Southaven Gardener Combines Array of Plants' Colors, Textures on her Deck 
 

Barbara Murray and her 32-pound cat, Max, love having their garden right outside their sliding door.

Barbara Murray has a big yard behind her Southaven home, but she prefers gardening on the deck for the ease and proximity to the house. She also enjoys the flexibility: "If the colors aren't pleasing, I move the pots around."
 

"This year it's the best it's ever been," said Murray, an instinctual gardener who doesn't fret about her plants.

Using her talented eye for combining color, textures and sizes, Murray positions plants on both sides of the deck. The jagged space that's left in the center allows visitors to slow their pace as they take in beauty on the right and then the left side of the "path."

On the walk back toward the house, you get another perspective of the total garden and a chance to notice plants you didn't see on the first trip.

Adding their weighty textures to the landscape are shrubs and trees, such as Australian pine, holly and Alberta spruce and mimosa.

Vines including clematis, mandevilla, wisteria, cypress vine and even watermelon crawl on trellises, walls and, in the case of the watermelon, the deck floor.

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