Atascadero’s ‘Enchanted Garden’ a wonderland for the imagination
By Jackie Iddings
The Fairy Godmother Sanctuary has purple bathtub and hot running water
Popular venue brings Ginny Mancuso’s magical vision to life
–The Enchanted Garden, tucked behind castle-like walls on Santa Lucia Road in Atascadero is a wonderland created from Ginny Mancuso’s vision and hands-on personal labor. Mancuso has turned the one acre property into a fantasy collection of secret gardens and paths leading under vines, over bridges, through surprising fantasy nooks to a gypsy camp, a ghost town and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. There’s a pirate fort, a dungeon, the “Chapel of the Sisters of the White Rose,” hidden behind a secret door, the “Fairy Godmother’s Sanctuary,” with a purple bathtub and hot running water and the “Plein Air” toilette –the ultimate outhouse with all the modern day necessities. Richly colored fabrics drape and billow in the most surprising places. Strings of beads and crystals shimmer in the sunlight and twinkle at night from the garden lights.
Enchanted Garden paths lead to the most surprising places
Paths are lined with an entrancing mix of living plants and trees, Mancuso’s collection of found objects and trees, walls, boulders, stumps and mushroom seating sculpted by Mancuso’s special brand of cement and Styrofoam art and re-purposed materials. The Enchanted Garden has evolved over the years from a renovated chicken coop and Mancuso’s imagination. “Forty years ago I found myself suddenly a single parent looking for a place to live.” said Mancuso. “I walked onto this property that was three feet tall in weeds with a little house that had been renovated from a chicken coop. It didn’t make a bit of sense but something told me to buy it.”
At the time of purchasing the property Mancuso was working at the landfill and began furnishing her house with discarded items and plants. “People threw away the most incredible things. I felt like everyday was Christmas. I lived in my humble abode for eight years until it was possible to remove the little house and design and build a real house that had working electricity, windows that closed and one that gophers could not pop up in the house uninvited,” said Mancuso. “Designing a house was a dream of mine since I was 16 years old.”
Mancuso opening the secret door to the Chapel of the Sisters of the White Rose.
Mancuso spent the next couple of decades continuing to decorate, painting murals and creating an artistic home and grounds. For landscaping “I planted a little bit of everything. I would bring home truckloads of plants that were discarded at the landfill. I bought wimpy plants from a nursery to give them a second home. I would relocate plants that birds had planted in the yard to get a bit more order to things.”
“It was later, maybe around 2000 that I started hardscaping and learning how to do concrete work. I made boulders, steps, stepping stones, vines, stumps and sculptures. I started my own brick factory and made old world style bricks and built planters and small walls with them. That led to recycling and sculpting Styrofoam and coating the sculptures with cement.”
When asked where her inspiration comes from, Mancuso said, “I grew up in the 1950s with Formica, chrome and beige. I always had a large imagination and when my grandmother took me to the grand opening of the Madonna Inn, that blew the lid of off beige for me. Every room had a theme and there is no limitation to decorating with that concept.”
Mancuso’s cement work: a sculptured stump topped with burl slab surrounded by sculptured toadstools seats.
“The Enchanted Garden is an ever evolving project,” said Mancuso. “Once I started I no longer had to compromise my imagination. It will never be done. Sometimes I just look at a space and ask ‘What do you want to be?’ and an idea comes. That’s how the Leprechaun Trail evolved from an overgrown space under a tree.”
Mancuso is adding AirBnB rooms. “I like the idea of sharing the Enchanted Garden with people from all over the world,” said Mancuso. The first two rooms, the Bohemian Boudoir with an in-room infrared sauna and the Sweet Dreams room are officially opening on May 25, with a third honeymoon suite in mid-summer and more unique rooms and sleeping spaces to be available later in the year. A former caterer, Mancuso plans to use those skills to provide a continental breakfast for her guests. The rooms can be reserved through Mancuso’s AirBnB web page. Reservations for small parties and weddings can be made by contacting Mancuso by email: [email protected].
The Enchanted Garden Bohemian Boudoir is faux finished in rich, romantic, sensuous colors. The room is furnished with antiques, a queen size bed, infrared sauna and a space heater to regulate the heat to your comfort. Wifi is available for your convenience.
