This Unbelievable Garden Tells a Story Like No Other
Jim Scott's Lake Martin garden is anything but ordinary. This sprawling wonderland is an earthly paradise that will stir the imagination and the soul.
βOne way to look at gardens is that there are two types: a picture and a story,β says Jim Scott, lawyer by trade and self-made master gardener. βA picture garden is like anybodyβs front yard β it is to be seen and looked at from one general position. And Iβve been to some very famous gardens, where Iβve seen that particular picture a hundred times in magazines. And if you stand right in front of that one spot and look at it, it is a knockout. Um, but there it is. Youβve got about three views; it takes about 15 minutes, and you say, βWell, I got it.β
βA story garden is more like a story, where you start off with some sort of anticipation. Anybody who writes a story is doing the same kind of thing β you start off with an anticipation, two or three lines that get you hooked, and then you build tension, and then you have a release,β says Jim.
βAnd in my garden, you start off on a path, and youβll wonder where it goes. Most of those paths end up being either high or very tight or dark or going up and down steps, where you get a certain amount of tension, because you donβt know where itβs going to go, and then you come to a large open space, where you sort of stop, sit down and say, βOK, Iβve arrived.β Then you see another path that goes somewhere, but you canβt tell where, and so you have a new anticipation.β
Jim Scottβs sprawling garden at Lake Martin in Alabama is an immersive, 360-degree experience that swallows you in its verdant grandeur. Itβs like a living choose-your-own-adventure book, a veritable forest wonderland where one can truly get lost in the natural beauty of endless wild and winding paths, al fresco dining areas, castle-like structures, caves, swimming ponds, treetop walkways and more, all peppered with thought-provoking quotes, playfully placed statues, imaginative play areas β for adults and children β and, of course, a wine cellar.
βItβs really more of an experience than a view,β says Jim, who discovered his magical green thumb while designing Grace Gardens at Grace Episcopal Church in Mt. Meigs, Alabama. βGenerally speaking, with my garden, you can walk for a couple of hours and still be running into stuff you havenβt seen before.β
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One cannot witness this garden without wondering about its creator. What drove this tax lawyer to create such a wondrous and enchanting garden? The answers are almost as mysterious, fascinating and amusing as the man himself.
Jimβs voice is characteristically Southern: gentle, melodic, honest and funny. When pressed about his creative process, he replies, βOne thing led to another. Iβd get to a point and say, βWhat the hell am I going to do here?β And Iβd say, βWell, you know, this would be cool or this would be kind of weird.β And you kind of piddle around with an idea, draw it up and play with it, just to see what it looks like. And itβs fun buying the plants and seeing if they will come up,β says Jim. βIβve killed about a million unhappy Yankee plants, and everybody says you canβt grow them in the South, and, by God, I prove that they are absolutely right.β
βI suppose Iβve got the designs for a thousand gardens,β says Jim, whose frequent travels obviously include notable gardens, such as Chanticleer, one of his favorites. But Jim draws inspiration from no particular place, and thatβs evident in the gardenβs singular design. It is both rambling and eloquent, like a mind in meditation. βItβs got a lot of very formal spaces in that the croquet court is exactly twice as long as it is wide; the palladium space and a number of other spaces are geometrically perfect after you get through really weird, wandering-around, haphazard bits,β says Jim. βI think itβs nice to have that juxtaposition of wildness and tameness. Itβs sort of like a Greek tragedy, where you have really wild ideas in very formal settings. And the garden juxtaposes woodland with fairly formal spaces.β
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This literary influence has deep roots in Jimβs design approach. Quotes from famous works are the cosmetic touches on this earthly paradise, but grammatical structure comprises its bones. βThe chairs and benches are like the ending of a paragraph or a sentence in that you come to a seat and you may not sit there, but you slow down and think about how itβd be nice to sit there,β says Jim. βThere are lots of benches and tables and things to do. Nobody ever does them much, but everybody mentally does them. Itβs kind of like if you go to Europe and you climb around the castles and go up in the towers. You really donβt want to have people shooting arrows at you or killing you, but you sort of mentally go through that. And I think each time you put a table out, people mentally have dinner there, and I think they kind of enjoy it.β
Jim uses literature in his garden oasis to poke at the line between poetry and reality. A guest might meander along a mossy path and come upon a stone bench inscribed with the passage from Shakespeareβs A Midsummer Nightβs Dream, wherein Oberon tells Puck the ingredients for a love potion, and those very ingredients are planted about the bench. Another guest might encounter the word βrealityβ inscribed upside-down on the door that goes into the kiddie land. βIf you look at it through your legs, it reads correctly,β says Jim, who also has a stone bench with reality inscribed in reverse and a mirror cleverly positioned nearby. βIf you come to it one way, people donβt even realize itβs a mirror. So, I was sort of concluding that reality can be the exact opposite of what you think it is, but anyways, thatβs neither here nor there.β
!["I planted everything that is called for in that particular [Shakespeare] quote, and I guess I could say it didnβt work," says Jim. "But I liked the idea that there was a quote from A Midsummer Nightβs Dream, which is a nice sort of thing that takes place in a garden, and that I actually planted all the plants in that quote."](https://styleblueprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/SB-SE-Jim-Scott-Garden-63.jpg "\"I planted everything that is called for in that particular [Shakespeare] quote, and I guess I could say it didnβt work,\" says Jim. \"But I liked the idea that there was a quote from A Midsummer Nightβs Dream, which is a nice sort of thing that takes place in a garden, and that I actually planted all the plants in that quote.\"")
When pressed about the origins of his literary and philosophical musings, Jim presses back. βI am the most ordinary mortal that youβd ever want to cross paths with, and thereβs nothing about me that would interest anybody other than my own mother,β he insists. βI am that guy that you walk by a thousand of every day and donβt even know they are there.β
However, once lost in this garden of thought-provoking splendor, one can only beg to differ with the author of this story garden.
If youβd like to see the garden up close, itβs open Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in late March through May for garden clubs or master gardening groups to tour, free of charge. Groups must be 20 people or more. To schedule a tour, contact Jeannie Curtis at (334) 740-2091.
Thank you to Heydon Hatcher of H. Hatcher Photography for the stunning images of this glorious garden!
And, of course, a special thanks to Jim Scott for sharing his fabulous garden and personality with us!
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Lauren Helmer
Lauren Helmer is a writer, editor, and artist with a passion for food, the arts, interiors, and the people who create them.