{House & Home Magazine}—For most, a garden is often a place to plant favorite flowers to add color to a yard or grow vegetables for a fresh snack. For Bertha and Travis Taylor, their garden is an extension of their house, a major part of their history, and a growing goal for their future.
A Cuba native, Bertha has childhood memories of her surroundings of bright, tropical plants and flowers. Her husband, Travis, grew up Hattiesburg, Mississippi-where he always tended to a vegetable garden.
Their garden, which spreads across their entire backyard and into their side yard, is made up of "rooms" decorated with antiques the two have collected.
"My husband and I love to garden," Bertha says. "We also love to antique shop and collect things for our garden. We've done all of this ourselves; it's our recreation."
The outdoor rooms are divided mostly by type of plant. The area outside the kitchen is an herb garden, the section by the fence grows vegetables, and there is also a designated space for the butterfly and hummingbird garden.
The larger theme of the garden is a story of when the South meets tropical. The southern touches are visible in the 100-year-old wisteria passed down from Travis' grandmother. There is also a gardenia from his mother, which used to grow on a cattle ranch in Mississippi.
"We've got a tropical, Southern thing going on here," Bertha says. "I really love that mix."
The more exotic, tropical touches can be seen in the colors of the Cajun hibiscus and the orchids. Bertha's true style is evident in an area of the home and garden; a place they have named "the parrot room."
"The parrot room is a place where we like to entertain in the fall and spring," Bertha says. "It has a tropical theme because I love birds, especially parrots and roosters."
The parrot room is an area just off the house; while it is an open area, there are wooden walls and a ceiling, much like an arbor. It is decorated with strands of colored lights, Chinese wisteria, birdhouses, and wicker tables and chairs.
"We like to entertain, but we also have our romantic dinners outside," Bertha says. "We'll have a candlelight dinner, which usually has herbs from the garden. I love the candlelight."
Bertha and Travis also enjoy entertaining guests in their sunroom, which has a set of French doors that open up to the patio and garden. At a glance, the sunroom looks formal compared to The Parrot Room, but it has a similar sense of style.
"The sunroom is a hodgepodge of sentimental collectibles," Bertha says. "It's eclectic with oriental rugs and an antique chest we use as a coffee table."
The Taylors' hobbies fit well together-gardening, antiquing, and cooking. Their herb garden is full of the basics, from basil to thyme, but also has some unique plants such as Italian parsley and dill. Their vegetable garden, which features a cabbage patch in a pot, is also home to one of the many rooster collectibles Bertha enjoys.
"I grew up in Guantanamo, where we had a parrot in our house named Pepe," Bertha says. "Although I remember him being mean, now I collect roosters."
The vegetable garden also has a wheel barrow that a family friend built, but was going to get rid of, but the Taylors inherited it and loaded it with pumpkins for the fall. They also enjoy peppers for cooking from their pepper tree, which has Tabasco, chili, jalepenos, and banana peppers blooming.
The entire garden is dotted with finds from weekends of antiquing. There are watering cans and birdhouses and even a set of old gates. There's a few sugar kettles converted into ponds along with several statues and olive jars.
"Our garden is our haven," Bertha says. "We love to hang out here with our two dogs."
While the Taylors have lived in this particular house for 15 years, Bertha says they've always had a garden wherever they have been.
"The garden is something we've done over time; it's evolved," Bertha says. "We come from a long line of gardening."
Bertha and Travis have no plans of stopping anytime soon. Currently, Travis is swapping the gravel floor of The Parrot Room for a concrete floor. Whether it's this or that, Bertha says they are always adding more things to the garden.
They also plan on keeping gardening a tradition for their family by teaching their grandson, Adler, the literal fruits of labor.
"Travis is teaching Adler to garden and he loves it," Bertha says. "He loves to pick the strawberries and eat them. Gardening is something we can pass onto him."