Written by Michele Roldán-Shaw
Photography by Donna Huffman
t’s going to be a White Christmas in Bluffton this year. But in place of snow, let us have oyster shells, cotton bolls and magnolia flowers!
Margie Fox, owner of the Garden Gate, is looking for that classic Southern Christmas, and to find it she need search no farther than her own backyard. “What I like to do is look at our natural environment and see how the things that get overlooked may be accentuated in the home or garden,” said Margie. “I look at the trees; I look at the moss, and I get ideas.”
They’re ideas she’s willing to share, whether you simply step into the Garden Gate on a whim, or you sign up for one of the classes and lectures that Margie organizes. She calls the series “Girls Night Out,” and the events are held at Cork’s Wine Bar every other Tuesday at 7 PM. Participants have made tree ornaments out of beads and little ceramic angels; they’ve decoupaged dominoes with family photos and turned them into pendant necklaces; they’ve listened to lectures about fall annuals, sedums and succulents. (Next on the agenda: a cotton boll wreath making class on December 8th. All supplies included except for a hot glue gun, which attendees must bring. The fee is $35 and more information can be obtained at the Garden Gate.)
Another trend that has caught Margie’s eye this year is the living tree. “I just think that instead of cutting a tree down, why not decorate a live tree that you can later plant in your yard,” she said. “You can mark them with the year, and especially if you plan on staying in your house, it’s kind of a heritage thing.”
Margie grew up in a little Victorian town on the Hudson River, and an Old-World aesthetic is what drives her designs. The concept for the Garden Gate, she says, was to build a hometown garden center that felt like it had been there forever, and which refl ected the surrounding environment. The Garden Gate is earthy and rustic, chic and botanical, timeless and imaginative, down-home and exotic all at once. In fact, having an eye for the unusual—and a commitment to the local—is probably the best way for Margie to compete with bigger box stores.
To that end, a signifi cant portion of her merchandise is derived from local sources. She has wreaths made from oyster shells picked up around town; gourds grown in Ridgeland; dried hydrangeas from Charleston; cotton bolls from inland fi elds; note cards made by a Bluffton man; wooden ducks carved by an older gentleman in rural Georgia; tabby birdbaths and planter boxes from Lady’s Island; oyster shell angels with pearl heads made by a Beaufort woman; birdhouses built from scrap by a Bluffton man and later painted by a local artist; plus Spanish moss, driftwood, black walnuts, dried twigs and anything else Margie might be inspired to pluck from her habitat.
But the local thing goes beyond just a theme for her products; Margie has embraced the entire movement, to the extent that it has become her lifestyle. She and her family live above the shop, and she is constantly reaching out to the other merchants and members of the Old Town community.
“I feel more connected now than I’ve ever felt, like an active participant,” she said. “We often get into our routines and a week goes by, or a month goes by, without our ever plugging in. But now I feel tuned in. It’s gotten me to get up and start networking, see what’s going on out there. I’m working not just for my own success, but also for the success of the community. If they don’t survive, I don’t survive.”
This is perhaps the most important strategy for weathering the tough economic times, and it’s what has allowed Margie to “see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“In Old Town, I feel nestled and I’m very grateful for that,” she said. “The holidays, for me, are about getting back to basics—at the end of the day, what’s really important to you? Family, community, nurturing a hearty hometown. I know a lot of people who have worked really hard to get a lot of things. They’ve lost a lot of things, and now they’re happier than they ever were before.”
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