In 2008 Alexander Trevi looked at cutting-edge exoskeleton tech and could only imagine one thing: what if they were gardening?

The CEO of Caterpillar, an unavowed fan of Cinquecento garden design, wants to create for his palatial mansion located just outside the company’s world headquarters in Peoria, Illinois, a replica of the Villa D’Este gardens, an exact copy, in fact, except that it will be planted with native vegetation of Plant Hardiness Zone 5a.

Despite the complexity of recreating late Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque landscape elements, not to mention the signature terracing of the original site in contourless prairie country, the project is finished in record time. In one day.

Pruned: The Return of the Intergalactic Planetary Landscape Architect