Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Graveyard Gardens

I'm not sure anyone does creepy graveyards as good as the South.



A couple of blocks away from my home is a churchyard cemetery.  Charleston is a relatively dense city downtown, where zero lot line houses and narrow lots line the majority of the streets, tasking people to be creative in their garden growing tactics.   Sometimes I see quoted though, that Charleston is a city inside a garden, and it really does seem that way some days.   No matter what structure you are looking at, or what purpose it may serve, it is festooned with plants and greenery growing out of every available crack.


This cemetery is no different.  It is a wild garden which is in bloom of some kind 10 months out of the year.  Today, the paperwhites are up.. the smell of the place is insane, there are so many of them growing around, amongst and even in the graves.   While most of the greenery is still dormant in February, a few camillas still are holding onto their wintertime blooms, and there is evidence that at any moment the banksia roses and the summer snowdrops will be joining the party.    Hydrangeas, mostly sticks are showing little pricks of green.







Can you imagine what this place looks like at dusk?

18 comments:

  1. Very cool! Our cemeteries, when not covered in snow, are mowed and manicured. Nothing interesting like that around here.

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  2. It sounds like a Tom Waits song. "Whistlin past the graveyard. steppin on a crack." It was a nice visit. It looks like the sun was out. jim

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  3. I would love to see those beautifully festooned trees backlit by a full moon! I can only imagine how eerie and ethereal that must look.

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  4. Hi Jess, cemeteries can be very beautiful. I know a few people who go "rose rustling" (i.e. rose collecting) to old cemeteries around the country where old roses may have been growing for many years in complete neglect.

    I have never been to Charleston, but it sounds like a wonderful place from your descriptions of it.

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  5. Hi Jess~~ OMGosh I love these photos! The ironwork and the bricks and the mossy trees--just gorgeous. I think I need to visit your fine city someday. Onto my bucket list Charleston goes. :)

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  6. Jess - I've been in that cemetery at daffodil time, I think. There's a picture I took of a cross shaped marker with the sad inscription "Little Robbie." Loved everything about Charleston in early March...

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  7. Indeed it looks like that cemetary just popped up in the middle of somebody's garden. How beautiful. Like Bonnie, the cemetaries I've seen are always so primped and manicured. Lots and lots of grass and only a few flowers in very specific spots.

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  8. Dear Jess, This cemetary looks so attractive. I love the way that the wildflowers have been managed just enough so that the gravestones are visible but yet there is a wonderfully informal look to it all. I do so enjoy walking through places such as this to see who is buried there whist delighting in the abundance of flowering plants. I am pleased to say that there are many such graveyards in England that are so interesting and beautiful at the same time.

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  9. Edith Hope - I agree... in my head I know that someone is out here making this look like this, but it has such a wild overgrown look (by late may it is a true wildplace), it is fun to believe that it just looks like this all abandoned. I'm tempted to join this church just to play in their gravegarden!

    Bonnie, Marguerite - I lived up there for many years and I know... its sort of a regional thing. This area seems to love decrepit grandeur.

    Gardening Asylum - Its one of the ones on Archdale St (you can also walk through from the gate on King St). I honestly think Charleston is one of the most beautiful cities in the USA...but I am very biased :) The very best month bloomwise is April.. the best weather months are October and November - should you ever decide to come back!

    Grace - oh you should!!! And let me know if you do, I'll show you around!

    Masha - you should take a visit some time. Its a gardeners paradise in March/April/May. The most stunning thing about it though is that the architecture is still primarily intact since 'founding'. The city has almost always had a board of architectural review, therefore "progress" that happened during the 50s, 60s and 70s in most US cities largely passed us by.

    CSV - It is cool as can be. There's another BIG cemetary (the city one), that is 100x creepier too. Its got broken open crypts and the like, and it ends right into the river so it gets foggy too. It is incredibly spooky.

    Stone Art - Thanks :) Its nice to see you stop by again. I hope all is well and you aren't too grey rainy and miserable (like last year this time)

    Jim - hi there! hows it going up there with you?

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  10. Dear Jess,

    I have passed the Stylish Blogger Award to you: I enjoy reading your blog very much, and am so glad you have become my friend. I hope you don't mind.

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  11. Jess, I have always wanted to visit Charleston and your post makes me want to come all the more. In England, many interesting snowdrop cultivars have been discovered in old graveyards. Carolyn

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  12. Jess, I am so glad I stopped in on your post today. What a sight of these gorgeous images in the cemetery. I have been to Charleston and agree wholeheartedly, it is a 'City inside a garden." So glad you took us on the tour.

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  13. What an extraordinarily beautiful old cemetery! I have never been to Charleston, though I have heard so many great things about it and seen wonderful photos. It's about time I made a visit. I just spoke to my husband about planning a mini vacation there, hopefully soon!

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  14. those hanging spanish moss do look a little creepy - so unreal like a painting.
    Still they all look so beautiful to me.

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  15. Deb - you guys are close enough that you definitely should make the trip. April is the time to be here!

    James - they look beautiful in a creepy way to me too. I'm partial to gothic things, I think.

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  16. i lov this creepy gothic kind of beauty

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  17. True, it can get a bit creepy for some people. A graveyard so full of life from nature can be unnerving, when one thinks of those lying rest under the earth. Still, at the same time, it's a beautiful sight - especially when the plant life is being taken care of.

    -Loria Schleiff-

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