Backyard Adventure with Vignettes: Jo Ann Glanz

I knew the big picture, but actually doing it took years.

I'm Jo Ann Glanz and my husband Jeff and I bought this house 38 years ago and one of the first things we did is to build this deck and a treehouse.

And I went up to the top of the treehouse and looked down and decided we needed a garden.

So I designed from up there and I could plot out the big plan and I spent a good bit of time doing that.

It would take years to do it and it has taken at least 35 years.

But I started with the plan and so the first thing I put in was my herb garden.

That was because we had gone to Monticello and I was inspired by all the herbs.

So that was the first project.

And then I planted roses.

I have of course, now I have over 40.

Theyre kind of addictive.

And then I started on the pond and it's been renovated, redone several times in the course of years.

And I added the butterfly garden and then I worked on these.

I have little houses.

One of them was for our daughters had a playhouse and now it is my teahouse, my playhouse.

And then I have a studio that we built that I use for my mosaics.

Finally, I got a greenhouse.

But it's it's an evolution.

I'm still doing.

I'm still I've got lots of projects to pursue.

We did all the decks and the treehouse and the pergola all at one time and I wanted shade cloth on it because my garden room next door gets too much light and the orchids were suffering and it's very nice to come out here even in the middle of the day because there's a shaded area to sit.

When our oldest daughter got married at the Wildflower Center, we had 100 people here the night before all her friends from the East Coast.

It was quite a party.

When we built the treehouse, we had all this area underneath.

So my husband put wire underneath and all around and my daughters raised bunnies.

We had bunny rabbits in there and they had doves.

They were all named after Star Wars characters.

And when they passed on, I put ferns in there and I thought, okay, I can do this.

And so I have a collection of ferns that I like to grow in there.

I really like the concept of wandering.

I think a garden should be an adventure and I really like staging vignettes.

I'm kind of into that and so every section has a different feel.

I did all the granite walkways.

Jeff and I moved ten tons of decomposed granite when we did the walkways to begin with many, many, many years ago.

And so I designed all those.

Most of my sun is out by the roses and the butterfly garden in the zinnia beds, and that's where I put all the things that are really sun loving.

I'm really into changing seasons too.

I try to have something going on at all times, so I do rotations, but I repeat whether it's shade or sun because I have so much area and so many plants that if I don't repeat, it looks too chaotic.

I like that moving from one area to another because I think it's just much more interesting than seeing a garden all at one time.

I'd never had a pond before and I just thought it would be fun.

And I found this mermaid in an Atlanta market one day and I fell madly in love with her and she needed a home.

So I just built around her.

It's been re-dug a couple times and the second layer of the waterfall came many years later.

I mean, it's a process, but it's finally just like I like at least that project's sort of finished now.

It's just upkeep, you know.

We have quite a bit of shade back here, but that wasn't always the case we planted two pecan trees 25 years ago.

And of course now they're giant.

And the reason we planted in is we lost a giant tree to oak wilt by the pond.

And so we had to have our oaks treated.

But now the pecans are so large that it's nice.

So I have a new shaded area there and the big circle in the middle where the other pecan is, Tweeterville is where I have all my birdhouses.

My brother designed that for me and each birdhouse is a different flower, has a different flower theme.

So I painted them and had great fun doing that.

And the armadillos rearrange frequently and they have big parties out here.

We have a lot of armadillos.

I'm a teacher.

I taught English for 42 years in high school and middle school and I like stories.

I did have a shop in Buda on Main Street, a gift boutique, and it was antiques and new.

I went to market in Atlanta and I loved having it and I was really into vignettes at the shop display.

So all I've done is take all of those things and incorporate them.

There's lots of stories in the garden and there's lots of vignettes.

So then I had rabbits from the shop, so when I closed my shop I had to keep adding rabbits and rabbits.

And I have a kid down the street who likes to come and count how many rabbits he got to throw something one day and said, I can't count any higher.

And I said, That's okay.

I think there might be a few more, but I've never counted them all.

All those implements are from my grandmother's house.

And I designed that house for that wall because I needed a wall to display that.

So I like doing that sort of thing.

I like playing in the garden and I love china.

I just bought it for years and years.

I just like the patterns and I did a mosaic top for a sink and put a sink in the middle and I made it for my mother.

So I got into chipping china and I used some of her wedding china in there.

And so everything was kind of designed for her, you know.

And so I had so much fun doing that project.

So then I did a table and that it's quite addicting.

And so then I started putting it in my studio because I can make a mess out there and I can chip china, you know, I take the china and wrap it in a towel and a big board, a cutting board that I have, and I just whack it and then I can design stuff.

I did the bench in the front, the table and the bench and I have a birdbath I am dying to do.

I found this rose wine.

It's a rosé.

It's Gerard Petron.

It's a rosé wine.

Its French and I bought it one day and thought I like rosé, so that'll be fun.

And then I realized that the bottom is a rose.

And I went, Oh, my word, that is amazing.

So I said, Well, I can just paint them.

So I started collecting the bottles and four years later, after a few glasses of wine, plus people brought them to me, both full bottles and empty bottles.

They knew I was collecting and I painted different shades of I just start with red and then I'd add white and I'd get a hot pink and then a pale pink.

And so then I did all the green leaves.

And then it took me four years to finish the whole rose that I wanted because I thought that shade garden needed more color.

And so now when I look, I have roses blooming in the shade.

I always think the garden is a magical place and even when my daughters were little, I would.

I spend a lot of time in the garden.

I was born and raised on a farm.

I guess it shows dirt under the fingernails never really goes away.

You know, when I was cranky, my daughters would say, Mother, it's time for you to go out to the garden and go.

I think you're right.

And so I go out to the garden and it's always been my place of comfort.

There's always things to see and projects to do.