I love visiting beautiful gardens, learning about them from successful gardeners, going to horticultural lectures and programs, and writing about my observations. Actual weeding, digging, and planting thrill me far less.
I began my quest for plant knowledge in 1986 when I joined about 30 others in launching the Memphis Herb Society. It was a heady time when interest in these aromatic and tasty plants was high, but availability of them in their fresh form was sadly lacking unless you grew your own, so I became a gardener.
Enthusiasm for this new hobby, I had hoped, would make up for my complete lack of experience in growing anything except a few houseplants. It did not.
Unlike many truly great gardeners, I did not learn about plants at the elbow of a parent or grandparent. My mother’s favorite plants were the indestructible plastic geraniums that occupied pots near the front porch until years in the sun bleached the color from their bright red petals.
I was 31 when I boldly swung open the gate to the fascinating and complex world of horticulture. I began by soaking up sage advice from my herb buddies, whose gardening knowledge reached far deeper than a bed of basil at the kitchen door. I marveled at how they could identify wildflowers growing on the side of the road as easily as they selected the rosemary varieties most likely to survive our winters and clay soil. (The educational me has to tell you to look for Salem, Hill Hardy, and Arp — no relation to me, and no typo — rosemary.)
As my passion for herbs and gardening grew, I began eagerly volunteering to write articles for the spring planting guides published by The Commercial Appeal. While these extra assignments were typically turned out with little enthusiasm by others on the features staff, I reveled in the opportunity to mine gardening information from local experts and get paid for it, too. What a deal!
I should, by now, have a great garden. Sadly it’s not the case. Knowledge doesn’t make up for my laziness on the physical aspects of gardening and absence of the esthetic instinct that guides those who excel at it. My older sister, by contrast, grew up with the same non-gardening family and has not spent many hours in lecture halls or chatting with experts. But she has always had gardens where individual plants come together in a symphony of colors and textures.
Is there, I wondered, a gene that makes some people innately good at gardening? I consulted with Google, my guru on all things, and was not surprised to find abundant information on the genetic manipulation of plants but nothing on a genetic proclivity in some humans that gives them understanding of how to make a garden truly blossom.
What I have observed is that artistically talented people like my sister are better at creating gorgeous gardens than those of us who lack those genes. They would never put a pink clematis on a trellis with red honeysuckle like I did. I still don’t know what I was thinking that day.
So how can novice, unsatisfied, and yes, untalented gardeners achieve success?
Several hours spent snooping in other people’s gardens coupled with stealing some of their ideas is a path worth taking. Luckily there are numerous opportunities to do that starting with the 70 gardens on the second Cooper-Young Garden Walk held May 20-21, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
These are not necessarily perfect gardens, says Kim Halyak, president of the Cooper-Young Garden Club, the organization presenting the event. “These are gardens with personality.”
Halyak became smitten with the open garden idea after twice experiencing the country’s largest, the Buffalo (New York) Garden Walk. On a late July weekend a couple of years ago, she and her sister visited 75 or so of the 350 gardens open in that northern city. Most were in neighborhoods similar to Cooper-Young.
“The gardens were not like the big professionally landscaped gardens featured on most garden tours,” she says. “They were small and funky.”
She and 33 members of her garden club embraced the concept for their neighborhood and last year presented the first Cooper-Young Garden Walk featuring 28 gardens. It was a hit. “One of the participants told me she had the best time of her life showing visitors her garden,” Halyak says.
This year’s event offers more than twice as many gardens.
“Some people think everything has to be perfect before they commit to opening their gardens,” she says. “But I’m interested in celebrating their energy and creativity no matter where they are in their gardening experience. It’s all about making your space enjoyable.”
Numerous restaurants and cafes in the area will offer walkers discounts; artists will open their studios; vendors will sell vintage garden items and other wares; educational booths will be manned by master gardeners and representatives of the Memphis Botanic Garden, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Lichterman Nature Center, the Memphis Urban Forestry Council, and the Memphis Storm Water Management Program.
Lisa Orgler, a garden designer and blogger in Iowa, will speak on “Creating an Out-of-the-Ordinary Theme Garden.” Other talks will focus on rain barrels and rain gardens.
Cooper-Young, a neighborhood of 1,800 bungalows, cottages, shotgun houses, and other examples of early-twentieth-century architecture, is perfect for walkers and bike riders. During the garden walk, riders may safely park their bikes at a dozen or so bicycle valet stations featuring racks and the watchful eyes of volunteers.
Lots of ideas can be gleaned at the home and garden of Becky Frost and Gina Sweat beginning with an inviting front porch featuring colorful plants in containers paired with a collection of birdhouses. Sweat, director of Memphis Fire Services, fills vintage fire buckets with verbenas and calibrachoas and hangs them from columns supporting an outbuilding turned “She Shack” in the backyard.
The garden of Halyak , a retired school teacher, and her husband, Bill Schosser, begins at the sidewalk with a unique design featuring raised beds so well integrated into the enclosed space you barely notice the structural “boxes.”
Halyak’s goal is for the Cooper-Young Garden Walk to continue to grow. “I’d like it be like the Buffalo of the South,” she says, which is attended each year by some 60,000 people. “And I’d really like to see other neighborhoods like Central Gardens, Vollintine-Evergreen, and Buntyn do their own garden walks.”
Tickets for the CY garden walk include two-day admission and cost $15 if purchased by May 5; $20 after. Go to cygardenwalk.eventsmart.com
Two other upcoming garden tours:
Memphis Area Master Gardeners present seven gardens in East Memphis and Germantown on June 3rd at their eighth annual “Behind Our Garden Gates” tour held June 3rd from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.memphisareamastergardeners.org
Mid-South Hydrangea Society’s Garden Tour will be held June 11th from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are $10. Go to dixon.org and click on “news and events.”
Christine Arpe Gang has been writing about gardening in Memphis for more than 30 years, primarily for the commercial appeal. She seeks out the best plants and growing techniques to share with her readers and use in her own garden.
