THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604200137
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
To see my garden that never was, visit Anne Gilliam's beautiful Bay Colony garden during the Virginia Beach Garden Club's Garden Week tour between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Natural curving beds stretching round her whole yard are planted with old fashioned shrubs, perennials and bulbs along with an exotic tree or two. Full of colorful plants arranged in a seemingly effortless manner, Anne's garden was my dream many years ago when we bought our first house two doors down from the Gilliams.
To this day I still recall the agony and ecstasy of that first garden. My ambitious plans included a curving Anne-like bed down one whole side of my yard, the long side no less. I confidently expected that the next spring my garden would look like Anne's. Much to my dismay, of course it didn't look like her garden, never did and knowing what I know now, never could.
One needs time for a beautiful garden such as Anne's 40-year-old glade to emerge. ``Mother always said it took at least 10 years to make a garden,'' she said.
One also needs a patient green thumb like Anne's. She doesn't force plants into doing something they don't want to do. She transplants them from year to year until they find the right spot.
``I keep looking at them, playing with them,'' she said. ``A garden never stays still.''
Lastly, one needs gardening genes. Many plants in Anne's garden, which she calls a ``family affair,'' go back to her grandmother's ``charming'' garden in Franklin and to her mother's ``beautiful'' garden in Charleston, S.C. When I visited last week, I began to recall the roots of so many of those plants.
I was glad to meet up again with her grandmother's sweet shrub whose red flowers filled the air with scent years ago. Almost ready to bloom, the shrub may smell as sweet again by Tuesday.
The loquat tree espaliered on the side of the garage was another old friend. A Southern species, it came as a seedling from her mother's yard in Charleston.
Old fashioned plants from her grandmother and mother's gardens include such things as clear blue forget-me-nots, both red and white bleeding hearts, multi-colored phlox, confederate violets - white with blue centers - dainty white snow drops and native columbine. Cuttings for her sasanqua hedge came from South Carolina and the bridal wreath was from Franklin.
A damp shady section around back is full of ferns, emerging jack-in-the-pulpits, bog lilies and May-apples. I recall trying to get such things to grow in my yard with no success.
One thing I did not remember is the crape myrtle growing near her sun porch. It is a lovely reminder that nature is beautiful year round. Crape myrtles are late in leafing out and the tree is starkly handsome with its smooth light brown bark and gently pruned bare limbs.
``I almost like it more in winter than in summer,'' Anne said.
In the years since I first met Anne's garden I have learned there are gardens that dreams are made of and gardens of reality. I have let Anne's garden be one of my dreams. It is no longer my model and my ego is better off for it, I must say.
Temptation bit again on my recent visit, however, but this desire I may be able to achieve. I want a wonderful woven stick rabbit fence around my vegetable garden just like hers.
Anne and her gardener made the fence from crape myrtle tree cuttings that that she saw piled by the roadside waiting for a garbage pickup. They created the fence in the fashion of stick chairs and other rustic furniture made from tree branches and limbs.
The garden club will be serving homemade cookies and lemonade between 1 and 4 p.m. in Anne's garden at 1208 York Lane. More importantly Anne will be there, too, and you can ask her how to make the fence or about her old fashioned plants and wildflowers.
Tour tickets will be available there and at other homes on the tour as well as at Galilee Episcopal Church. Visit Tuesday and like me, dream on.
P.S. THE PRINCESS ANNE GARDEN CLUB'S Garden Week tour is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Called ``The Lands of Adam Thoroughgood,'' the tour will be of houses in the area where Virginia Beach's first settlers once lived. Among other sites, tickets are available at Church Point Manor House, 4001 Church Point Road, where refreshments will be served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or at the Adam Thoroughgood House.
DISCUSS THE CITY'S OUTDOOR PLAN at a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Central Library Auditorium. To find out more call 563-1100 or 427-4621. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
Old fashioned plants from her grandmother and mother's gardens
include red and white bleeding hearts and tulips. And a small pond
marks a quite spot in Anne Gilliam's backyard garden.
by CNB