THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280257
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 69 lines
Walk along a footpath among the azaleas at Kings Grant Presbyterian Church Memorial and Meditation gardens and you'll come upon a shady glen.
A grass circle is shielded from the world by cypress trees where Sunday school children can go for story hour or just to explore nature.
``I call it a secret garden,'' said Glenda Knowles who was president of May Farm Garden Club of Kingston when the club re-landscaped the gardens and the beds around the church last year.
But it's a secret no longer. The gardens are now nationally acclaimed, winning the Dr. William C. Welch Award for Landscape Design, which was recently presented to May Farm Garden Club by the National Council of State Garden Clubs.
The award itself is a certificate and a $25 check, but the recognition for the local club is major. The refurbishing of the memorial and meditation gardens and the landscaping of the church had to prevail first in district and state garden club landscape competitions to contend with winners from 48 other states for the national award.
One criterion is that the winner makes a significant contribution in providing the planning and planting for a community project. Approval of the plans by an architect with the American Society of Landscape Architects was another requirement, Knowles explained.
She said she thinks one of the reasons the club won the award was the scope of the project because it included not only the gardens but the beds around the church itself. Volunteers and funds were sought from the church, the Kingston and Kings Grant community and other civic groups.
A grand total of 273 new flowers, shrubs and trees were planted, ranging from one cherry tree to 50 assorted wildflowers. The club installed 174 steppingstones and constructed three benches. The cost was $2,757. Of that, $1,100 was donated by May Farm Garden Club and the rest by church members and other community groups. Without the 212 volunteers also from the church, garden club and community who gave 529 hours of their time to complete the project, Brenda Holster figures the cost would have been around $12,000.
Holster and Barbara Atkins were co-chairmen of the gardens which were dedicated in April 1995. The church grounds were chosen for the garden club project because May Farm had used the church as its meeting place for 18 years. Over the years the church also has become home base for many civic groups in the Kingston and Kings Grant area.
``The church gives so much to groups and neighbors,'' Holster said. ``And although not many of us are members of the church, we wanted to give something back.''
Not only the church but the community has received a gift in the memorial and meditation gardens. The gardens, in the corner of the church's large lot where Little Neck and Kings Grant roads meet, are in a beautiful site and are places of solace for passers-by and neighbors. Once inside the gardens, the road traffic seems far away.
``Even with the cars, you can hear the birds,'' Holster said.
Stop one day and see for yourself. Follow the footpaths to the secret garden and other special nooks and crannies in the big azalea garden, 320 feet around. At one spot, green and white caladiums and red begonias add color. At another a blooming dwarf magnolia is surrounded by a bed of pretty pink wildflowers.
``Once you're in here,'' Knowles said, ``it's very secluded.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Barbara Atkins, left, Glenda Knowles and Brenda Holster led the
award-winning effort by the May Farm Garden Club of Kingston to
re-landscape the gardens and beds around Kings Grant Presbyterian
Church. by CNB