Hillbilly Hippy Garden
I call my garden this because I am an artist and also a bit of a redneck. I make jewelry for my garden and I’m not shy about planting some okra or a tomato in an old tire. I love my southern roots and growing up next door to my grandparents (my current house is the family farmhouse).
Homeowners: Mary Cour Burrows + Charles Marshall
Address: Poplar Pike
Neighborhood: Germantown
Garden Age: 85 years
Favorite Garden Tip :Compost, compost, compost. I add compost to every bed each year. I have horses and chickens, so I have some fantastically magical compost. Y’all, I’m not going to lie, I have the best soil. And I have the best garden.
Plants:
- Trees: Huge 100-year-old Water Oaks and Magnolia, Black Walnut, Paw Paw, Black Cherry, Pecan, Tulip Poplar, Sassafras, Ginkgo Dogwoods, Redbuds, Pine, Red Cedar and more
- Shrubs: Azaleas, Hydrangeas, Buckeyes,Texas Rose, Spice Bush, Deciduous Holly, Blueberry, Rose of Sharon, Beauty Berry, Elderberry, and more.
- Vines: Blackberry, Raspberry, Passion Vine, muscadine and Scuppernong, Virginia Creeper, various annuals, vines such as gourds and melons, plus beans and sweet potatoes
- Perennials: Sweet William, Mayflower, Water Leaf, Money Plant, and all sorts of daffodils, ferns and loads of cone flowers, cup plant, narrow-leaf sunflower, butterfly weed, other milkweeds, jimaca, Black-Eyed Susan, Liatris, Blackberry Lilly and native Iris.
- Other: Greens, potatoes, lettuces sweet peas, beets, rainbow chard, Asian greens – all winter. In the summer, a dozen different tomatoes (at least), four varieties of eggplant, all kinds of peppers (sweet and hot), cucumbers, squash, five types of beans, including a third-generation of what we call “Gaddy peas” which were passed down from my husband’s grandparents’ Clarksdale, MS farm. I share-crop at my parents’ house and have melons, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, pumpkins, okra and purple hull peas. I also have my bee hives at my parents’ property. In Germantown, there’s simply too many neighborhood homes spraying for mosquitoes; it kept killing my bees.
Garden Philosophy: I believe being outside in the garden is the best place to grow up. I grew up running wild and barefoot, and I never stopped. I also feel you need to share an inviting space for the bees and beetles and spiders and birds and lizards and snakes. I’m a lazy mower and purposely try to reduce lawn area. Who needs a lawn anyway? I believe in trying to keep it natural and don’t freak out if snails are taking bites out of my plants. Plants are tough; they can take it. And besides – snails have to eat, too. You don’t need to run and dump SEVEN dust on everything! Also have fun. Plant something in some old shoes. Hang Christmas lights on your chicken house! Plant hostas in an old suitcase. Try something weird or new. Do something tacky to make yourself laugh. Go barefoot. Run wild.
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