When Claude Monet moved to Giverny, the pink plastered longhouse already had a 2.5-acre (1 ha) garden consisting of an apple orchard and a vegetable patch. A large alley lined with cypress and spruce trees led from the gate to the entrance to Clos Normand. Charmed by the set, the painter-gardener immediately set to work and embellished Clos Normand to create the garden of his dreams. Much to his wife's displeasure, he had the boxwoods pulled and the spruce trees cut and he replaced them with metal hoops still visible today. The central path was bordered by nasturtiums and fragrant roses, and the apple trees were replaced by Japanese cherry and apricot trees.