“We had nothing,” Siemers says. “My husband, Carl, has made my garden dream come true.”
The family’s garden, built from scratch, stretches over more than an acre but it feels like a series of comfortable green rooms with plenty of colorful perks.
“We purchased this land in 1996 and it was all woods and swamp,” she says. “Carl let me take a jungle and truck in five loads of soil to level this ground. We used to walk on ‘jello’ before we planted a garden.”
They cleared the large open yard area with the thought of making it lush and green and shady. What evolved was a garden planted for the pure joy of being outside, for lessons taught by the seasons, and things that could survive in the Sandhills. Before long, the Siemers had several garden spaces brimming with daisies, roses, cleome, begonias and clematis.
What is Siemer’s favorite flower?
“’Margarite’ daisy,” is my favorite, she says. “The white and yellow is so beautiful.”
“My wife also loves roses and peonies,” Carl adds.
Siemers’ father was sort of a Rosearian gardener.
“But he also grew grapes, plums, berries and vegetable gardens,” she says.
An avid croquet player with several champion trophies, Siemers also enjoys the garden from a cook’s perspective and loves to grow, collect and freeze bags of squash, zucchini and tomatoes, from which she prepares sauces to serve with homemade baked breads.
“You can make many friends when you take care of a garden,” says Siemers. “More than 200 people are garden friends, most because of the garden.”
Siemers speaks five languages and has a degree in philosophy. But that doesn’t stop her from getting dirt under her polished fingernails.
“I’m a Thomas Jefferson,” she tells everyone. “Bring me one kind of plant from anywhere, and I’ll do the rest.”
Eventually, after the usual trial and error associated with matching plants and microclimates, Siemers was confident enough to load the landscape with patches of lush perennials, annuals, birdhouses, container plants and shrub of all kinds.
“I work with a landscaper,” she says. “We fight a lot. Sometimes I have a great idea, but the landscaper doesn’t agree. He does it anyway because I pay the bill.”
When it comes to yard art, Siemers has plenty of copper butterflies, ceramic frogs, and creates her own style of yard art surround the landscape.
“Last year a cedar tree broke,” she says.
Today the crooked cedar stands as a tall archway covered with climbing roses and ‘Double Josephine’ clematis.
“Everything is so beautiful,” says Siemers.
The landscape shows as a garden for all seasons. Siemers has separate “rooms” that showcase a variety of plants.
“I love the herb garden, the vegetable garden and the rose garden. A track of gladiolas outline the perennial garden,” she says.
Each outdoor room offers the perfect place for tranquility and self-expression. The colors, textures and design interweave throughout the landscape bringing it together via pathways like a horticultural haven connected by links of circular patterns. Scattered about are areas that contain ice plants, vinca vine, coleus, begonias and sunflowers. Other rooms are filled with white potato vine, cannas, sky pencils, gladiolus, roses, impatiens and caladium. It’s evident that Siemers lives in her gardens.
“And I love them,” she says.
One of her favorites is the tropical garden she created.
“It reminds me of Brazil,” she says. “When we first cleared the area it looked like graves. But now the beautiful beds are filled with exotic and unusual plants to fill the shady garden room. The Brazilian garden overflows with elephant ears, bird of paradise, zebra plants, the dinosaur plant and banana plants, a combination of color, texture and design that creates an exhilarating garden area.
Siemers is not pleased with the moss garden because a brew of mosquitoes harbors across green stretching mosses.
“I’m not happy about those mosquitoes,” she says. “We’ll have to do something about that mess, especially with that West Nile virus coming here.”
Siemers told the story of receiving an anonymous card in her mailbox. The card read, “your neighbors love your yard.” Siemers didn’t know who sent it. On another occasion a gentleman stopped at the Siemers’ residence and gave Marilda a rose. The stranger explained that the rose was an antique and he wanted her to have it. Since that time Siemers created a rose garden.
“My favorite roses are like an umbrella,” she says. “They climb up and around the birdhouses.” She pointed to the antique rose. “This rose began its life in 1912. It’s a real antique.”
Siemers pointed out a few empty spaces of landscape.
“I like everything full,” she says. “I don’t like bare spots. So I’m going to plant patches of grass. Everybody needs some grass here or there. I’m like a Michelangelo. I see an empty place and I come up with something.”
She also plans on designing an area with arches surrounded by evergreens.
In the rear of the landscape sits a structure Siemers calls her playhouse.
“It’s strong as a ship,” she says. “I do all my work in this area.”
The house contains an area for potting as well as shelves for small objects.
“This is the perfect place to work during the bad weather.” She bends down to pull a dead bloom from its vine. “The secret to a great garden is that you must deadhead all your flowers or you have nothing.”
Siemers uses cow manure to fertilize the garden.
“When I have time,” she says, “I try to feed all my beautiful plants once or twice a year. Without an irrigation system, it wouldn’t be possible to keep everything watered regularly.”
The holiday season is especially joyful for Siemers. She decorates a Christmas tree with everything from her garden. It takes three to four days to fix the tree.
“Most of the ornaments I do by hand,” she says. “I use bird nests, moss, twigs and anything else I can imagine,”
The garden beds are beautiful from every angle. Lilies push through behind a show of cleome; bright pools of daisies flow out to the edges of certain beds. Clusters of lush flowers fill nearly every inch of space on the landscape and wildflowers are encouraged to establish themselves wherever they will. After a busy day in the garden, Siemers enjoys a peaceful, comfortable spot to unwind and reconnect with nature.
“My favorite place is outside,” she says. “Carl and I get to do our own thing.”
There’s more land behind the playhouse just waiting to be turned into another part of Eden. “And if some other stranger decides to appear and give me another heirloom, that’s fine, too,” says Siemers. “I can always create a beautiful new garden room.”
Anita Stone is a Master Gardener from Seven Lakes. She writes monthly about gardening in the Sandhills.
