Sandra and Charles Hull’s garden, located at their home on Highway 35 in Vaiden, is an eclectic mix of plants, some shared and some purchased, decorative items, and interesting objects turned into planters and yard pieces.
From knockout roses, weeping jennies, peonies, hydrangeas, hosta lilies, elephant ears and more, Sandra Hull has a little of everything in her garden.
“I have friends who love to share their plants,” she said. “When people find out you garden, they love to share with you.”
She said she also purchases plants from a few places around the area.
“I’ve purchased some from Joby’s [Landscaping in Winona], some in Coldwater, and some at GardenWorks [in Ridgeland],” she said.
Hull said some plants that she’s gotten have been a little invasive and haven’t worked out, and some plants that she’s patiently waiting to multiply. In the spring, you can see pretty blooms of her peonies, butterfly weeds, hydrangeas, pink surprise lilies and many more.
She said she uses MiracleGrow in the spring, but she also uses Milorganite.
“A lot of people don’t like it, but it’s an excellent fertilizer. It stinks though, and I use gloves, but it works,” she said.
Monday, in the summer heat, some of her flowers were still in bloom, adding to the beauty of the yard -- each section with its own place. Like her mugs and mirrors section.
“You see that sign,” she said pointing to her mugs and mirrors sign. “That was an old satellite dish I painted. And I have mirrors hidden all around this area.”
The “mugs” in “Mugs and Mirrors” are her planters that have faces on them.
“One of my friends didn’t get it at first. She said ‘What’s mugs and mirrors? I get the mirrors part but where are the mugs?’ I asked her if she knew what mugs were. She said ‘Yeah, like coffee mugs,’ I said ‘No, like a mugshot!” She said, laughing.
In one section is her love of all things Mississippi State.
“We’re Mississippi State fans, so I had to have a Mississippi State section,” she said.
The next section is dedicated to farming, because her husband Charles is a farmer. There are bottle trees, old items like a piece of an old gin wheel or her family’s tobacco basket or her husband’s family’s old fertilizer, which she’s turned into a planter that holds sentimental value to the Hulls.
But, the most eclectic piece in her yard is an old Studebaker.
“My husband found that old truck at an auction in, I think it was Tchula. And he brought it home and parked it over there in the pasture area by the barn. And I told him I wanted it over here,” pointing to the right side of their yard, that faces Highway 35, she said.
“And he asked me what I was going to do with it. I told him I knew exactly where I wanted it and what I was going to do with it,” she said.
Hull said her husband had a hard time moving the truck, so he enlisted the help of Bob Black.
“He told me ‘Bob Black’s bringing his wrecker, so you better know where you want that truck,’” she said. Hull said when Black came and moved the truck she asked him how much he’d charge her and he told her nothing.
“He told me, ‘Not a thing.’ Our son was Kent Hull, and he used to own a truck stop in Winona before he died. He told me ‘Kent used to do so many favors for me. This one is payback to him,’” she said.
Another interesting piece in her yard, is an old Mississippi State gas pump.
“We were driving down 49 South near Jackson, and I saw this place that said ‘Antiques and Junk,’ and I told him to stop. I saw that gas pump, and I had to have it. And we were in the Suburban and he said ‘That thing is not going to fit in the Suburban.’ I said ‘Yes, it will. We’ll just let the seats back.’ And we got it in there and brought it back,” she said.
There are flamingos and hummingbirds made out of tires, an old bathtub she turned into a planter, the wheels from her son’s last truck, drift wood, decorative faces on trees, rustic bird pieces on wood, and a huge colorful rooster.
Everything is unique, and everything has its own unique place. Surrounded by cypress trees, the Hull’s garden is a peaceful oasis from the busy hustle and bustle of Highway 35. As many roll down the highway, from big trucks to cars, Hull’s garden is a quiet escape from it.
A lot of Hull’s plants are perennials and come back every year, but they also bring few visitors, like deer, that have eaten half of her hydrangea bush.
“One day I was looking around to see what had bloomed, and I saw they had gotten into the yard and eaten half of the bush, but they didn’t eat the side of the bush that I could see,” she said. “They eat anything. They eat hydrangeas, daylilies, anything. Don’t know why they have to forge in my yard when they have all of those woods and pastures to forge.”
“That’s country living for you,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to deal with.”
Hull said she’s been working on her garden for the past 10 years. Before she retired, she worked with the United States Department of Agriculture, traveling the state as an IT person for the agency.
“I would install all of their computers and then go around and troubleshoot them if they needed help,” she said.
Hull said when she was working she rarely had the time to work in her yard. But, after retirement, she was able to spend her time working on something she loved.
She said as a birthday present, her husband Charles got her in touch with Kosciusko landscape specialist, Rhonda Curry.
“It was about six or seven years ago that I heard about this lady in Kosciusko that helped people with their yards. And, I began inquiring about this lady, and it was around October, and my birthday is in October, and I told my husband I wanted him to get me in touch with her for my birthday,” Hull said. “He calls her the birthday gift that never went away.”
She said Curry began helping her get her yard in the shape that she wanted, little by little. In the process, the two built a friendship that is still strong today.
