A Living Quilt of Color: Walking to Christina’s Backyard Oasis

Our Piedmont Recreation Department’s Walking on Wednesdays group hadn’t visited Christina S and seen her beautiful Estates Drive garden since 2022. Swee Ling C thought we would enjoy seeing it again and Christina said she would be happy to have us come visit. She lives on the lower portion of Estates Drive, which we could get to by walking out St. James Drive. The street is eighths of a mile from start to finish but it is flat, and we could walk its entire length on the way to Christina’s home.

Before we got started, it was announced that next Wednesday, May 21st, Nancy Kent, the City’s Parks & Project Manager, will give us a tour of the Dracena Park reforestation project. And the following Wednesday on May 28th Piedmont Fire Chief Dave Brannigan will give us a preview of the community evacuation exercise that is planned for the Scenic/Blair Avenues neighborhood on June 14th.

We started off taking a familiar route up Highland to Sheridan and Wildwood Avenues and through the Hall Fenway to Crocker Avenue and Hampton Road. On Hampton one of Piedmont’s ubiquitous deer dashed across the street in front of us. We came to Hampton’s intersection with St. James Drive, where the street starts, and went down to La Salle Avenue and two, old, white columns. They marked this entrance to what was the St. James Woods development, which was a large real estate project that started about a hundred years ago.

There were a number of entrances to this very large neighborhood and most have two large, white columns. Larger ones are just up La Salle at Hampton Road. Additionally, all the concrete sections in the sidewalks throughout the development have a brown, four-tile inlay pattern. This original design has been continued to this day when sideways need to be repaired. We made the long St. James walk to Corpus Christi Church at Park Way where two more white columns marked this entrance to St. James Woods.

Then it was up Park to Estates and Christina’s nearby house. She was outside waiting for us and shared the history of the garden she has created. It started about 35 years ago when she began the transformation of a traditional grass front yard to the impressive garden it is today. It starts with the car strip at the street curb with a quilt-like artwork of different varieties of succulents and other plants.

Christina then led us around to her backyard where more of her gardening creation was on display. It has alstroemeria, petunia, geraniums, roses, lobelia, many other plants, and trees some of which have 30 years of growth. Tall redwoods and a pine tree provide shade for her plants and a bench gave some walkers a short rest after our long walk. There is also a large, brown vase-like fountain in the middle of yard that attracts fantail pigeons, hummingbirds, blue jays, crows, and other birds. Additionally, there are a number of metal sculptures by local sculptor Mark Bulwinkle, who works in cut steel, that decorate the yard. Christina said she recently installed drip irrigation throughout the garden that cut her water bill almost in half.

It was fun to see what Christina’s years of hard work have created, but the long walk had taken much of the morning, and it was soon time for us to return to town center. We thanked Christina for her hospitality and then started down Sandringham Road to a hidden, 206-foot set of stairs between 201 and 191 Sandringham that goes down to St. James. On the way we passed an impressive home built in 1934 with a witch’s cap, steep pitch, slate roof. The stairs’ only railing is a low, concreate hand guide, but we made it down safely. At the stairs’ bottom are a tree-hidden playhouse and a swing. However, there was no time for playing and we retraced our steps back to the city center. It was a long walk of over three and a half miles but seeing the natural beauty that Christina has created made it well worthwhile.