Stopping to smell the flowers
The house that Jack built
Arlene Marturano

Arlene Marturano is a master gardener, writer, and educator. As an advocate of gardening as a tool for learning, she helped develop the Carolina Children's Garden at the Sandhill Research and Education Center. She is an education consultant with T.E.A.C.H. marturano@yahoo.com

The house that Jack built is constructed of plants. World traveler Jack Dobosz wanted to bring his recollections of faraway places home with him, so he caressed the exterior of his home with plants and designs reminiscent of his birthplace, Krakow, Poland and travels around the globe to Europe, Asia, and Indonesia.

Plants mean cultural history to Dobosz, and whether a tourist or resident, he gravitates to botanical gardens as if they were art museums. He simulates the vineyards of France, Italy, and Spain in his backyard by creating a casa of grapevine walls and ceiling which by August are abundant with hanging bunches of grapes. A cyclone fence is camouflaged in tomato vines.

Yellow and orange trumpet creeper vines (Campsis radicans) cling to the brick faade of his home trumpeting the joy he feels for the life he has made in the United States. He says, "I have the best life in the United States for food, for culture, for religion, and for independence."

Photo contributed by Arlene Marturano Jack Dobosz has draped his home in yellow and orange trumpet creeper vines as well as rows of red and white petunias and impatiens which represent the colors in the flag of Poland, his birthplace.

Among tropical datura, cannas, and hibiscus grow unusual varieties of cactus from desert regions. Rows of red and white petunias and impatiens the colors of the flag of Poland line the walkway to his front door.

"I like the natural," he notes as birds fly from handmade nesting boxes attached to the eaves along each side of the house. A rescued rabbit furnishes fertilizer for the garden.

As energetic and robust as his plant companions, Jack remarks, "My summertime garden is for fun."