The Underground Gardens

The Underground Gardens Summary | Detailed Summary

Baldasare is an Italian immigrant who has just arrived in Fresno, California. At age thirty-two, he has traveled from the east coast to California in hopes of transforming the 70-acre parcel of land, that he had purchased, into a thriving vineyard. The advertisement, from which he learned of the land that he ultimately purchased, promised fertile land with year-round sunshine, free from the dangers of frost.

Baldasare's lone talent is that he is able to dig. As a boy in Italy, he worked alongside his brothers in their father's orchard. When he arrived in America, he dug tunnels in New York City and Boston. To Baldasare, digging is an honorable - even holy - task, and it is what sustains him.

Baldasare arrives in Fresno in the summer of 1905 with only his shovel, pick, some clothes and a meager supply of provisions. He stops to ask a local farmer for directions, learning that his parcel of land is in an area inhabited by other Italians. After hiking more than three miles, he finds his land and discovers that the unforgiving California sun has relentlessly baked the ground, giving it the consistency of adobe. That night, he eats canned sardines for dinner before falling into a deep sleep.

Baldasare is a man of great dreams and big plans. When it became clear to him that his older brothers would be the heirs of their father's orchard, he decided to come to America to follow his dream of owning a thriving vineyard. In addition to the vineyard, Baldasare's dream includes a four-room house, a wife and seven children - three girls and four boys.

The next morning, he walks into town to buy a wheelbarrow, which he then fills with provisions. He works all day long; making four trips into town to get the supplies he needs to begin making his dream a reality. By the end of the week, he had constructed his first home - a one room shack scarcely big enough to fit his bed. As he looks at his new home, he is reminded of one of his father's teachings: one of the things that separate men from animals is the fact that men lie in houses while animals live in underground holes.

The following week, he begins to dig a well. Baldasare wants the well to be close to where his permanent home will one day stand, and so he spends a great deal of time trying to identify the best place to begin digging. Two feet below the earth's surface, he hits hardpan. Rather than becoming discouraged, Baldasare works harder, while convincing himself that the hardpan cannot possible cover all of his seventy acres. Finally, a week later, he finally hits water thirty-two feet below the earth's surface. Buoyed by the fact that his hard work has finally reaped a reward, he begins to envision the irrigation system that one day will criss-cross his land.

After nearly three months, Baldasare's savings are depleted, and so, he goes to work for other farmers as a laborer. This, unfortunately, leaves him with little time to work on his own land. As a result, his vegetable garden is scarcely adequate to feed his self. He becomes increasingly despondent and begins to wonder if his dreams will ever be realized.

One afternoon, as he was having a hamburger and coffee at the town drugstore and contemplating all that has happened, Baldasare meets Ariadne Siagris, the niece of the drugstore's owner. Baldasare is immediately smitten by her beauty and wants to convey to her that he intends to be prosperous. However, he is overcome by shyness and he instead blurts out "Baldasare Forestiere, at your service," a declaration that amuses Ariadne.

Anxious to learn more about her, Baldasare makes some inquiries among the townspeople with whom he had become acquainted and learns that Ariadne had come from Chicago after her parents were killed in an accident. Now nineteen years old, Ariadne lives with her aunt and uncle in an apartment above the drugstore. That night as he lay awake in his bed, Baldasare resolves to find a way to make Ariadne his bride. Soon, his thoughts turn to the tunnels he had helped dig in New York City and Boston and how those tunnels helped shield people from the weather.

The next morning, Baldasare awakes with a newly found sense of purpose and begins digging again, this time to make a cellar for the home he would one day build. When he finishes, he begins to work on the walls, but he soon decides that the standard squared walls did not suit him. Therefore, he begins to shape the walls so that they resemble a dome. Because the ceiling is made of hardpan, it protects him from the sun as well as the rain. As a result, when the next rainstorm arrives, Baldasare decides to move his possessions into the cellar. Soon after, he breaks through the hardpan so that in order to a stovepipe outside, thus making the cellar his new home.

As he goes about the task of setting up his new home, Baldasare wonders what his father would think of him living in the ground. While he has great respect for his father's wisdom, Baldasare reasons that his father has no idea about the conditions under which he has been living. Baldasare finally reasons that his decision to move into the cellar was made out of practicality. Finally at peace, Baldasare picks up his shovel and begins to chip away at one of the cellar's walls. As he works, he envisions a hallway, a kitchen and a bedroom that opens onto an atrium laden with plants and flowers.

