A basin of ferns and caladiums gives a focal point to a still pond.
Deborah Pittman’s favorite view of her garden is from the back brick patio off the den. From here, 15 feet above the backyard, she has a bird’s-eye view of the expansive urban oasis she and her husband, Arnold Hay Pittman, spent 40 years creating.
What began as a blank canvas of grass and aging shrubs is today a lush display of hostas, ferns, hydrangeas and azaleas, roses and lilies, ponds, and a cutting garden. There’s even a pet cemetery on a shady back hill, a whimsical resting place for the family’s beloved corgis.
As with any well-conceived garden, numerous rooms beckon visitors to rest and listen as the songbirds call or watch the dragonflies dart among the pickerel rushes in the pond. Her one-acre lot boasts 189 different species of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees. The garden fairly shimmers with life.
Looking towards the house from the pond.
A Blank Slate
The couple’s journey began in 1980, when the Pittmans purchased their home in the Hedgemoor neighborhood off Walnut Grove in Memphis. At the time, Deborah was a loan administrator at Union Planters National Bank, while Arnie was busy launching Pittman and Associates, an employee benefits firm.
Deborah Pittman became a Master Gardener through the UT Agricultural Extension Service.
One of their first conversations about gardening took place during a visit to Versailles. Pittman says, “I asked Arnie, ‘Do you like classical gardens or romantic ones?’”
While they never came to a consensus, their garden reflects a harmonious blending of both styles. Stroll along the pine straw paths and you’ll encounter shady enclaves of camellias and magnolias before spying classical statues of maidens that gaze out over the rim of a pond.
“He had the artistic eye,” observes Pittman. “I’m more about how you fill the space with plants. You have to be able to manage that since it’s an undertaking.”
Given their busy careers, they needed plants that didn’t require much tending. So in shade beds they chose Lenten roses and hostas and Japanese painted ferns; in sunnier spots near the house, Pittman prefers voluminous shrubs like the striking purple vitex as well as oakleaf and Annabelle hydrangeas that extend the seasons of color.
As with any garden, there were challenges: The yard had a significant slope and the back of the property (which borders a busy street) was barren and noisy. “So we had to prioritize how we would solve those problems,” she says.
The idea for the elegant lap pool came from a garden visit in southern France. Pittman preferred the simplicity of the narrow ston eedge to concrete skirting.The effect is stunning.
Remarkably, they did so without the help of a landscape architect. They began by adding a fence, then planting a multitude of trees and shrubs, slowly creating an arboretum to dampen the thrum of traffic. The slope was addressed with the repaving of the driveway.
During that project, “We took the opportunity to ask the bobcat driver to please push the dirt up on the north side of the backyard, and down on the south side, and create a level lawn in the middle,” she says. “This created a large commons area for activities in the center, with an upper terrace and a lower terrace on each side. It only took a couple of hours. The brick mason returned and added low terrace walls to divide the backyard into three distinct spaces. This changed everything!”
That transformation gave the couple a jumping-off point for implementing new ideas, often sparked by visits to The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis — horticulturist Dale Skaggs was a huge help there — as well as other gardens here and abroad.
A long shot of the backyard, with its leafy canopy of crepe myrtles.
The planting of a gracious allée of crepe myrtles lining either side of the common soon followed. It was Pittman’s nod to plane trees, the leafy canopy she remembered shading the boulevards of Aix-en-Provence in France. The trees provide a lush bower that arches over the lawn — where she frequently entertains — while directing the eye back to the garden’s focal point, a commanding 80-foot bur oak.
A low spot in front of the oak proved to be the perfect location for a pond, enhanced by an elegant bridge that leads to the woodlands.
“The ponds and brick walls, all of the structural additions, were Arnie’s ideas,” says Pittman. “He loved doing that.”
Other challenges arose, like how to keep still ponds healthy. A trip to Calloway Gardens in Georgia introduced the couple to non-toxic black pond dye, which reduces sunlight penetration, thus slowing the growth of algae. The garden’s three ponds operate naturally, without the use of filters or pumps, which in turn provides a habitat for frogs, goldfish, and birdlife, a benefit Pittman values. She uses compost to feed plants and worm castings to add microbes back into the soil. In addition, a product called Microbe Lift fosters decomposition in the pond.
“I never have to drain and clean the ponds due to Microbe Lift, since it provides microbes that eat the fish waste and decayed plants. I love to say the pond is ecologically balanced,” she says.
Another product Pittman swears by is Mosquito Dunk, which creates a harmless glaze on the water’s surface that kills mosquito eggs. “I advise people to put a piece of Dunk in their birdbaths as well,” she says.
Maidens stand watch over a pond.
Grow Where You’re Planted
Pittman credits her father, Dr. William K. Nichol, for inspiring her love of gardening. He was a dentist as well as a plantsman whose interest in propagating specimens led him to do “fun things” like grafting together a pink and white flowering dogwood so the new hybrid would produce blossoms of both colors. He’d also dig up unfamiliar wildflowers from the side of the road to transplant into his own wildflower garden.
Pink cleome add delicate height and volume to the sunny cutting garden.
Once the couple’s daughter, Joelle, entered school in 1991, Pittman began teaching finance at Rhodes College. She retired in 2011 to care for her husband, who died in 2012.
Today, she continues to find comfort in their garden. Pittman recently decided to fill in one of the ponds to take advantage of its sunny location. With the aid of her long-time garden helper, John Ingram, it was soon transformed. Pittman points to Ingram’s dedication and hard work over the past 20 years as a vital part of the garden’s success. Now, the cutting garden is a kaleidoscope of color in summer as zinnias, day lilies, and sunflowers unfold.
Pittman became a Master Gardener in 2011 via The University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension program. This year, hers was one of six gardens featured by the Memphis Area Master Gardeners for their annual Through Our Garden Gates public tour held each June.
Pittman’s favorite plants include a pair of lush Japanese cedars (Cryptomeriah) that form a huge, soft hedge along the north side of the yard and an 80-year-old sasanqua camellia, which produces a deep, mauve-blue flower in the fall. She frequently experiments with growing new specimens but those that don’t do well get moved just once. If they remain unhappy, off to another gardener they go.
Granddaughter Isabelle’s favorite frog statue.
Recently, Joelle and her family returned to Memphis. So Deborah is making new discoveries with her 17-month-old granddaughter, Isabelle.
“She loves hugging the frog statue; it’s just her height,” says Pittman. “I appreciate the garden — it’s an extension of my home. When I look out my window, I see my own park.”
A room with a view indeed.
