Marilyn Forman's yard is a jungle, a wildlife refuge and a sushi bar for great blue herons.

A regular on garden tours, including the Olympic Paths of Gold, the sprawling yard features four ponds, aquatic plants, hydrangeas, roses, peonies, lilies, monarda, cleome, artemisia and any plant that strikes her fancy.

File photo / 1997 (ENLARGE)

Marilyn Forman's ever-changing garden is a natural backyard habitat that attracts owls, bats and raccoons. A former model, she also knitted designer sweaters.

"A formal garden would drive me crazy," Mrs. Forman said in a 1997 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. "Once in a while you'll see corn growing. The birds plant it, and I will not pull it up."

By design, her garden attracts wildlife and blooms year-round, said her daughter Anne Smith of Alpharetta. "Basically, the whole property is garden. It's spectacular," she said. "Everything she touched thrived with such abandon that it had to be cut back."

As Mrs. Forman explained her garden, "It's experimental. It changes every year. It's geared to wildlife, and I plant everything too close so I won't have to weed."

The memorial service for Marilyn Shirk Forman, 80, of Marietta is 11 a.m. Friday at the Episcopal Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. She died at North Fulton Regional Hospital Wednesday of a heart attack following an earlier fall. The body was cremated. H.M. Patterson & Son, Arlington Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.

Her yard is listed with the National Wildlife Federation as a natural backyard habitat and attracts owls, bats and raccoons, just an extension of her menagerie of pets. "If I need to have a tree cut down," she said, "I have the tree man top it and get rid of the branches. I leave the trunk for the woodpeckers."

Mrs. Forman, a pond expert and Master Gardener, was mystified when her rare koi began disappearing. Her husband, Alan Forman, spotted a pair of great blue herons swooping in and carrying off the koi, which cost $30-$100 each 10 years ago, her daughter said. Mrs. Forman quickly devised a fishing line and netting barrier that deterred the herons.

She always had a house full of cats and dogs supplemented with birds, a monkey, rabbits, fish and pets she cared for till they were adopted. "It was like a zoo," her daughter said.

Mrs. Forman spent more time on her needlework after moving to Marietta in 1976 and turned it into a cottage industry. Her hand-knit sweaters attracted such compliments that she began selling them at craft shows and in boutiques under her own label.

"They were works of art," said her friend Connie Levine of Atlanta. "They had exquisite detail, expressions just like an artist."

A former Ford model, Mrs. Forman met Frank Sinatra backstage after a concert but declined his invitation to a party afterward, her daughter said. She met her husband in 1961 after petting his dachshund and finding him on the other end of the leash. They married just three weeks later.

Mrs. Forman was a gracious hostess known for her barbecues and interfaith Easter brunches. She loved to dance and listen to bagpipe music. She gave wise counsel to friends and family.

"She would give me the best advice but still acknowledge my feelings," her daughter said.

Mrs. Forman's friendships flourished as her garden did. "She was such a true friend," Mrs. Levine said. "It went beyond friendship."

Survivors other than her husband and daughter include two sons, John Forman of East Point and Dan Forman of Marietta; another daughter, Mary Jane Hargett of Gainesville; and eight grandchildren.