My designer wife Cindy must have been channeling Birmingham Botanical Gardens during the weeks leading up to a special Mother’s Day event. She was working diligently to create a beautiful tablescape complete with a hand-crafted bouquet of crepe paper flowers that looked so real they fooled attendees! Raffia placemats by Lenox, Brookdale-patterned china, monogrammed sterling coasters (a wedding gift to her mother), and tall carved candlesticks with pillar candles all blended well upon a tablecloth fashioned from “Queen Bee” fabric by Cindy Barganier Textiles. It was all so inspiring that we decided to go spend a day in real gardens with real flowers.
Since 1962, Birmingham Botanical Gardens has provided a sanctuary for rest and respite from the chaotic brick and concrete and paved jungles of Americana. The gardens are a soothing urban oasis—67 acres of two dozen garden spaces reflecting our region’s rich and diverse plant life. In the heart of Birmingham, specifically Mountain Brook, the gardens showcase the wonderful biodiversity of the South. Over 300,000 visitors from around the world come here each year to learn, connect with nature, and just plain chill. That’s what we did, and our visit was quite amazing. And free!
There’s something about the great outdoors that makes meeting other people easy. While strolling through the gardens, we met some of the nicest folks. A delightful, young “expecting” couple, Zachary and Amanda Bordas, had just moved to the area from Louisiana. They met at the University of Georgia and fell in love. With their first baby due any day, we happened upon them taking photos along one of the many scenic trails. Amanda wanted to be close to things in blossom. “I’ve just had my thirty-six-week ultrasound for my baby, and we were in Birmingham, so we thought we would come here and see what flowers are in bloom,” Amanda said, smiling broadly. Zach is a college English professor whose classes had just ended. “We just finished yesterday, so this is decompression day. We decided we might come out and take the baby for a stroll in the gardens.”
“Yeah, we’re going to walk this baby out,” Amanda said. Cindy assured her that walking does help. And, not to be left out of the conversation, I contributed that, at about this point in our pregnancy, Cindy looked like a walking beach ball. (I always know what to say.) But Cindy agreed, and we all laughed. Laughter, by the way, is one of the sounds I most enjoyed about visiting the gardens—the laughter of children running and playing, the laughter of grandparents in a swing being pushed by their grandchildren, the laughter of the birds and bees who frequent these shaded and colorful woods, all dedicated to nurturing the human spirit and co-exhibiting God’s magnificent handiwork we mortals all too often take for granted. By the time you read this, the Bordas family will be three. On the next trip to the gardens, perhaps we’ll be especially blessed to hear new laughter that will have come into the world.
If only all the world was a garden. If only all the world could laugh.
Farther along the trail, working under a ginormous sycamore tree, we met Charles Murray, working in the fern garden. At first glance, Charles, in his bright blue shirt and what looks like a black martial arts belt, reminds me of one of the warriors in Lord of the Rings, his weapon of choice, a scuffle hoe, at the ready to fight the demonic weeds and other impediments of a fabulous fern garden. “I’ve been here five years now. I’ve been planting plants since I was about five or six years old. It’s something I love to do. We (volunteers) all have our private yards. You can call mine a jungle, or you can call it really advanced,” Charles said with a laugh. “This bed is full of Southern Shield. (Southern Shield is a Florida variety.)
We’ve cleaned this bed out and are about to bring in all new ferns, some of which we don’t have in the fern glade yet. We try to do one big project a year.” Charles expresses pride in the sycamore’s root-protective stone wall. Stone is an omnipresent element in the gardens, used for seating, landscaping, water features, and protective walls, and adds a rugged ambiance. A job brought Charles to Alabama. Like the Bordas family, Charles uprooted his wife and eighteen-month-old baby and moved here decades ago. Because of this place, he has adjusted well to the South. “This has been a good year for ferns with all the rain,” he said with satisfaction.
As we continued our stroll, I asked Cindy what she loved most about the gardens. “I love the woodsy smell, that it’s so peaceful and fragrant, and that it is a wonderful place to walk and decompress. That’s what a lot of people have said to us.” I couldn’t agree more. Also, Birmingham Botanical Gardens has a great little café with a yummy menu and outstanding sweet tea.
On June 7, the Gardens will sponsor a “fern expo” in the main building. They expect two hundred people to attend, with guest speakers from the West Coast. The event will feature everything you ever wanted to know about ferns. And it’s free! That’s 10:00 AM on a Saturday. And on June 14, there’s a fern sale.
Jesus said, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well springing up unto eternal life.” John 4:14 (ASV)
Jeff Barganier is a novelist, travel writer and speaker. He travels far and wide upon the slightest excuse for something interesting to write about. His novels include Lawson’s Bluff (2021); The Slash Brokers (1998). He also manages Cindy Barganier Interiors LLC (www.cindybarganier.com) at The Waters in Pike Road, Alabama. Contact Jeff at Jeffbarganier@knology.net. You may print out his features at www.jeffbarganier.com and take them with you when you travel!