Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Profile

The plucky pioneer

How Establishment is Trisha Davies? Her Hyde Park yard offers a clue.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published August 12, 2005

HISTORIC HYDE PARK - A slow parade of cars from all over town drove slowly past Trisha Davies' garden late last week, trying to figure out what all the fuss was about.

Davies was working in her garden, where she spends most of her free time these days. Occasionally, her pastoral pursuits were punctuated with conversations from passers-by.

"Is this your garden?" asked an older woman.

Yes, Davies answered proudly.

"Well, I drove all the way from Brandon to see it," the woman said. "I just wanted to tell you, you go get 'em, honey!"

Davies never imagined her garden would become the center of a fight with the city's Code Enforcement Department. Quite the opposite.

When she began transforming the long-neglected yard into a garden years ago, she wanted to create a memorial to family members who had died in a series of unconnected but strangely similar accidents.

"This is my sanctuary," she said. "The angel trumpets are dedicated to the people I've lost."

Davies' roots in Tampa date to 1971. She came to Florida from Kentucky, where she was in college and married with two young sons. One day her father and husband were fishing on the Ohio River when a barge struck their small boat. Both drowned.

She came to Florida with her sons for a two-week respite but couldn't bear the thought of returning home. She randomly chose Tampa.

"I wanted a place that had a state university and was close to the beach," Davies said. "I put all the names of the cities that fit that description and put them ... in a cup. I picked Tampa."

She has lived here ever since, except for a few years when she taught English in Europe and in the Middle East.

"I went to Spain and I soon discovered that my degree in English was my ticket around the world," she said. "I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) in Spain and then at a Palestinian school."

Living in a Palestinian area near Jerusalem sounds perilous to most Americans, but in many ways it felt safer than Tampa, she said.

"I felt perfectly safe on the streets at any time of day," she said. "Here, I wouldn't go out alone at 1 a.m."

She eventually returned to Tampa and settled in Hyde Park, which in the 1970s was an affordable place for a young single mother. Her biggest problem was finding a bank to lend her money for a house in such a seedy part of town.

But she loved Hyde Park's artistic and bohemian residents and the faded grandeur of the homes. She moved in and taught ESL at the University of Tampa and refugee centers.

In 1982, she and her best friend opened McMother's Celestial Junk on S Howard Avenue, one of the area's first businesses.

"We were the pioneers," she said. "A lot of what we had was actually junk, but we also had collectibles and performance art. We were the world's first late-night junk store. We were open until midnight when we felt like it."

Along with a small popular theater across the street called Ground Zero and an Ethiopian restaurant on the corner, McMother's brought the first wave of people to what later became known as SoHo.

Around that time, Davies founded and edited the Artists and Writers Tabloid with Ground Zero owner David Audet, local photographer Bud Lee and current Tampa arts czar Paul Wilborn.

"We had circulation in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Paris, Berlin," she said. "But, at least at first, your advertising has to come locally, and it was ahead of its time for Tampa. We never made any money."

Davies' life changed in the mid 1980s. She gave birth to a third son, her brother died in another drowning accident and she lost her business partner to AIDS.

"I couldn't bear the thought of running McMother's alone, so we closed it," she said.

Davies moved into her current house at Albany and Dekle avenues and planted a garden.

"It started with a little 8-foot by 12-foot herb garden," she said. "After a while I rented a rototiller and turned the whole yard into a garden."

She planted trees in honor of her father, husband and brother. In 2001, she added another memorial when her sister died - again of drowning.

"I'm understandably completely paranoid about the water," she said. "I won't go in over my waist."

As the neighborhood changed, her garden became a source of controversy. Many new neighbors who liked meticulously manicured lawns complained about her free-form, mostly xeriscaped yard full of indigenous flora. Others, mostly the old-timers, loved its wildness and made walks past her house part of their daily ritual.

A few months ago, the debate intensified. Code enforcement officials informed her that she faced more than $75,000 in fines for violations about her allegedly overgrown yard dating to 1997.

She chose to fight the fine and now faces criminal charges. At her trial last week, the judge ordered a continuance until Sept. 22.

Davies appeared in court without a lawyer but with a dozen or so supportive neighbors, including Roger Grunke, president of the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association.

"To go into court and have all my neighbors there circled around me, it was just wonderful," Davies said. "I truly felt blessed."

HOME: Historic Hyde Park

FAMILY: Three sons, adults West and Jeremy and 17-year-old Chanse

FORMER JOBS: English teacher, store owner, executive director of the Tampa Bay Historical Society

CURRENT JOB: Owns and manages three rental units behind her house; is a practitioner of Qigong, an ancient Chinese energy therapy. "I live on shoestring," she said. "I don't use air conditioning. I have an electric bill of $50 a month."

HER GARDEN: Includes sunflowers, lemongrass, other native plants, roses and cacti. She uses no fertilizer and as little water as possible.

ON HER NEIGHBORHOOD: "I still love Hyde Park. I've always loved Hyde Park. I can't imagine living anywhere else in Tampa. I moved here when no one else wanted to live here."

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 09:00:07]