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Master Plan

THE SOUTHERN GARDEN:
Centerpiece of the JCC Arboretum
Designed by JMCCLURE Designs, Inc.

Southern gardens … the very words conjure images of warm, fluid days, rambling flowers, the shade of porches, scents of roses and old-fashioned blossoms, vivid colors, the sound of birds, the hum of bees and flit of butterflies ….

With the support of the Johnston County Visitor’s Bureau, JCC Arboretum undertook a year of study to investigate the next phase of the Arboretum. We mailed out surveys, interviewed residents, chatted with visitors, worked through a Strategic Plan with the Arboretum Advisory Committee, and afterwards, chose the centerpiece of the Arboretum: a “Southern Garden.”

We employed an anthropology student to conduct a literature search for us to document the ‘roots’ of Southern gardens. This summary formed the basis of formal bids sent to area architects and landscape designers to take the information and design a garden based on historical research and area surveys. To that end, a design was chosen and we are in the installation phase of this exciting addition to the JCC Arboretum.

What ‘is’ a Southern Garden?

A southern garden is actually a fusion of the various cultures that have lived, settled, worked and played in the south. It’s a blending, an amalgamation of the contributions of its settlers, the choices made by them of what to keep and what to clear on the landscape, what to emphasize and what to ignore, the preferences and predilections of settlers, immigrants and ancestors of this region -- all tempered and influenced by climate and weather, soil and water.

Southern “culture” can be recognized as the contributions of four major groups that initially settled the region and contributed distinct cultural influences:

• Native Americans
• West Africans
• European settlers (Predominantly from southern England and settlers from the British Isles, loosely known as ‘Scotch-Irish”.) But also immigrants from Germany, France, Spain.

English/Scottish influence and the West African influence were most pronounced during the 1600s and 1700s when these populations settled in our region. And while migrations from other parts of Europe continued, MAJOR migration into the south did not resume significantly until the 1960s and 1970s; thus creating a distinct ‘southern’ culture.

Though all cultures evolve and variations occur, the patterns established by these culture groups has been and continues to be the predominance of farming (agriculture) and rural living. From our music, language, values, attitudes, food, education, and, yes, gardens, these contributions continue.

Contributions:

Native American Influence

• Roads and pathways connecting towns, trade routes and waterways
• Agriculture (food crops) such as corn, beans and squash
• The use of wild plants. These are the native plants that they used, preserved or changed through their own use or gardening/farming practices. They are the ‘wild or native’ plants that are found in our landscape. Many of these ‘natives’ have found their way in our gardens, nurseries and retail stores. It is often from this genetic base that many of our domestic ‘new’ plants are created.

European contributions are many and I’ll list a short summary here (The Southern Heirloom Garden, William C. Welch and Greg Grant, 1995):

The Spanish Influence:

• Four-part gardens with a water feature as its central point
• Structures built for shade
• Formal, symmetrical garden plans
• Intensely utilized garden spaces, and
• Bright, contrasting colors for garden elements.

The French Influence:

• Formality of garden plans
• Parterres (flower gardens with paths and beds and arranged in patterns)
• Alees (avenues or rows of trees)
• Dividing the utilitarian areas from the pleasure areas
• Aromatic, colorful plants and
• Containers of plants.
• Knot gardens were refined by Renaissance Italian gardeners, but were continued during the eighteenth century by the French. Those ‘wild’ plants used and maintained by Native Americans, such as yaupon and American holly and cherry laurel were some of the native shrubs used in our earliest Southern gardens.
• These formal gardens are often those that we find in Plantation or Antebellum gardens. These gardens were formed from the wealth of the plantations as well as the aesthetic sensibilities of these landowners. These gardeners and gardens have made significant contributions to the more formal ‘southern garden’ concept.

Despite the significant contributions to the south in terms of culture and economics made by plantation owners, the majority of ‘southerners’ before the Civil War were small farmers. These farms typically consisted of several hundred acres worked by family members. To this end, we look to the contributions by the English and German:

The English Influence

• The grid-plan for gardens meant a central walk with sidewalks and garden plots coming off this central axis (like a wheel)
• By the late 18th century, formal gardens had given way to a ‘natural style.’ Curved lines followed the natural contours of the land, and straight-lines were no longer popular.
• By the 20th century, Gertrude Jekyll’s landscaping principles of color and design greatly influenced American Gardens
• The influences of Germany can be seen most notably in the Gardens of Old Salem. The informal, intercropped gardens were laid out in neat rectangular beds with a central work path, small work paths throughout the areas, and a summerhouse at the end of the central path.

The African Influence

The forced African migration to the South took place primarily from 1600 through the early 1800s. These young men and women came from a long tradition of agricultural and herding communities predominantly from West Africa. They contributed their skills, knowledge and labor to the plantation culture of the south.

