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First Place Winner of Alabama Media Professionals'
2006 Communications Contest, Photographer-Writer Category The Bo"Nana"cal GardenA place for nature and nurturing
Peg McGowan's grandson, Rob, named her Vestavia Hills garden when he was four years old. A frequent visitor to Birmingham's Botanical Gardens, Rob first suggested the name, botanical garden. Peg explained that hers was just a simple garden, so Rob looked thoughtfully at his Nana, as he called her, and said, "Well, then we just need to name it 'The Bo"Nana"cal garden.'" The name stuck. Peg bought a tile on a trip to Mexico and had Bo"Nana"Cal Garden hand-painted on a sunny yellow background, embellished with red flowers and a filigree trim. It sits beside the path leading into her hillside garden. The path was built by her late husband, Bill, shortly after they bought the house in 1987. Cushioned with pine bark and enveloped by woodland wildflowers, the path begins at the edge of the lawn and meanders through the garden to the stream that borders Peg's yard at the bottom of a steep hill. The garden was a source of solace and strength when Peg's husband became ill. Her philosophy is reflected in a John Burroughs' quote, "'I go to Nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in tune once more.' That really sums it up for me," says Peg. "It was my therapy." The therapy worked wonders for the garden, as well. Their first plants came from local plant digs, which the Jefferson County Beautification Board sponsors every year at the county landfills. They bought some at Birmingham Botanical Gardens' annual plant sales, and friends gave them even more plants. "I couldn't have had a garden without them," Peg says of her friends. "When you go down there [to the garden] and see flowers friends have given you, they're in your thoughts, and you give flowers to other people…it's a wonderful kind of camaraderie." The garden conveys that sense of camaraderie. Lenten roses nod at late winter visitors from the top of the hill. Native azaleas blossom in the shade of beech and dogwood trees. Trillium, trout lilies, bloodroot and dozens of other wildflowers mingle freely on the hillside.
Peg's favorite is the blue woodland phlox, Phlox divaricata, which blankets the spring hillside with a frothy blue cloud. A stand of Virginia bluebells is also precious to Peg. Both her mother and mother-in-law grew them. Peg put a statue of an angel near the bluebell bed. "I feel like that's my mother—Mother's little place," she says. The bluebells grow near the stream that borders Peg's yard. "I'm lucky to have a stream," she observes. "It's really a good place for grandchildren." The stream also attracts wildlife—deer, raccoons, foxes and even a snapping turtle have visited her yard. Peg is modest about the garden's success, pointing to the sign in her yard that reads, "'Mother Nature is my Gardener.' That's where I am," Peg remarks. "It's kind of like rearing children. You have to have a lot of patience and perseverance and then you have to back off and just let it do its thing….I don't feel like I have a garden—it's a tamed ravine." Whether you call it a gorgeous garden or a refined ravine, Peg's Bo "Nana" cal Garden has struck a beautiful balance between nature and nurture. More Bo"Nana"cal photographs (click to enlarge): |
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