Within walking distance of The Villages at Rollins Creek there is a beautiful Japanese Garden, or should I say a Vietnamese Garden. The Congregation of Mother CoRedemptrix is located in Carthage. This is a group of Vietnamese Priests who moved here in 1980. They do many wonderful things for Carthage and one of them is their garden.

The priests have worked on it, adding more each year, until it is beautiful. Anyone is allowed to walk through the Garden, free of charge, as long as they respect the peaceful, quiet atmosphere that has been created. I love the way the trees have been trained to grow into such unusual shapes. I return to the Garden often to watch the progress and see the new plantings.

Last year they begin adding the Stations of The Cross in marble around the Garden. The Garden of Gethsemane is also included as well as the tomb of Christ, complete with the angle guarding the tomb. At each station there is a speaker with a devotional reading. Last year the devotions were all in Vietnamese but this year English has been added. It is all very well done and one of my favorite places to walk.

We have a new gardener here at Rollins Creek this year. Larry Hartman is not new to either gardening or Rollins Creek. He has lived here several years but last year when he retired from the greenhouse business, he became the grounds maintenance keeper of Rollins Creek. Larry moved to Carthage in 1981 and started Fairview Greenhouse. In that business he often traveled to Europe, especially the Netherlands. He has a wealth of knowledge about plants and we are fortunate to have him work with our landscape at Rollins Creek. He has a crew to help him, one of which is his grandson. They are busy mowing, trimming and replanting all over the place this time of year and they are landscaping the new buildings. We would love to have you come buy to see all our new developments.