Gardens

Zikmund’s villa is surrounded by greenery with an area of 8,700 m2. The first resident of the house, Marie Januštíková, actively participated in its planting in 1934–1935. Unfortunately, the arrangement of the exterior, which in the 1930s and 1940s consisted of a kitchen garden and an ornamental garden, is not fully documented. We can form an idea from just a few partial photos.

The beginnings of the garden

The planting of the land is only documented after 1942, when it was bought by Elmar Kloss. Over the following 11 years, the garden was planted with 60 conifers, 8 greengage trees, 11 sweet cherry trees, 5 sour cherry trees, 5 plum trees, 2 peach trees, 25 gooseberry bushes and 15 redcurrant bushes. In the ornamental garden, there was a salt cedar tree, 2 weeping spruces, 52 rose bushes, 6 thuja trees, a climbing wisteria, and a Mičurin rose. In addition, a small swimming pool was built in the space below the bay window.

Zdroj: Muzeum jihovýchodní Moravy ve Zlíně, Archiv H+Z

From the garden to the forest park

The overgrown garden is the main reason traveller Miroslav Zikmund moved to Nivy in 1953. On the recommendation of architect Zdenek Plesník, he had the exterior modified into a forest park. Thanks to the detailed records he kept on the maintenance of the land from the beginning, today we can accurately follow the transformation of the greenery here after a period of almost seventy years. Among the more significant changes implemented by Miroslav Zikmund in the garden, in addition to the acquisition of new trees, it is possible to mention, for example, the paving of several narrow stone paths and the creation of cascading terraces planted with apple trees in the western part.