• Crops: Vegeculture is different from European agricultural systems in that it emphasizes the planting of perennial crops (plants that can be harvested one at a time and used as needed).
• Food contributions: such plants as peanuts, gourds, okra.
• Hand tools were used extensively, so crops were grown in patches rather than in rows.
• Most African-American gardens were utilitarian rather than ornamental.
• Utilitarian gardens were often decorated with objects and other plants as a way to show graciousness and welcome.
• The ‘swept-yard.’ Outdoor spaces were kept clean from vegetation by sweeping with a brush broom (often made from dogwood, gall berry or dog fennel branches bunched and tied together). Literature suggests that this garden element probably originated in West African communities.
• Herbs for culinary or medicinal purposes were not common in these gardens except for mint and garlic.
• Gardens emphasized the use of colorful flowers, most often annuals such as: petunias, marigolds, and four-o’clocks; perennials such as cannas, chrysanthemums, irises and daylilies.
• Container plantings most often consisting of self-seeding or easily propagated plants such as: roses, altheas, and azaleas, forsythia and crepe myrtle.
• Foliage shrubs were rarely grown.

There seems to be this common cluster of values for those who work the land, live close to it, and derive all or part of their subsistence or living from it, despite cultural differences. Yet it is important as an educational facility in Johnston County to pay homage to these culture groups who have influenced and shaped ‘our Southern Gardens.” Thus, the JCC “Southern Garden.”

The Southern Garden Design as approved by the Arboretum Advisory Board and JCC Board of Trustees was designed and awarded to Jeanne McClure of JMCClure Designs. Jeanne and her company take a multidisciplinary and ecological approach to design. One special feature of her company is their creative and intricate use of themes, particularly if those themes are research-based, to create one-of-a-kind, unique, ecologically and horticulturally correct, garden space.

Following a career in Multimedia Design, Jeanne enrolled at NCSU to study Horticulture and Landscape Design. Her interest in Landscape Architecture and Natural Resources, coupled with her background, influence her landscape designs so that she is able to capture the use of mixed media on paper while creating unique garden spaces that are not simply aesthetic, but also show 'good land stewardship.' In Jeanne's words, "Research is a big part of the design process as well understanding the client's wants and needs. Being able to have a harmonizing understanding of the environment in which the design will be implemented is crucial to our design philosophy."

Jeanne, along with the Arboretum staff, worked together to synthesize the research we conducted on southern gardens and cultural history to create a unique garden centerpiece that embraces the goals of the college, the Landscape Gardening Program, our agrarian roots and those unique aspects that make our gardens ‘Southern.’

THE JCC SOUTHERN GARDEN

Aspects of this garden can be summarized:

• The Tree Alee – French and Spanish Formality
• Themed Gardens are placed into four distinct quadrants that are shaped (on the ground) like the symbol of the state of North Carolina: A dogwood blossom
• It incorporates our Southern history and roots of our agricultural crops and gardening traditions
• It incorporates the contributions to our Southern heritage: Native American, European, African
• One quadrant emphasizes the plants from the Southern gardens of those residing in Johnston County along with their stories and histories, and thus not only is a public relations opportunity, but a ‘contribution’ from the community with their own plants and stories. This is the Pass Along Garden with influences from the English and German. We are asking all gardeners in our area, if they wish, to contribute a plant from their own gardens to help us ‘grow’ this portion of the Southern Garden.
• A second quadrant focuses on the formal gardens of our Southern heritage, thus extending the patio area to accommodate outdoor functions in a refined garden setting. Influences here are from the French and Spanish, Greece and Italy.
• The third quadrant focuses on drought-tolerant perennial plants and is basically completed. This quadrant emphasizes the climate and weather changes we are experiencing.
• The fourth quadrant focuses on ethnobotanical plantings (how people use plants), a focus different from any of the other public gardens in our region and encourages education in culture, global education, history, botany, landscaping, wildlife, ecology, economics, etc.
• Plants chosen for the quadrants will be based on historical and literature references, availability, appropriateness for our zone, climate, soil, weather and appropriateness for proper maintenance and aesthetic appeal.

To date, we have the perennial gardens just about complete. We have graded the entire area to improve drainage, and we have begun building the beds in the formal garden. It is a most exciting time for all of us.

If you would like to contribute to this project with your time, money or plants, please let us hear from you. We hope to begin installing plants in the formal beds this fall.

We will also begin an annual ‘Southern Symposium’ so look for that with our lecture series offerings as we develop this aspect of the Southern Garden as well.

We truly believe that once completed, this garden will be a major attraction for Johnston County and North Carolina. It will become a garden for and by the community.

Won’t you join us?

Call or write: Lin Frye (919) 209-2052 / lafrye@johnstoncc.edu

Arboretum building Entry and exit drives Entry garden Courtyard, Kitchen garden, Healing garden, Storage Terrace Mall within elm allée Children's garden Deciduous shrub garden Perennial garden Conifer and dry site gardens Old South garden Storm drainage demonstration Pond with bridge Gathering place Garden reserve Woodpecker foraging

Visual access to main campus Crape Myrtle garden Ornamental grass and water garden Japanese maple garden Magnolia garden Native shrubs and camellias Small flowering trees Turf grasses Large tree promenade Rose garden Mixed American border garden Greenhouse area Demonstration yard Shade garden Azaleas and rhododendrons Parking