Letting the garden grow

In the two months that Amy Milam has lived at the Sims Ecoscape, she has uncovered surprises about the garden, from the first blooms of roses and hydrangeas to the story of poppies planted on the property from Flanders, Belgium, after World War I.

Milam was hired as the first full-time manager for the Sims property on June 1 and moved into the home on the property at the beginning of July. After sitting empty for several months, and years of only part-time management prior to that, Milam said her first weeks have been spent cleaning up and uncovering the garden’s potential.

“We’ve done some really big cleanups to get to the property underneath. And it’s been really rewarding because you can see we’ve got a lot of lilies popping up; when you walk through there’s some phlox that’s popping up. I just noticed some native hibiscus a couple of days ago that started to bloom,” Milam said. “There’s a lot of amazing things but we had to discover them — uncover them — first.”

The Sims Ecoscape, located at 908 Highland Road, has served as a community garden and outdoor classroom for a number of years. Milam said the addition of a person devoted to the garden’s full-time care opens up new opportunities.

Her role includes gardening and maintenance of the house and grounds — donated to the city by former resident Catherine Sims, often known as the “Plant Lady” for the extensive gardens on her property — as well as fundraising, grant writing and helping create a master plan for Sims’ future.

She said the need for a master plan was part of what prompted the decision to create a full-time manager position.

“It wasn’t really working before. There’s only so much you can accomplish pulling weeds and mowing and weed eating and blowing. You need to actually have a plan or just maintenance isn’t enough,” Milam said. “It was always limited to what the caretakers could do in their spare time, nights and weekends.”

While her college degree and recent work has been in geography and mapping, Milam worked at Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile while pursuing her degree, and gardening has been a longtime hobby.

“I kind of got tired of sitting in front of a computer all the time and decided to get back in the dirt, so to speak,” Milam said.

With her hire, Milam has been working with Homewood Chief of Staff JJ Bischoff and Ward 1 City Council Reps. Britt Thames and Andy Gwaltney for funding and other help for Sims. Bischoff helped secure $20,000 in funding for the Ecoscape, which he said ideally will be an ongoing funding source.

The city also helped coordinate some work on cleaning up the house and rerouting stormwater runoff from a neighboring property so it won’t collect on the Sims property.

“It’s really turning out great,” Bischoff said. “This is kind of like a mini Central Park.”

Gwaltney and Thames are in the process of setting up a five-person advisory board for Sims Ecoscape, with members who have expertise on everything from planting and architecture to fundraising and event planning. Gwaltney said there has always been passion from those involved with the garden, but it hasn’t always been matched by the funding needed.

“We’re just trying to find those complementary skills,” Gwaltney said of the advisory board.

The first priority for Milam is general cleanup and basics such as mulching, weeding and a little planting.

“We’re working on curb appeal first, right, because everybody sees it from the outside,” she said.

However, most of the planting is on hold because Aldridge Gardens Executive Director Rip Weaver has offered to hold a charrette, or planning session, for Sims. Milam said the ideas that come out of the charrette will be the first steps toward a master plan for the garden.

“We don’t want to do a whole lot now, but we do want to go ahead and pretty it up and make it more inviting for people to come in in the meantime,” she said.

Milam hopes to have the charrette completed by October and the master plan by the end of the year.

Ideas for the Ecoscape could include anything from a culinary garden to dedicated beds for local garden clubs, Milam said. They also discovered an index of plants that Catherine Sims had created in 1998, and Milam said she’d like to use that as a guide in replanting.

Retired Birmingham Botanical Gardens Director of Education Henry Hughes has been helping with the property and wants to work on planting more diverse native trees and checking the health of some trees already planted.

“There’s some really interesting species of trees we can plant around here,” Hughes said.

Though she lives in the historic home on the property, Milam said she wants to have it open for tours or events by appointment.

Milam hosted a meet and greet event for neighbors July 18 and said she plans to host more in the future. She can also envision classes such as crafting or flower arranging being held on the screened porch or the rooms filled with antique furniture Milam has acquired from family and traveling.

“I’m not really treating the house strictly as a private residence. I want the house to be part of the experience,” she said. “It’s a beautiful home, and it should be enjoyed by everyone.”

Community involvement will be a key part of the garden’s future.

“I want to reinvigorate the neighborhood and the community to get involved again,” she said.

She also wants to share the stories behind Catherine Sims and the gardens, including the poppies brought home from World War I.

“People don’t realize how much biological history is in the garden,” Milam said. “There’s a lot of really cool stories like that, that go back to some important part of her history.”

Milam’s contract as manager of the Ecoscape lasts for two years, though it can be extended after that time. She already has a personal definition of what success in that role will look like.

“I’ll know that I have reached a goal when I can get Homewood Grown to move from City Hall to here. That’s my, like, pie in the sky goal,” Milam said. “But it’s got to look like a Southern Living garden and home, I mean it has to look like a magazine cover. That’s what I’m aiming for.”