Buddha, Kokopelli and the Virgin Mary watch over Mary Ellen Ciganovich’s Ooltewah garden.

“I wanted to create a spiritual garden to help me with my own MS (multiple sclerosis) and so others could enjoy it,” said Mrs. Ciganovich, author of “Healing Words: Life Lessons To Inspire” (out of print, Rutledge Books, 2002) and inspirational speaker.

When the Ciganovichs moved to their home in 2001, a foreground of blackberry bushes marred their view of the valleys and mountains.

After hiring neighborhood youth to clear the brush, Mrs. Ciganovich worked with stone designer Ken Wolfe, McKamey Landscapes, Bursting Blooms, Ooltewah Nursery and John Deere Landscape to transform the front and side yards with evergreen screens, flowering trees and colorful foliage shrubs and perennials.

Mountain City Landscapers installed a pond fed by a 70-foot rock-lined stream.

“I did it to have peace. It’s a place where I can go and retreat, and eventually I want to develop the backyard so people can go through it and find peace also,” Mrs. Ciganovich said.

Mrs. Ciganovich decorated the garden with statues representing a wide range of religious and spiritual traditions.

The collection includes Christian crosses, St. Francis, angels, Buddhas and a American Indian Kokopelli figure.

Nonreligious whimsical statues include a 4-foot set of black metal dancing musicians, two sprites, copies of originals designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Midway Gardens in Chicago and numerous bird feeders, wind chimes and bird baths.

“I feel very fortunate to have something like this in my life. I believe we’re not here to be miserable nor to worry and suffer but to have fun,” Mrs. Ciganovich said.

Q&A

Q: Where did you begin?

A: After clearing, we put in about $4,000 of mulch. I made a long list of plants, and Ken (Wolfe) would come put the plants in. At night I’d rearrange them. I put in zillions of deer-resistant plants — except hawthorn berry. I hide them behind the junipers.

Q: What was your design scheme?

A: It’s a pink brick house, so the theme of the house is pinks and blues. I brought two Arizona blue cypress from North Carolina, then added several more cypress for a screening hedge. I put drifts of gray owl juniper through the beds and on the hillside. In the front garden, I mixed junipers with mugu pines, dianthus and bird-nest juniper for texture, under pink crape myrtles. I also like Rosy Glow and Crimson Pygmy barberries and Knock Out roses. At the entrance, I have (burgundy-leaved) Japanese maples, weeping yaupon holly and curly Augustus that I brought from North Carolina.

Q: Where did you find your art?

A: I find most of my statues at Home Goods. I found the rustic St. Francis in Carmel, Calif., for $25, on sale. I fell in love with it, partly because I was raised Catholic. Then, we found it out it would cost us $100 to ship it back. My husband, Peter, said, “I’m glad he’s on sale.”

Q: What are your spiritual beliefs? Your garden is pretty eclectic.

A: You might think I’m Buddhist. I’m very Christian, I assure you. I’ve read every philosophy out there to deal with my own illnesses. I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 6 and with multiple sclerosis in 1996. I give speeches where I say I’m fortunate to have the MS, and people look at me like I’m crazy. It’s not that I’m fortunate to have that disorder, but I’m fortunate to meet the other people I’ve met with MS and to inspire other people that get MS. It’s not the end of the world; you just have to look at things differently. So my gardening is tied up with a lot of soul-searching. What I teach people is that MS is not in my life not to punish me. I have my bad MS days, but I try to embrace it with love, to say, “OK, what do I need to learn from this?”

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