philosophy mirrored the exact way Ruth approached her own property. “She was intent that gardens of this ilk, if you can, should be open to the public,” Nick says. That belief had roots in Ruth’s own childhood. According to family history, Ruth remembered her grandmother’s rose garden outside Memphis and spoke about standing on her tiptoes as a little girl just to see it. That impression stayed with her for life. “She had a natural gift,” Nick says. “She would say that a talent is born in you, and she believed that she had it. She was intent that her gift should be shared.” Ruth also had a unique advantage when it came to documenting her work. Her husband, Earl Rabold, was an early investor in Kodak and operated a successful photography business in Bowling Green. Historic photographs bearing his name can still be found in local archives today. That access to photography left the family with a rich visual record, not only of their lives, but of the landscape Ruth continually shaped. The garden was never static during her lifetime either. One of its most recognizable features, a pond carved into the shape of Kentucky, was created by dynamiting the limestone to outline the state. A small waterfall marks Eastern Kentucky while the pond extends westward across the lawn. Today, koi swim through the water as soft plantings line its edges. Another favorite feature came from a sudden accident. After a large tree fell in the early 1970s and destroyed an octagonal gazebo, Ruth built what she called a summer house. Nick believes she drew inspiration from the lattice structure constructed in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House around that time. These additions are quiet reminders that Ruth herself continually evolved the landscape. Preserving her garden does not mean pretending change never happened. It means understanding how she approached change in the first place.

Meant to Be Shared

That mindset lives on through the family members caring for the property today. The Rabold family regularly opens the garden to the public for tours, charitable events and community gatherings. Family celebrations have unfolded here for generations, including several weddings. Nick and Mitchell were married in the garden themselves, right in front of one of its signature boxwoods. “We firmly believe that having things means, if you have them, you must share them,” Nick says. “Sharing is the point.” For Nick, sharing the garden is inseparable from protecting it. To the family’s knowledge, the property is also the only historic home in downtown Bowling Green that remains in the hands of its original family. That uninterrupted line has allowed stories, photographs and firsthand memories to stay tied directly to the property. It also gives Mitchell’s work a rare level of context. He is not restoring an anonymous historic landscape based on guesswork. He can look at actual photographs of Ruth standing in the garden. He can identify plants she favored, study how beds developed over decades and listen to family members describe how the landscape looked when they were growing up. Then he gets to decide what those clues mean for a garden growing today. It is painstaking work, even when the finished product looks completely natural. “This all looks very glamorous, but it is hard work,” Mitchell says. Perhaps that is what makes the garden’s current state so rewarding. Nearly 150 years after its beginnings, it has reached a point where Mitchell can step back from constant planting and simply watch what happens next. Plants spread. Birds drop seeds. Flowers return. The landscape responds. It has become, once again, a garden capable of growing into itself.

Living History

A historic garden cannot be preserved by standing still. Plants grow, trees fall, seasons shift and landscapes adapt. What remains is the responsibility to understand what came before and care for it thoughtfully enough that another generation can enjoy it. In the Rabold Garden, that responsibility has passed smoothly from one generation to the next. Ruth’s vision remains clear, Nick has protected its structure and history while Mitchell has helped its landscape bloom again. Most importantly, it remains a place meant to be experienced. The same philosophy that inspired Ruth to share her garden with others continues through the family today. Its gates still open. Visitors still walk the stone paths. Birds still gather among the branches and the lilies Ruth loved continue to bloom each summer. Nearly 150 years after the garden first began taking shape, it is not simply surviving. It is thriving.