We have a Secret Garden in our yard. It's not a secret because no one knows it's there. It's kind of obvious there in the back corner of the yard. It's called that because we were reading A Secret Garden when we created it several years ago. You enter the garden through the trellis - or honestly you could simply step over the fence - but one should be official about such things. There is an area covered by patio blocks (rescued from a friend who didn' t want them any more) and a garden bench. There are two areas to the garden - the smaller area used to be for vegetables - but since it was essentially in the shade that proved rather futile - though our rhubarb is growing very nicely, thank you.
The larger section of the garden has a garden path that doubles as a hop scotch game. The stones need to be repainted - all the delightful paintings on them are coated in dirt - but at least the numbers are still visible (lets see if I even remember what is on the stones: 1 heart, 2 ice cream cones, 3 leaf clover, 4 hands - Pippi's and Harry's handprints from years ago - 5 spots on a die, 6 crayons, 7 butterflies, 8 slices of pie, 9 petalled-flower, 10 raindrops.)
Most of the flowers in the garden are perrenials which means that there is less and less I have to do each year - the garden just comes into bloom all by itself.
The catmint is in bloom now, and the Clemantis, and the Columbine. The roses are just starting to come out. Soon there will be purple cone flowers and fox glove and other stuff (on which I'm drawing a blank right now).
We put this garden together when the children were still quite small. I thought it would be a cool hideaway and a place to play. We did this instead of putting one of those adorable plastic children's playhouses in our yards. My feeling was that this could grow with the children - and I was right. They've long outgrown those plastic playhouses, but they still enjoy hanging out in the Secret Garden.
So - now that I've shared the Secret Garden with the world, it truly isn't a secret anymore. Perhaps I should call it by it's other name - The Enchanted Garden.
4 comments:
What a great place! My backyard is a work in progress, and will take me much longer than a novel to design.
I love the idea of a secret garden! My own garden's so small that a secet garden within it really would be a secret as i'd never be able to find it!
This is beautiful. We did a hopscotch path at our old house for the kids, but never put one here, and now I think it's time to put one in again!
Two friends of ours sang "Come to My Garden/Lift Me Up" (from the Secret Garden broadway show based on the book) at our wedding. It was incredible.
The garden is a neat little place - and little is key. But it's a nice little retreat.
Deb - you could do it in a tiny space - we did!
And Vivian - how cool that your friends sang that song to your at your wedding. And aren't hopscotch paths cool!
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