Wherever they go, whatever their circumstances, gardeners carry the spirit of growing things in their hearts and the urge to dig in their hands. When Cathy Fiebelkorn and her husband, Tom, left their empty-nest house and gardens in Vinings, they moved back Intown to Buckhead, where they both grew up. Although they now lived in a small residential community, it wasn’t long before the yearning for soil under their nails surfaced.
First, it was an array of begonias in a dazzling collection of heart-shaped leaves in red, green and bronze. Tom placed his pots in front of all the windows and sunlight filtered through the colorful leaves highlighting their heavy veins like light through stained-glass. Then his collection expanded into the entry hall of their building. "By Thanksgiving, there was nowhere to set the table," Cathy said. "The dining room had become a greenhouse."
Tom explained: "Whenever I decide to grow anything, I learn all I can about it. I study the seeds, roots, soils. For example, years ago, when we were first married I decided to raise cacti. I had around four hundred. Over the years, I got really good at gardening. I seldom kill anything, so I easily run out of space."
One day, outside the front door to the building, terra cotta containers filled with assorted lavender plants appeared. More clay pots bearing salvia, hardy begonias, and colorful annuals greeted people approaching the building. Shade plants peeked out shyly from where they had been tucked under the old shrubbery. Clearly, a gardener was afoot. The front of one building was slowly being transformed and stood in contrast to the other two buildings around the grassy courtyard.
At this point Cathy was eager to reclaim some space for herself. Their screened porch housed so many plants she no longer had a place to sit and read or enjoy the fresh air. With all the space used inside and on the porch for his container gardening, Tom decided it was time to expand into the earth’s soil, instead of potting soil.
Their many years of gardening together on their large suburban lot were now happy memories. Their combined knowledge of plants needed an outlet. The couple decided to ask the property owners for permission to create a public, outdoor garden for their residential community.
Cathy and Tom had traveled in England and enjoyed seeing garden allotments, where city dwellers grow an array of plants on rented plots of land in the countryside on the outskirts of cities. This stirred their sense of community as well – they wanted to plant a garden for all their neighbors to enjoy.
Prompted by their generous spirits and life-long love of gardening, Cathy and Tom dug a garden in the center of the courtyard. Where unruly dogs used to romp and potty, amiable neighbors now respectfully leash and walk their animals around a burgeoning organic garden filled with herbs and flowers. People take photos of each other standing by the garden, with the feathery white Cleome towering behind them.
Tom and Cathy bought and installed all the plants themselves. Cathy loves the color cobalt, so she purchased only blue, purple and white flowering plants. They chose old-fashioned Cleome, Portulaca, lavender, several varieties of thyme and salvia, rosemary, basil, dill and mint. In spring, they successfully bring Texas Bluebonnets into bloom. Although they tend the garden themselves, they encourage their neighbors to pick herbs for their kitchens.
Although the other residents see Cathy and Tom planting and weeding, most do not realize that this garden is a quiet expression of "giving for the greater good" that springs from within the loving and generous hearts of these two gardeners.
"You can be surrounded by beauty or not – we choose yes," Cathy said. "Take what you have and make it fabulous and share it with others. It’s all part of giving back and giving away."
