From Lake Erie to South Georgia: The Story Behind Whimsical Willow

I moved from the shores of Lake Erie to South Georgia on June 9th, 2021, and couldn't wait to get started in the yard. I knew gardening was going to change. I didn't know how much.

It took me thirty seconds outside to decide pine straw was out, and I don't care how cheap it is. Then I drove to the store for vegetable plants and found none. Late by Ohio standards, but not by much — surely somebody still had tomatoes.

Nobody did. Everything I wanted had gone in the ground in April and May.

Then I understood why. Lord, it was hot. And the bugs — so many bugs.

Neighbor after neighbor told me the same thing: Addie, you can't do this work in the early afternoon, this weather will kill you. They were right. I took my butt inside.

It took me two years to learn when and what to plant, and how to work around heat and insects that don't negotiate. Two years of being wrong is humbling, with a lifetime of gardening experience behind you.

South Georgia is filling up with people from every direction. All learning what I learned one dead plant at a time. Year-round sunshine is why we come. Nobody warns you about the rest.

Real help costs a lot. Big box stores are no help — half of what they sell doesn't belong in this zone.

So who is going to help the person who doesn't know a Shasta daisy from a coneflower, never mind where to put it or how to make it thrive? Who is going to help the person with limited cash turn a bare back yard into a peaceful oasis and real outdoor living space?

Well. I guess I am.

At 65 years young, with medical issues too long to list, I started a new business. Whimsical Willow Garden Boutique was born, and Garden Vision with it.

I have two gardening rules. One: a garden should work for you, you shouldn't work for it. Two: a garden should make you smile.

Rule one built Garden Vision. Rule two built the boutique — the chimes, the stakes, the small whimsical things that make a yard yours.

Garden Vision works like this. Send me a photo of your space and answers to a few questions — light, soil, budget — and I'll send back a low-maintenance design laid over that photo, so you see your garden before a shovel touches the dirt.

Cottage Preview is $75. Garden Vision is $150. My prices are low by design: a beautiful garden should be available to everyone, not just the wealthy.

I design for people, not magazine spreads. I design for the arthritic and the aging. At 65 with my own limitations, I'm not guessing at how that feels. This region is full of people on fixed incomes with aging bodies and yards they want to be proud of.

I'm a Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber member, and you'll find me at their Business Expo this August. If you've got a yard that's been sitting bare and you don't know where to start, that's exactly who I built this for.