featured Garden
Linda Pittman
Memphis, Tennessee

"My garden evolved out of necessity", says Linda Pittman. As other gardeners have learned, you can not grow a thick lawn in total shade. The neighbor’s large, old oak trees shade the area between the house and garden shed. Linda started with a small corner bed, moved along the fence, then enlarged further out into the yard until she ended up with half the back yard taken over by planting beds. She put down stones that lead to a bench, a cast iron stove as a planter, and a picket fence to hide the AC unit. Then, she added a cobblestone sidewalk from the patio to the shed and formed a border. A sunny border on the outside of the sidewalk came next. Marginal plants grow well along this shade/sun border.

Linda puts in a lot of plants in containers so she can move them around. Also, since she is hoping to move sometime in the near future, she doesn’t want to leave behind any of her favorites.

Linda likes color and the lacey texture of ferns and Japanese Maples - particularly those with weeping forms. So, she added Japanese Maples in several areas for interest. She especially likes Hostas having yellow and streaked leaves - the more streaks the better. Her garden is home to 150 varieties of Hostas combined with Azaleas, Ferns, Ligularias and other shade-loving plants.

Linda’s garden is forever changing. Her philosophy is, “If something doesn’t do well, I try it in another spot and if that doesn’t work, I pot it up and give it away” Linda says, “It’s a good thing I have a ‘Fun’ job at a local nursery, (The Dabney Nursery on Hacks Cross Road). I get to see new things as they come in. It is a lot of fun and I’m always learning interesting things about plants. I love all type of plants; I want one of everything. I may need a much bigger garden”!