GARDENS

Greenery frames the lovely flowers in

Fran Linden's lush backyard retreat.

Bloomin'
Birmingham

Private backyard garden bursts
with lushness all year.

BY LISA BRODY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN SOBCZAK

or several years, Fran
Gross Linden spent part
of her summers in the
south of France. A passionate gar-
dener, she decided to re-create the
feel of Provence in her spacious
Birmingham yard. The front of her
traditional Tudor is plain; the back
explodes in lushness.
"What is exposed to the world
is simple," explains Linden, who
is not a master gardener, but
reads about gardening and has
taken some classes. "A garden is
private, what you share with your

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MAY 2005 •

JNPLATINUM

friends and family."
Linden's garden begins with
views from the screened-in porch
of her 1926 home, where she, her
husband, David, and their three
children have lived for 21 years,
and are only the third owners.
Tables are "old finds," she says, as
are a variety of miscellaneous
wood chairs. A wicker love seat
and chairs are upholstered in toile
Country French with green check
accents. Clematis, astilbe, ivy and
climbing hydrangea surround the
exterior of the room. The nearby

side of the garage has euonymus,
which Linden has trained to grow
in squares up the wall. Inside each
square is a mirror — "from all
over, Saline, La Belle Provence,"
she says.
The mirrors have aged with the
weather, and it is impossible to dis-
cern whether they have been there
a year or 10.
Not everything is old. Linden
just planted four Princeton gold
maple trees against a rear fence
line, replacing lilac trees. "I will
train them to form an arbor, to pro-
vide an architectural vision when
viewed from the street," says
Linden, who prides herself on
doing everything in her yard her-
self except mowing the lawn.
Three circles set into the side
lawn are intended to draw atten-
tion from the street to the back of
the property. In the spring, they
are filled with tulips; in the sum-
mer, impatiens and variegated ivy
surround a succulent in a pot; in
the winter, the center is filled with
hardy greens.
Along the lot line, chartreuse
hosta, white-plumed goat's beard
and rhododendrons flow into large
ferns, colorful astilbes, hellebores
(with their delicate bell flowers in
early spring), viburnum,
hydrangea, delphinium, Sally
Holmes roses and a hedge of 90
boxwoods in the rear.

Ground cover abounds.
Something wonderful is in bloom
from early spring through fall. "I
think ground cover is the great-
est," Linden says. "It adds lush-
ness to your garden. It lets every-
thing look more full, and adds
richness to the beds. It is also
green all year long."
A gourmet cook, Linden has two
large rosemary trees (which she
stores in the winter), basil, arugula
and three tomato plants in pots,
with showy oregano, thyme and
alyssum.
Linden built in a barbeque her-