Angela Green’s garden exists somewhere between nature and art. For nearly 40 years she’s relied on her creativity and muscle to cultivate a paradise of flowers, trees and all the little things that live among them.
“I began making the garden an extension of my house,” she said.
Green built everything in her garden, including the brick pathways and red arches, the covered porch and even the Flagstone patio that she restains every year in her signature “Arizona sunset” look.
Credit: Text by Kat Khoury/ Photos by Reynolds Rogers
Credit: Text by Kat Khoury/ Photos by Reynolds Rogers
Green's garden is a practice in harmony, where bugs, birds and dogs live among more than a hundred different types of perennials, as well as countless other plants and trees. Her garden is among four private gardens, and others, on the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County Annual Garden Tour from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 11.
Snapshot
Names: Angela Green, a real estate broker with Green Realty, and her pit bull mixes, Anna and Maria
Location: Smyrna
Year built/bought: 1965/1978
Garden size: Half acre
Favorite architectural elements: The garden has brick and stone pathways and arches as its architectural features. The abundance of large windows in her brick ranch-style, four-bedroom home means she's surrounded by plants no matter where or when she looks onto her property. "My house is an extension of my garden," she said. Even in the winter, Green said she enjoys thriving plants and even blooms, like those on the Lenten rose, which bursts to life in January.
Garden design style: English
Favorite garden design elements: "When you see pictures of an English garden, you see nothing but flowers," she said. "From my street to my house, there's no turfgrass. All you do is look out on a field of flowers and plants. It's totally free-form." While perennials tickle the senses through their colors and smells, she said, they also have become a staple in Green's beauty routine, as well as many of her friends. For 30 years, potted herbs in easy-to-access places are used not only in her pasta dishes, but also in her facial exfoliating mixture that she makes and sells.
Favorite artistic elements: Droves of colorful metal pigs add a whimsical twist, soaring above irises and swooping beneath Japanese maples. Green creates each pig from repurposed Freon cans, gives them a flower-inspired name and sells them to other gardeners, each one with their own adoption certificate.
Gardening tip: "Turn your soil into rich compost right where it is," said Green, who participates in the Master Gardener program, offered by the University of Georgia Extension office in Cobb County. By using hardwood chips in your garden or potted plants, the decomposition process will turn even Georgia clay into "black gold."
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