The Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library opens its upcoming June Table Talk series with a visit by Itawamba County author Ann Ballard, who has written what columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson calls a “quietly wonderful book” about restoring her great-grandfather’s homeplace in Ballardsville, a small community between Tupelo and Fulton.
“My Garden My Homeplace” chronicles Ballard’s adventures as she reimagined and reworked the 1883 dogtrot house. How it came to be painted carnation pink is one story, but how she transformed three or four acres around the house into spectacular gardens is the core of this book.
She describes in vivid detail the design of her square formal garden, the creation of informal garden patterns in a field near the house, various garden borders, building a conservatory and putting in a green house. Names of over 150 different types of flowers, shrubs and trees pop up in her memoir. Once asked what she had in her garden, Ballard replied: “Name something. If I don’t have it, I had it and it died.”
“As a serial failed gardener, I harvested hope from Ballard’s book,” said Friends member Jo Shumake. “It’s made me want to try, yet again, to see if I can successfully grow something.”
Table Talks will be presented on Wednesdays in June at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 Seventh St. N. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for those wishing to bring their lunch and socialize before the program begins at noon. The Friends will serve iced tea.
Also in June
Join the Friends for these other events in the coming month:
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