About Maple Hill
Long before there was a Maple Hill Garden, on a steeply sloping hill in Nashville, there was a kid. A kid from a city created by a meteor, snuggled in the beautiful mountains of the Cumberland Gap. There was a kid who fell in love. Teenage love – with Japanese maples.
I come from a gardening family. A family with a dream, to build a secluded spot in the middle of our small town with waterfalls. And Koi. And beautiful, rare plants.
I remember my first Japanese maple. A beautiful one-gallon Kinran. That one little maple didn’t survive me loving it to death, but the golden strings of that beautiful variety wove a 40-year love affair with Japanese maples, and many of their closest, rarest friends.
Standing atop the beautifully shaded backyard of Tobylynn Drive, there was a lot of work to do. Stones to place. But the collection of beautiful maple friends like Tamukeyama, Shin Deshojo, Shishigashira, and others formed a beautiful path down a hill, and a border near a front door, that would become a tiny oasis in the city of Nashville – Maple Hill Garden.
I write this story in beautiful leaves, in hopes that someone out there may fall in love like I did as a kid. And find the beauty and joy of caring for plants that give so much back, even when we don’t expect it.