Local Weather Forecast
Today: Current:63	Saturday: 84/59	Sunday: 86/60
Complete Forecast for  May 16 2008

The fifth garden of the Smith County Master Gardeners’ Spring 2008 Garden Tour, scheduled for Saturday, belongs to Sheryl and Richard Rhodes of 711 West Heritage Drive.

While this beautiful home is part of a lovely subdivision in south Tyler, and seems much like any other upscale area, it hides an amazing secret. An immense back garden of incredible size and structure which is not instantly apparent from the street, awaits the lucky visitor.

Much has been written about this garden. It was featured in the April 20 “Discover” section of the

Tyler Courier-Times—Telegraph. The accompanying photographs showed the wonderful flagstone and cedar pathways, lined with lush azaleas and perennials, which lead the viewer through the garden.

It mentioned the fort and swing area, the horseshoe toss pit, and the wooded camping area with fire pit, which these grandparents built for their lucky grandchildren to enjoy. Not only all that, but a multi-tier swimming pool with waterfalls and an inviting deck add the possibility of summertime outdoor enjoyment for all.

This garden has been a four year, work-in-progress, that will only become more beautiful with time. Beginning with a poison ivy infested forest, the Rhodes took clippers in hand, and began to clear the area, one step at a time.

They worked for almost a year, along with Jose Munoz, who removed dead trees and thinned the dense forest, trimming all the bottom limbs from the remaining trees. This allowed sunlight to come onto the forest floor, making a garden possible.

Then the hardscape had to be installed. A dry creek had to be lined with boulders, pebbles, and rocks, and long, three-tier garden bed was built on the high side of the area. This was in order to bring under control the flow of water running off the surrounding hills into the flood plain below during rainstorms.

Then it has taken several thousand sacks of cypress mulch, and the tons of potting soil, peat moss, boulders, pebbles, rocks, and paving stones to build the structure for all the garden beds and pathways.

Thousands of shrubs, flowering vines, bulbs, perennials, annuals, and under-story trees have been planted. More than 200 rose bushes were planted in the hillside rose garden. They also planted more than 200 Encore Azaleas. These are later-blooming azaleas, which bloom several times a year.

Last summer the Rhodes installed a gazebo, and a greenhouse, a pet bird cage, and recently, a Koi pond has been established.

This last winter during phase VIII of this garden, a walking path, along the creek they cleared earlier, was cleared all the way to Mud Creek and to Holly Tree Golf Course.

All the facts about the construction of this garden are quite interesting and they serve to teach other gardeners what can be done with a lot of planning, time, effort, and determination.

This has been a massive undertaking, and the results are just spectacular. It is hard to imagine that two people, with some help, could accomplish such a feat. While other, more famous gardens, were built with massive amounts of workers and equipment, this has been a labor of love for two people.

The most startling thing about this whole garden for the first time visitor is the feeling of walking into a hallowed space. From the first few steps inside the wrought iron gate, the viewer is filled with feelings of awe and wonder.

The juniper trees have been stripped of limbs for the first 80 feet or more, and the grey trunks form the supports for the lush green canopy far overhead. The earth slopes away to the landscaped creek bed about 80 feet away.

Walking further into the garden, where the trees form a circle around an open area, the view straight ahead through the woods to the flood plain below stretches for about a quarter mile. The trees are cleared of vines and limbs and the forest floor is covered in mulch. It is peaceful and calm and reminds us of the idealized notions we have of what the forest primeval might have looked like — all neat and tidy and welcoming.

Sheryl and Richard Rhodes have created an amazing garden, and it will become a showplace for years to come, as the garden matures and word of this Herculean accomplishment spreads. It will certainly be one of the five places to be this Saturday from 9 to 4, rain or shine.

FLOWER OF THE WEEK: “Salsa Scarlet’’ salvia splendens is an amazing, bright red annual which can be used to bring seasonal color to the garden. Perennial in southern climes, here it should be replaced after the first frost and composted. Like most plants, it likes moist, well-drained soil, will grow from 12 to 14 inches high, and will bloom until frost. They like sun to part shade and are just beautiful now.