GREAT GARDEN F
By Scenic Landscape Watergarden Nursery, Inc.
“A Place of Many Rooms”      

Welcome to an outdoor living space of many rooms. says Mark Moore, Scenic Landscape Watergarden Nursery, Inc. In your yard, just as inside your home, can be little areas, niches, or places that are created with unique features for special living purposes. Each room touches the senses or emotions in a different way. As you walk into this garden, you go through a rustic tree-limb arbor that bids you to come into the “entryway” of the gardens. Here friends and family are cheerfully greeted by splashes of vibrant yellows and fire red tulips, stretching along a stone path welcoming you onward. Next you move to an area where you are enchanted by the gentle sound of water bubbling gracefully over a stone, creating a lullaby that begs you to shut your eyes and take short nap in the shade of the massive birch trees. Time seems to stand still. Even the fish in the lazy pond glide in slow motion and you know this is a “resting room”.

In the next room, a cold stone wall shelters the trickling waterfall and moss-crowned stones of many brown hues, keeping out the heat of the summer wind. Below you is a sunken garden where you can curl up with a good book in a pergola made of weathered gnarly Osage orange branches. You are refreshed by the coolness around you; here you can block out the world and all you hear is the forlorn song of a dove crying for its mate. You have discovered a “reading room” where the imagination can go as far as the story takes you. As you move on, the world changes instantly beyond the next turn and that room is alive with a thunder of a crashing waterfall that mysteriously vanishes to some hidden place under the patio stones. The table is set for company in brilliant pinks and neon blues; the smells coming from the grill make your mouth water. This is the “fellowship room” of the yard and this scene shouts that a gathering is about to happen with good friends, laughter, stories, and good times. Vertical stones, standing tall, remind you of sentinels, guarding the festivities. You wish you could stay for the fun.

What garden of rooms would be complete without a kid’s corner in the middle of nature’s playground. High above it all, hidden in the lush foliage of wild elm, cottonwood and cedar trees is every child’s dream – a tree house. That special place where adults are not allowed, where dares are given and secrets are told. In that shaded space below, a tire hangs suspended on an old rope, waiting for a child.  

Finally, you enter the last room. It is a scene so peaceful it takes your breath away. You set on a rock under the branches of a weeping cherry tree with blossoms so delicately pink you fear they will wilt if you touch them. A quiet breeze flows over you, so light you wonder if it is the brush of angel wings .You gaze wearily into dark waters of the quiet reflection pool. Your body and mind are exhausted, weary. You feel the need to turn inward and upward as you renew your soul and being. You are in the “praying room”.

As I planned this Great Garden, I was reminded of the Book of John which states we need to put our trust in our Lord and that in our Father’s house there are many rooms. It states that his Son goes before us to prepare a room for us. It was done out of love for us. In the same way, preparing the wonderful rooms in your backyard is an act of love which makes priceless moments and memories for people you care about.