To contact Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow, go to Cemetery Contact Information
The Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow Story
John Christian Phifer, Executive Director, Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow, Nashville, TN
Larkspur Conservation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the stewardship of our natural environment through earth-friendly natural burial practices. Our nature preserves are protected by a conservation overlay which allows for natural burial to occur on a portion of the land while fostering and restoring the local ecosystem. This historic practice of natural burial eliminates the use of embalming chemicals, plastics, metals and concrete. With each burial an investment is made to our natural home, creating a living memorial to be enjoyed by everyone, forever.
Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow is Tennessee’s first conservation burial ground. It’s rolling hills and meadows are located along Bear Carr Road in Westmoreland, adjacent to Taylor Hollow State Natural Area in Sumner County, Tennessee. Taylor Hollow is a 172 acre mixed mesophytic forest and one of the most biodiverse areas in the south. Larkspur Conservation has created a nature preserve on the former farm of Dr. Russell Ward using a portion of the property for low-impact, environmentally friendly natural burial. The 112 acre property will be protected forever by a conservation easement held by The Nature Conservancy. The Ward family views this property as a living memorial to their father and a perfect way to forever save the land he loved.
Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow is Tennessee’s first conservation burial ground. It’s rolling hills and meadows are located along Bear Carr Road in Westmoreland, adjacent to Taylor Hollow State Natural Area in Sumner County, Tennessee. Taylor Hollow is a 172 acre mixed mesophytic forest and one of the most biodiverse areas in the south. Larkspur Conservation has created a nature preserve on the former farm of Dr. Russell Ward using a portion of the property for low-impact, environmentally friendly natural burial. The 112 acre property will be protected forever by a conservation easement held by The Nature Conservancy. The Ward family views this property as a living memorial to their father and a perfect way to forever save the land he loved.
A Larkspur Family Story: Rubie Fielden
In a high meadow filled with dragonflies, butterflies, with wildflower seeds floating in the air in downy puffs, in the sun of early Fall after days of rain, banked with flowers in the complex colors she loved, and surrounded by family and one dog, my mother was buried at Larkspur Conservation at Taylor Hollow. We hiked through a short stretch of woods that reminded me of the Smokies. We arrived at the meadow, a clearing ringed by trees. My mother’s seagrass casket seemed very small in the bigger world.
Since her illness and death I had grown a little more used to the idea that her life in this body was over. I had relived her final three breaths enough times to realize I would never know if she was trying to say something or just trying to breathe, and I had found comfort in all the things she did say before she died. She said: I love you. Thank God. I am ready to go home. I want to be pain-free. I love everybody. Thank you.
Ruby had many nature-totems (she loved them all)—but butterflies were perhaps the essential Ruby-spirit. The meadow was full of them and John Christian (Larkspur Executive Director) pointed out several by name. We created our own burial ceremony that had lines from various poets (Oliver, Rumi, Angelou, the Psalmist) that evoked Ruby, and closed with some lines from The Book of Common Prayer. Each of us spoke briefly about Ruby, something we remembered, and put a stalk of tuberose or stock on her casket as it lay in the gravesite.
The soil that the men of the family shoveled over her had a basil-like fragrance from the native rattlesnake plant that grew nearby. Covering the grave was hard work, yet healing. Found in the soil of mother's grave were bits of ancient coral and crinoids from when Taylor Hollow was covered by a shallow sea. After the earth was covered over Ruby, JC helped us planted grasses with soil still clinging to the roots on her grave. We added fresh flowers from the beautiful casket spray and decorated the earth pile with them and took photographs. The funeral director sent his daughter a photo with the caption, “This is where you can bury me.”
Above us, the sky was fresh blue. Like the sky, which was out of rain, after emptying itself for days, I was out of tears, I was casually at ease. It was easier to feel mom’s spirit as alive in this place, to see her essence rejoin the rest of creation here. That evening my husband Newell and I sat on our porch, drinking sparkling water, grateful for something we had not quite visualized until we experienced it.
If you have not made end-of-life plans of your own, I urge you to consider Larkspur's therapeutic landscape. The choice is not only a gift to yourself and family but to our community and the nonprofit Larkspur that labors to save land and honor those we love.
--Lynne McFarland, Daughter of Ruby Fielden
Shared In Loving Memory of Ruby Fielden
1924 - 2018
Since her illness and death I had grown a little more used to the idea that her life in this body was over. I had relived her final three breaths enough times to realize I would never know if she was trying to say something or just trying to breathe, and I had found comfort in all the things she did say before she died. She said: I love you. Thank God. I am ready to go home. I want to be pain-free. I love everybody. Thank you.
Ruby had many nature-totems (she loved them all)—but butterflies were perhaps the essential Ruby-spirit. The meadow was full of them and John Christian (Larkspur Executive Director) pointed out several by name. We created our own burial ceremony that had lines from various poets (Oliver, Rumi, Angelou, the Psalmist) that evoked Ruby, and closed with some lines from The Book of Common Prayer. Each of us spoke briefly about Ruby, something we remembered, and put a stalk of tuberose or stock on her casket as it lay in the gravesite.
The soil that the men of the family shoveled over her had a basil-like fragrance from the native rattlesnake plant that grew nearby. Covering the grave was hard work, yet healing. Found in the soil of mother's grave were bits of ancient coral and crinoids from when Taylor Hollow was covered by a shallow sea. After the earth was covered over Ruby, JC helped us planted grasses with soil still clinging to the roots on her grave. We added fresh flowers from the beautiful casket spray and decorated the earth pile with them and took photographs. The funeral director sent his daughter a photo with the caption, “This is where you can bury me.”
Above us, the sky was fresh blue. Like the sky, which was out of rain, after emptying itself for days, I was out of tears, I was casually at ease. It was easier to feel mom’s spirit as alive in this place, to see her essence rejoin the rest of creation here. That evening my husband Newell and I sat on our porch, drinking sparkling water, grateful for something we had not quite visualized until we experienced it.
If you have not made end-of-life plans of your own, I urge you to consider Larkspur's therapeutic landscape. The choice is not only a gift to yourself and family but to our community and the nonprofit Larkspur that labors to save land and honor those we love.
--Lynne McFarland, Daughter of Ruby Fielden
Shared In Loving Memory of Ruby Fielden
1924 - 2018
The choice is not only a gift to yourself and family but to our community
and the nonprofit Larkspur that labors to save land and honor those we love.
—Lynne McFarland
