Tour Garden Expert Felder Rushing's Garden

Gallimaufry means "a mixed hodgepodge," and that's exactly what you'll find in Felder Rushing's celebrated Mississippi cottage garden.

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Photo By: photos by Felder Rushing

Photo By: photo by Felder Rushing

Welcome to a Celebrated Hodgepodge Garden!

Felder Rushing's celebrated Mississippi cottage garden, parts of which have been featured in countless magazines, is open to all in this HGTVGardens exclusive gallery.

Before - high maintenance and uninviting

Illustration of the "before" landscape - pretty useless and uninviting, just grass to mow!

Small Enclosed Front Garden

WIth the help of a landscape architect, Felder enclosed his front garden and built a "green roof" entry arbor. The garden was also reversed - it now faces the house rather than the street.

Front Garden View from the House

The front garden is viewed from the house, not from the street, and includes water, fire, circular decks, and complete privacy - along with plants that provide texture and color every week of the year

Mississippi Gardens Have Winters, Too

Even in winter the garden has texture and color - including a large iron fire pit

Back Garden - Where Felder Actually Lives

Because Felder travels extensively, he rents his "front" house and lives in a small cabin in the back - making that his main personal garden

Back Garden Repeats Front Garden Round Theme

A raised boardwalk and a flagstone walk encircle the small back garden, with the cabin on one side and a series of arbors and a fire pit surrounding a circular mulch bed that is filled with antique daffodils in winter and spring.

Energy-Efficient Tiny Cabin

Felder's tiny cabin is only 250-square feet, including a tower kitchen that doubles as a solar heat collector in the winter and slanted porch roof that provides summer shade while capturing cool summer breezes. The deck is painted every year with the official Pantone Color Institute color of the year (in this case 2013 Emerald Green).

Colorful Round Deck

Repeating the circular theme of Felder's front and back gardens, including a round daffodil bed (dormant in this sumemr scene), this deck is painted "Radiant Orchid" which was the Pantone Color Institute's 2014 color of the year. Note the arbors on the far side of the small back garden.

Cover Arbors for People Comfort

Across the back garden, opposite the cabin, is a series of comfortable arbors, some covered, for seating and to enjoy a roaring fire pit. Then entire back garden is encircled with flagstone and raised walks.

Practical Hardscaping

It takes more than plants to make a garden work.

Teal Paint and Chairs Made of Bicycle Tires

Color and whimsy are hallmarks of fun gardens - and this front deck invites relaxation and laughter.

Whimsical Shape to Back Deck

Who says a deck has to be square, or even round? This is supported by long beams attached to iron posts.

Noisy Waterfall

The small but deep water garden has a waterfall built over a small cave which amplifies and "aims" the sound towards the front deck - much like cupping your hands can help direct your voice.

Fire Bowl Adds Special Element

Nothing beats the combination of fire and water in a garden - Felder believes we are "hard wired" for them both.

Rainwater Collection Roof and Cistern

The front porch was redesigned to collect and funnel rainwater running off the house's metal roof, and can completely fill a 300-gallon cistern from just one inch of rainfall.

Green Roof Entry Arbor

This "green roof" arbor is supported by 14-foot iron I-beams and planted with Liriope, Artemisia 'Powis Castle', 'Blackie' ornamental sweet potato, and cascading rosemary.

Contemporary Upgrade

A new arched bridge connects the middle deck, and the original waterfall garden has been filled in for a calmer appearance and less maintenance.

Plants from A to Z in a small garden

Felder grows a wide assortment of shrubs, flowers, vegetables, herbs, and tropical potted plants.

Heirloom Pepper

'Birds Eye' (Chile pequin) peppers are one of Felder's many heirloom vegetables which are unavailable at stores.

Sansevieria Collection

Just a smattering of Felder's extensive collection of low-maintenance Sansevierias, which tolerate weeks of neglect when he is away on extended trips overseas.

Heirloom Daffodils

Many of Felder's dozens of daffodils, grown in a circular back garden bed, came from his horticulturist great-grandmother's garden. Here are a few that were blooming one March day.

Small Flower Bed

Felder plants only three small flower beds of seasonal annuals, which require very little expense and maintenance, but collectively give a big splash of color through all seasons.

Combo Veggies in Buckets

Closeup of a few of Felder's vegetables and herbs, which he grows in painted buckets on a sunny deck.

Salad Garden in a Recycled Pot

An old cooking pot with drainage holes drilled in it grows a lush salad garden of leafy greens, onions, kale, parsley, and edible-flowered violas on a sunny winter deck.

Hosta and Fern Collection

Felder has a small raised-bed collection of shade plants including hostas, ferns, hecucheras, and companion plants, plus a splashy waterfall to keep things cool and humid in the hot Mississippi summers.

Truck Garden

For many years now Felder has grown flowers, shrubs, herbs, and vegetables - plus lots of "yard art" - in the back of his pickup truck, through all seasons. He drives thousands of miles a year with it surviving hot sun, winter cold...and hurricane-force wind!

Yard Art Personalizes the Garden

Nothing too whimsical for this world traveler who can use a good laugh in his own garden!

Yard Art - St. Fiacre

This statue of Fiacre, official patron saint of gardeners, adds a solid touch year-round to an ever-changing seasonal garden spot.

Recycled Metal Scarecrow

One of Felder's metal sculpture friends made this whimsical scarecrow - including crow - from recycled metal.

Plastic Pink Flamingoes

Felder has a flock of America's most loved-to-be-hated icons, plastic pink flamingos. But there is a twist: Several of his have been personally autographed by Don Featherstone who first patented the creatures in 1957, and who famously said that "before plastic, only wealthy people could afford poor taste!"

Tire Christmas Tree

It took days to assemble just the right size tires to stack and paint into a somewhat natural-shaped "rubber bush" which is festooned at Christmas with lights and ornaments like nothing else in the neighborhood.

Glass Garden Art

Felder also collects from nationally-known artists for interesting items in his garden. In this case, he commissioned a trio of colorful glass plates, each nearly four feet tall and hung between his front door and the street.

Cobalt Blue Glass Bottle Tree

One of Felder's ten bottle trees is a custom-made metal bottle tree that adds a touch of whimsy and color to the corrugated tin fence surrounding his front garden. It is lit up at night.

Blue Bottle Tree

Felder wrote a book about his favorite home-made yard art - whimsical metal or wooden "trees" festooned with colorful bottles, a practice that goes back thousands of years to ancient Arabian folks tales of genies in bottles.

Felder and his Dog Rusty

They love and entertain each other. 'Nuff said.