Millers create park-like setting 'little by little' on what was once a muddy slope

When Bill and Paige Miller moved into their Paris Mountain home in November of 2007, the view out the back door was nothing more than a muddy downhill slope.




Now, less than two years later, paths weave back and forth between banks of flowers, trees and a vegetable garden, and even connect with their neighbor's garden, creating a park-like setting.

“When I was starting out here, (my next door neighbor) said, ‘Why don't you blend it with ours, and make it like a park?'” Bill Miller said. “So that was the motivating thought.”

Miller said the neighbor, Bill Bradshaw, has a more established garden, started a couple years before he and Paige began tinkering with their own garden. Paige Miller said neither of them had any gardening experience to speak of, but they are learning as they go.

“You put some things in the ground, then you go back and it's like, that died, that didn't make it, didn't do something right,” she said. “And you just try something else.”

The first year, Bill Miller said, they leveled out the paths, planted about 60 trees, started planting on the banks between the paths and started a vegetable garden at the back of the property.

“I thought, if we're going to grow something, let's grow something we can eat,” Miller said. In the first year, he and his wife planted tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, cantaloupe and seedless watermelon. This year they've added okra and green beans, along with some herbs. Miller said his goal is to continue expanding the garden each year, one terrace at a time.

That goal reflects the Millers' general attitude when it comes to gardening, which is basically “little by little.”

“We're easing into gardening, and trying to let it be something we and others can enjoy, but not be driven by it,” Miller said.

Miller said he once considered putting a pond in the garden, and even had the hole dug. But then his neighbor built a pond next door, and he saw how much work was involved and decided to fill the hole back in and plant it instead.

“I saw what a pain they are,” Miller said. “I don't want to be a slave to this place. I just want to be able to have it as something to enjoy.”

One of the things the Millers particularly enjoy about the beautiful setting they've created in their yard is being able to share it. They have frequent guests, Miller said, many of them missionaries who are accustomed to living in much more rugged environments.




“For somebody who's been out in Cameroon, for them to be able to come out here and it be a peaceful setting, that's what we were hoping it would provide,” Miller said. “They've lived in rough, rough, rough conditions.”

The Millers find their garden refreshes their own faith, as well.

“You don't know how all of this works until you get to fooling with it yourself,” Paige Miller said. “How the Lord grows things, how each one has their own unique design. And they let you know when they're thirsty or hungry.”

Their fledgling garden was featured on the Greenville Council of Garden Clubs' 2009 Garden Tour, but the Millers expect the garden to look even better in a few years as the current plants fill out and new ones are added. Some plants are already thriving, though, such as the honeysuckle vines that are native to the area. Paige Miller said that's her favorite plant in the garden.

“I love the vines, the way they just grow and flow and go,” she said. “To me they just look very pretty, and add lots of character.”

Bill Miller said he likes to soak in the beauty of the garden in the early mornings, with a cup of coffee and his Bible, from a back deck that overlooks the terraces. But most of all, he said, he likes to share that beauty with others.

“This is a beautiful place the Lord has given us, and we just want to share it with other people,” he said.