For Baldwin County realtor, painter, children's art teacher and interior design and furnishings shop owner Luke Edwards, the tranquility needed to balance his busy life is found in his lovely Spanish Fort garden. At the end of a cul-de-sac in Blakeley Forest, Luke's three-acre paradise stretches through rolling hills of hardwoods and pines, around a natural-looking, man-made pond and includes charming old-world planters filled with tumbling flowers and greenery.

This Australian native relocated to Spanish Fort from San Francisco 15 years ago. While he loves the long growing season here, he is continually adapting to the challenges of sandy soil.

“Between the predominant sandy soil in my yard and the deer and other wildlife who like to feed here, I have made peace with this lovely pie-shaped acreage,” Luke shares. “I love the woods and park-like setting.”

Honoring his love of the water, Luke had an enchanting pond added in his front yard. “Ten guys and two backhoes dug the pond,” Luke says.

To hide the effects of erosion, Luke used recycled concrete chunks to fashion a rustic retaining wall and walkway around the pond and side yard. “I did it all by myself,” he shares proudly. “I hauled each heavy chunk into place. It took many hours of work. I used to have koi in my pond, but deer and other critters ate them, so I gave that up. Horsetail and other pond plants are the only living things now.”

Luke loves water gardening — the lily pads and lotus and the gurgling sounds add to the sense of tranquility he strives for.

“I've added a fountain out back and antique urns filled with varying plants,” Luke adds. “I studied art in Italy and I learned to love the fountains there.”

A sundial charmingly hides the irrigation well and adds visual interest out front.

Luke's peaceful retreat includes pines, water oaks, volunteer magnolias, hickories, deciduous azaleas and a guava tree which provides fragrant blooms in the summer. The deck out back is bordered with a lush loquat tree and hydrangeas. The entire property slopes back 540 feet to a lovely tree canopy. Next door, several hundred acres of whispering woods thrive below the flood plain, which should discourage development by some eager contractor. With natural woodlands all around, Luke describes a divergent amount of wildlife that occasionally like to visit.

“Lots of deer like it here, along with mating rattlesnakes in my backyard, raccoons and armadillos,” Luke says with a smile.

This adaptive coastal Alabama gardener learned valuable gardening advice from both his Russian-born father and has grandmother.

“My dad used fish emulsion to encourage plant growth and, from my grandmother, of the Depression era, I learned the value of using Epsom salts on everything. If you want really fluffy ferns, pour Epsom salts on them,” Luke shares.

“Gardening, to me,” Luke adds, “is like a tranquilizer or a glass of wine.”

Indeed, with a few simple and natural elements, this Renaissance man has fashioned an inspirational, spiritual retreat among the shady rolling hills of Spanish Fort. He savors his life with partner Ed and two doggy family members who also enjoy the peaceful natural sanctuary that refreshes and nurtures them all.