June 26, 2025
I entered this garden and was breathless. A tree with a woman’s face stood with one arm raised and holding a lantern in greeting. She hugged the potted plant to the other arm con man. What an unexpected, surreal vision!
It was the second day of Memphis Fling. We were dropped off in the Lennox area and invited to explore the gardens showing tour signs. In a shotgun style house, I saw a tour sign in a small, ordinary front yard and wondered where the garden was hidden. To the side, behind the tree, a skinned, weather-covered gate stood at Ajar – ahhh!
Squeeze the opening and I look up and read the Bible verse.
The poem is backlit at night, with bright winds and LED frame lights, and owner Chip Morrison explained in an article about the garden. I went in with “Hell” with a listen nut zipper playing in my head.
Through the gate, there is a hall-like path ahead, with faces displayed in the fence niche.
The face is a media ceramic mask mixed with raku by local artist Leicester Jones.
The uprights of the display boxes illuminate them at night. Could the effect be creepy?
At the end of the gallery walk you will be through the arbor where this opens. It is an incredibly large garden with a fountain and pond. It appears that the tree is growing on a wall with leaves.
And you realize that the wood is not the real thing, but the sculpture! This fantastic wooden goddess, wearing a Leicester Jones mask and posing like the Statue of Liberty, is the creation of the environment sculptor Bernhard Meck.
Wow, what a surprise after a modest front yard, almost hidden entrance and narrow roads. Is this an expression of the owner’s heaven? Is it the spirit of the tree in the water garden?
The lush green walls and raised ponds are also Bernhard’s works. The article by the owner states, “The walls were originally replaced by a series of plywood panels, originally painted with concrete, printed with elephant ear leaves and colored.” The irregular oval pond, which appears to be constructed with concrete blocks, is actually made of carved concrete poured in. You will see more of this stupid concrete later carved into the Bernhard location.
Topped with another bone n of a purple heart, bone n acts as a trickle fountain.
The leaf walls are even taller with lattice pieces, providing garden privacy, but also setting the mood.
You are in a magical forest where trees awaken in human form.
From the rising pond, we snake past the fire hole patio and towards the stacked stone waterfall. Overlooking the scene is a charming, New Orleans-inspired guesthouse.
The doors, windows and shutters were retrieved from the demolition store.
The round stained glass windows and side windows were recovered from a nearby Methodist church that had been demolished to give way to CVS.
The tree-studded bench behind the guesthouse overlooks another small pond. He is called Pondgarten in honor of the German heritage of sculptor Bernard Meck. The Japanese maple of war stars spreads feathery leaves over the pond, protecting the fisherman’s porcelain figurine.
He makes the scene into another miniature world.
The great blue Herondecoy protects yet another pond. They are trying to convince the owner’s territory that it has already been claimed and not to spare the remaining goldfish.
Next: the Luxury of Cornflow, Daily and Crepe Meatle in Memphis Botanical Gardens. Click here to look back at the lovely Casarosa Garden in the rain.
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