Showcase Garden
Grace Episcopal Church Garden,
Mt. Meigs, Alabama

I have traveled the world and visited gardens large and small, royal and rural. Seldom has my heart been so touched as by the garden I found behind Grace Episcopal Church in tiny Mt.Meigs, Alabama.The church was dedicated in 1889 after the building was interrupted in the 1860's by the Civil War.

The exquisite simplicity of the white frame Gothic church gives way to a series of garden rooms carved into the natural vegetation of the surrounding woods. There are covered alleys of ancient brick pavers which open to brick reflecting ponds crowned by Della Robia plaques of the Madonna. Sitting and dining rooms appear in the shadow of the lush foliage. Trickling fountains play in the bowers of jasmine, rose and banana shrub.

The parishioners of old are buried on the church grounds, Their grave stones are covered in yellow iris, red poppies and roses.The gothic iron tracery arbor in the center of the cemetery is draped with fragrant old world pink roses. Then at the very back of the garden, the trees open to frame an immense classical iron urn on a crumbling brick pedestal.

This is truly one of the loveliest and most peaceful spots I have ever stumbled upon.

Robert William Gooding
West Point, Georgia

More photos: Visit another page in our Alabama section

Read a short history of Grace Episcopal Church Garden by Andy Scott

Previous Showcase Gardens:
Wave Hill
Opus 40
Stonecrop Gardens
Joan Treis, Woodmere Wildflower Garden
John Guglielmelli, San Francisco
Sunshine Farm & Gardens
Melissa Clark, Chevy Chase
Longhouse Reserve

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