Stunning Tennessee scenery
An acreage with a breathtaking view becomes Frances Jones' garden haven.
Frances Jones has spent years working on her gardens, but she can't compete with the natural beauty that made her fall in love with her Tennessee acreage in the first place. The view from her land, which overlooks the Tennessee River and the city of Chattanooga from Signal Mountain, still amazes Frances.
"My favorite thing, of course, is the view," she says. "It's a fantastic sight."
When Frances and her husband purchased the property, it was just one woodland lot on Signal Mountain. They raised their two children, Leslie and Thomas, in the house they built among the trees. Now, the single wooded lot has grown into an acreage full of impressive gardens and large pieces of art for Frances and visitors to enjoy.
Back to her roots
When Frances' husband passed away in 1984, she needed a way to relax. Frances' mother and grandmother were in the plant business, operating their own greenhouse and a small nursery. Frances says she thinks she inherited her gift for gardening and landscaping from them. She soon found that gardening projects in her yard were a way to cope with a difficult time in her life. "I guess my therapy was to come out and dig in the yard," she says.
Before long, Frances was cultivating several garden areas on her mountain property. The going wasn't easy, however. She discovered that the soil doesn't go very deep, which made gardening a difficult task. "You dig 6 inches and you hit rock," she says. Frances compensated for the shallow soil by gradually building it up with compost.
Because of the sometimes-tricky growing conditions, native plants such as mountain laurel were an attractive option for the gardens. Frances says she is also open to experimenting with new types of plants, even if she isn't always successful. "It was like eating peanuts - I couldn't stop," she says. "Unfortunately, I haven't met a plant I didn't like. I try something, and if it doesn't work, that's OK too."
Trial and error resulted in what are now sprawling gardens, with 1,500 different types of plants. Frances purchased surrounding pieces of land when they became available, expanding her natural palette.
In the sunny garden in the front of her house, she has wildflowers, as well as more exotic plants such as bamboo. Junipers and dwarf crepe myrtles punctuate the yard. In the shady garden in the back of her house, she grows her azaleas and rhododendrons. She estimates that she has 150 different kinds of rhododendrons, with one or two examples of each type.
Garden tours
Frances' beautiful flowers have captured the interest of other garden enthusiasts. Members of the American Rhododendron Society and the Azalea Society of America have toured her gardens. Frances tries to accommodate all of the requests from garden clubs.
"I always say yes to anybody who wants to come through," Frances says. "I guess word of mouth travels fast."
With so many groups stopping by to see the gardens, Frances needed a place to meet with them outdoors. She found a location for a pavilion in an unlikely place: the site of a 40-year-old swimming pool on her land. The pool, which she once maintained so neighbor children could swim in it, was in need of extensive repairs. Rather than fix the pool she no longer used, Frances and her son decided to fill it in with dirt and gravel so they could build the pavilion in its place.
Lath house
Frances has another structure on her property that is one of a kind. Thomas, who is an architect, designed a lath house to shelter his mother's potted plants. When the carpenters were building the structure, they joked that it looked like a stealth bomber because of its distinctive shape. The lath house has been nicknamed The Stealth Bomber ever since.
Not all of Frances' plants grow outdoors in her gardens or in the protection of her lath house. She also has a small greenhouse where she cares for tropical plants and grows new native plants from cuttings. When the weather gets cold, she pumps air between the two plastic layers on the exterior of her greenhouse. This process keeps her plants insulated from the cold temperatures.
Some of the most impressive elements of Frances' garden, however, don't have roots at all. She peppers her property with garden decorations and large sculptures. One of her favorites is a kinetic sculpture called "Giovanni" by artist Evan Lewis of Chicago. The artwork adds another dimension to the natural landscaping.
"It's just like a sculpture garden," Frances says.
Not content with leaving the artwork to the professionals, the homeowner decided to try her hand at making her own. She created her own whimsical sculpture -- a giant mosquito -- from found objects such as old door springs and an aluminum pipe. Her children get a chuckle out of the 4-foot sculpture when they see it, she says.
"They always laugh and say I needed to make a big arm to come down like it's swatting the mosquito," she says.
Nature also does its part to add more permanent beauty to the home. The property boasts sandstone formations, whose weathered appearance helps inspire Frances' garden design. The bluffs on her land not only give way to the spectacular view, but also possess aesthetic value of their own.
Protecting a natural treasure
It's no wonder that Frances wants to protect the land that inspires her for future generations. Frances says that development has been occurring on property near hers, making her more appreciative of the river habitat. "I wanted to try to preserve this property," she says. "I'd hate to see mansions put on it."
That's why she joined the board of directors for the Tennessee River Gorge trust, a group that is trying to keep the area around the river free of development. The gorge includes 27,000 acres along 26 miles of the Tennessee River.
"They're preserving the natural flora and fauna, plus the views," Frances says.
The land that the group is trying to preserve is home to a wide variety of wildlife. On her property, Frances sees much of the wildlife that calls the area home, including deer, fox, and possum.
One way that the group protects the land - and wildlife - is by securing conservation easements. Conservation easements are legally binding agreements that restrict development on pieces of land. The easements are permanent, which means that future owners must also protect the property. The group also purchases some of the land outright, using funds from donations.
So far, the group has helped protect more than 16,000 acres.
Although she credits her mother and grandmother for her love of plants, Frances says the land she loves provided the inspiration to make her acreage a home. "My ideas just come from the landscape and these beautiful views," she says. "That inspires me."