Jana Faust’s garden transcends competition
Sometimes you get a reality check when you least expect it, like in a rainy garden in Brentwood while judging the Great Gardens Contest.
Imagined and created by a remarkable, completely self-taught gardener/artist, this garden would be amazing all on its own. However the gardener, Jana Marie Faust, 50, mother of three and loving wife of 30 years, has an especially inspiring and compelling story that transcends a simple competition, which, by the way, she could have won on the strength of the garden alone. In recognition of her inspirational story, she has been named Most Amazing Gardener in the Great Gardens Contest, a special award.
In the essay with her contest entry, she wrote: “My garden is so very special to me and my family mainly because we had bought this house while I had finished my first bout with cancer [about 17 years ago]. There weren’t any flowers, trees or bushes.
“Having three little children and moving into a new house ... I wanted this yard to be magical for my children, and of course a sanctuary for me to go and relax in during my chemo treatments. Little did we all know, as I was creating separate magical areas throughout my garden, I was going to be dealing with cancer three more times!”
She has also been diagnosed with lupus.
Her garden is magical, full of small vignettes and inspired uses for common plants. She has trimmed the heck out of two catalpa trees flanking her front walk, using pure chutzpah. The result is two umbrella forms that resemble wicker baskets underneath, after she has stripped the leaves from the branches. Her plan is to string twinkle lights under the canopy. When asked how she thinks of these things, she replies, “If it’s in my head, I have to get it done.”
In another area, she’s engineered a fairy town replete with diminutive homes and fairies swinging from trees. Check out the arborvitae behind the “town.” She’s carved a wizard face into the shrub. She’s also figured out a use for what in some gardens can be a plague, rose of Sharon seedlings. Mrs. Faust encourages them and fashions them into low-growing hedges, forming a knot garden with these pesky plants. A brilliant use.
She’s also trimmed some into topiaries. A barberry seedling has been patiently snipped into a rabbit and a boxwood trimmed into a dog shape. And yes, she uses scissors to do it. She’s a former hairdresser.
Throughout the landscape she has placed various ornaments that have been given to her by friends. Everything is tucked into place and has special meaning for the gardener. Plants are not only grown, they are utilized.
“I make tea with the mints I grow in my tea garden. I dry out many of my cutting flowers and make beautiful floral arrangements for family and friends,” she says, adding that she has supplied flowers for two weddings.
In an area behind the garage, she’s planted what she calls her “Berry Bistro.” In that corner garden she has planted grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries and figs. She has also placed a
small table, complete with tablecloth and chairs, and has finished the vignette by painting a mural of an Italian villa on her garage wall.
The garden continues indoors. She describes her interior decor, as “everything outside coming in.” And indeed the inside of the brick Foursquare is as cheerful and whimsical as the garden itself. There seems to be no end to her clever ideas, come to life in dried arrangements, lovely hand-painted murals and interesting collections (she loves bugs!).
“I don’t believe in can’t, or don’t,” she says with a smile.
Throughout her illnesses, she’s had many patients visit her garden and tell her they felt close to God there. She feels the same.
“It would honestly take three hours to talk about all the wonderful flowers, trees, grasses, bushes and fruits and vegetables,” she says.
She asks other gardeners to “give me a clipping and a recipe,” and conversely “my garden always looks good because I constantly share.”
Even though she has been through the trials of Job, she persists.
“I’m stage four throughout, terminal. I still tend to my garden daily whenever I can get out of bed. I hope people who love gardens and plants and nature will be able to enjoy my life’s work before I can't take care of it anymore,” she says.
The chemotherapy treatments sap some of her energy, but never her spirit. When asked why she talks about her condition so openly, she says: “I do that so people quit bitching about life.”
It is certainly not to garner sympathy. On that she is firm.
The garden “reminds me that tomorrow is truly another day . ... It's like God's heads up that it's going to be OK. Push on today, no matter how hard it is. Tomorrow is coming and it will be better,” she says.
“Tomorrow is always worth the wait.”