As the winter slowly marches on, Baldasare keeps digging. Once a week, he makes the trip to Siagris' Drugstore for his hamburger. He often spends several hours sitting at the counter, making small talk with Ariadne, leaving only when her uncle directs an impatient remark his way. As he sits watching Ariadne, Baldasare begins to notice some imperfections in her appearance and behavior. For example, she often appears to have trouble making change and she seems to have put on quite a bit of weight. Even so, Baldasare is firm in his resolve to marry her.

For the next two years, Baldasare busies himself laboring for others and digging. As he digs, he can easily imagine what each room will look like. He socializes little, preferring instead to focus his energy on completing his task. Each Saturday, however, he puts his shovel aside and goes to Siagris' Drugstore. Baldasare goes to buy a hamburger and to see Ariadne. He makes the trip each week, regardless of the weather and inwardly hopes that Ariadne looks forward to seeing him as much as he looks forward to going. As they get to know each other better, the conversation becomes more personal and Baldasare eventually tells her about his home, describing it as a ranch containing twelve rooms. Summoning his courage, he invites her to his ranch for a picnic.

That Sunday, when Baldasare arrives to pick up Ariadne, her uncle greets him. Baldasare knows that even though her uncle does not like him, he is hopeful that Baldasare will soon assume responsibility for her. It is a hot day, and as they walk toward Baldasare's property, Ariadne suddenly stops and asks where his carriage is. Baldasare explains that he does not own a carriage and tells her that he had planned to walk. Ariadne refuses to walk. Therefore, the following week, Baldasare spends some of his savings to hire a carriage.

Baldasare is not accustomed to handling horses, making the trip to and from town is somewhat difficult. When they finally reach his property, Ariadne impatiently asks where Baldasare's house is. When he points to the cellar, she accuses him of playing a trick on her and asks again where his house is. He tells her that he is not teasing her and that the cellar is indeed his twelve-room home.

As he tries to coax Ariadne from the carriage, he thinks of all he wants to tell her: that the house is cool and fresh smelling, that it cost him nothing to build it and that it will not fall apart after several years. Unfortunately, the words will not come and Ariadne will not budge from the carriage. Three days later, Baldasare learns that Ariadne is engaged to marry Hiram Broadbent, a local merchant.

As Baldasare contemplates this news over a meal with his friend Lucca Albanese, he reasons that Ariadne's engagement does not necessarily mean that she will marry. He asks Lucca if he knows Hiram Broadbent, learning that he although, he has plenty of money, is mean and often drunk. Lucca tries to convince Baldasare to forget about Ariadne, but he will not be persuaded. He decides that all of his efforts were for her and that he needs to make her aware of that. Unfortunately, however, Ariadne refuses to see him, and her uncle banishes him from the drugstore.

After several days of wondering what to do, Baldasare finally develops a plan. Setting out after dark one evening, he pushes his wheelbarrow and tools to the vacant lot behind the drugstore and begins digging. His plan is to dig an image of a heart into the ground to convey the depth of his love for Ariadne. By morning, the heart's outline is clearly visible to Siagris who is watching from his apartment. When Siagris asks Baldasare what he is doing, Baldasare replies simply that he is digging.

Hoping to avoid a confrontation, Baldasare tells Siagris that his efforts are for Ariadne and asks him to summon her, a request that is threatening to arrest him. His goal is to make the heart six feet deep and his every effort is toward achieving that goal. He does not know if Ariadne is watching or if she is even aware of what he is doing.

It is after midnight when two men approach Baldasare. One of the men speaks - Hiram Broadbent - and tells Baldasare that he is embarrassing his fiancé. Despite the fact that he is strong from years of hard work, Baldasare is no match for the men.It does not take long for them to overpower him.

Baldasare is finally released from the hospital and returns to his home. No longer obsessed with thoughts of Ariadne, he sits one evening looking around his home. His mind is filled with visions of fishponds, gardens and rooms that traverse his entire seventy-acre parcel of land like a maze. He sees gift shops and restaurants, parking lots and grottos. Before long, his vision of what he is to accomplish becomes clear; he will build Baldasare Forestiere's Underground Gardens. Despite his arm being in a sling and his heavily wrapped broken ribs, Baldasare picks up his shovel and slowly begins to dig.