Big Bone Gardens

At the “2006 Ohio Master Gardener Conference,” hosted by the Southeastern Ohio Master Gardeners and The Ohio State University Extension:

Mary Ellen Pesek has been creating water gardens and growing aquatic plants for over 20 years.  She is a graduate of the Ohio State University with a BS in Horticulture/Horticulture therapy and is a registered Horticulture Therapist.  Mary Ellen taught horticulture for many years in the Cincinnati Public Schools and is
currently an adjunct professor at The University of Cincinnati Clermont College.  Along with husband, Mark Lawhorn, she owns Big Bone Gardens, a six acre display garden/nursery where they propagate and sell unusual perennials and aquatic plants.

See the online brochure

Posted by Christine of Epiphany:

In a prior post last month, I talked about sensing God very strongly in one particular spot in the woods at Big Bone Gardens. The kind of thing where you’re walking along, and suddenly, you become aware, "hey~~ God’s here!"

I absorbed the moment, and then took a photo, knowing I would want to remember it, even if God’s presence didn’t show up on film.

This is the photo:

Click to see the original photo.

Big Bone Gardens is mentioned in “Kentucky: A Guide to Unique Places,” a book by Zoe Ayn Strecker.  Here is the paragraph devoted to BBG:

Are you ready for lesson in botany?  Directly across the road from the state park is Big Bone Gardens, a six acre pleasure garden and sales nursery owned by Mark Lawhorn and Mary Ellen Pesek.  There are two big "twin" ponds, a bog area, two little ponds full of decorative aquatic plants that are for sale, and a super-duper campy concrete garden sculpture collection (baby deer and hoboes).  Plant prices range from $1 to $50, and the varieties range from common native waterside grasses to Asian lotus plants.

Kentucky Life is an award-winning series celebrating the people and places of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  The show appears on KET, Kentucky’s public television network.

Big Bone Gardens appears on episode #301 of Kentucky Life.  Here is a description of the episode:  “Louisville sculptor Barney Bright, known for his memorial works; Big Bone Gardens in Union; and the Cane Ridge Revival, a 19th-century camp meeting that profoundly influenced American religious life. A 1997 KET production hosted by Byron Crawford.”

Watch the episode online!

From “Gorgeous Gardens Await in Lexington and the Bluegrass”:

Gardener-to-gardener inspiration and idea-sharing were what Mary Ellen Pesek and her husband Mark Lawhorn had in mind when they decided to open their six acres of gardens to the public.  The couple’s Big Bone Gardens, across from Big Bone Lick State Park, includes seven water gardens, herb gardens, a Gnome garden and other theme gardens, with an emphasis on naturalistic landscaping and organic care.  It’s open to the public Saturdays and Sundays mid-April through mid-July, other times by appointment.  Big Bone Lick is about 20 miles south of Cincinnati off I-75.  Telephone: 859-384-1949.