CityView Magazine

March/April 2012

CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC

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living A cottage garden in Haymount provides beauty and joy to homeowners and passersby A Motsie View I 20 | March/April • 2012 BY SHARI DRAGOVICH t's early spring and you're driving along Churchill Drive from Fort Bragg Road. The sweet, neatly kept homes, unified in their modest beauty, soothe you to distraction. Suddenly, you notice something grand and out of place at the corner of Churchill and Hull, which causes an instinctive slowing down. A black wrought-iron fence, decorated with flowering japonicas from within and day lilies along the outer edge, encloses stunning gardens and a delightful cottage home. Each corner of the yard is anchored with the South's finest offerings — flowering trees, vibrant rose bush- es, climbing clematis and brilliant heirloom perennials. The windows of the slate-colored cottage hold wrought iron boxes, all brimming with flowers. The front walkway, lined on either side by English-style gardens, draws you ever forward towards a colorful flower pot- lined entryway, which seems to already be welcoming your arrival. Obviously, this home — this entire space — is different. You can't quite name its design, but as any local gardener knows, it's "a Motsie." John and Martha "Motsie" Shoemaker moved onto Churchill Drive in 1992. Motsie was drawn to the home's cottage style and recognized right away the yard's "good bones": es- tablished trees, bushes and corner landscape. "I always wanted an old home in Haymount," Motsie admitted. Her lot on Churchill would be — not regrettably — her slice of Haymount charm. Raised on an Alabama farm, Motsie (a nickname given to her by a younger brother who couldn't pronounce "Martha") was always drawn to the elegance of the South's antebel- lum period. However, unlike Southern belles of the past, Motsie and her eight siblings (she

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