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We All Live in a Yellow Quarantine
Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: 2021/09 – September | Photograph By: Susan Renfro
Well, it turns out that All You Need is Love (and a strong back) to transform a hillside into a Magical Mystery Garden.
Yellow Submarine artist Jeanie Edwards
Sharon Elder
You’d be forgiven if, upon your first encounter with the hillside garden fronting Sharon Mattocks Elder’s home on Hickory Hill Road in Highlands, you’re convinced you’ve been plunged headfirst into a fanciful pile of Beatles lyrics.
That’s because over the last year and a half, Sharon’s been cultivating her landscape into the most Beatle-esque terrain this side of Strawberry Fields in New York City’s Central Park.
“It’s just a Covid project that somehow took over my life,” she says. “My Beatlemania Garden is almost finished…well, I’m still looking for a few more plants to fill in empty spaces and I’m pulling weeds that evidently threw a wild party and invited all their thuggish weedy friends while I was on my three-week road trip.”
At the center of this living work of art (people stop in the middle of her quiet Mirror Lake street to snap photos) is an eye-popping Tromp-l’oeill Yellow Submarine Propane Tank (courtesy of Highlands artist Jeanie Edwards), complete with four cartoon Beatles looking through portholes at the Octopus overseeing the playground.
All the plants in this garden were selected because they have Beatle-inspired names. For instance, you’ll encounter Twist & Shout Hydrangeas; and Penny Lane Hostas; All My Loving Roses; Magical Mystery Tour Daylillies; and Sun King Aralia among the two dozen varieties. And just to drive the point home, there’s the strawberry tower planter filled with strawberry plants with a Strawberry Fields Forever sign.
“I have Sergeant Pepper Garden Gnomes and a few metal love and peace signs scattered around,” says Sharon. “I have a metal blackbird and a small blackbird garden flag with the lyrics: ‘You were only waiting for this moment to arise.’
“I had a custom metal Beatlemania Rock Garden sign made and added metal musical notes on stakes for each side. And my sweet-spirited son, Phillip, mounted my John Lennon tree face to watch over the whole garden.
“It’s been a long project (perfect for COVID isolation) that took a LOT of time, thought, and work, but it has been fun and I like the almost finished project. Each day I take a walk on “The Long and Winding Road” garden path and smile. I love it— yeah, yeah, yeah!
