My Secret Garden

Well, it's not really my garden, but it's my secret. I discovered this garden one winter afternoon, looking for a place to eat my soup during lunch time. When I saw a small blue sign that said the garden was open to public (for free!) I turned in through the entrance through tall stone walls, not knowing what to expect, parked, and entered through an iron gate into a huge walled garden, completely enclosed. There was not a soul in there. It was quiet and serene.

The tall walls were covered in ivy, Virginia creeper, and other vines that I couldn't recognize, but they looked like they could reach out and strangle me if they wanted to! They were benign on this sunny day though, merely draping me as I walked along... 

Walking along a path of paved stones, everything was brown, broken or dead, or so it had seemed. But even that didn't curb my excitement at finding this delightful place. I've been going back ever since, on most weekends after yoga (and so I went again today, took pictures).

I had wanted to see what spring would bring - if any of these seemingly dead plants would come alive. And they did, first the snowdrops and hellebores, even before the snow melted, then tiny Virginia bluebells, drifts of them, in the early early spring, and after that, each week there was a new surprise for me - daffodils and dandelions, poppies and peonies, irises and roses, and now lilies and lavender...

The iron scrollwork everywhere is still surprisingly sleek and nice...

and I love the benches to rest - under trees, grass underfoot, and large enough to nap, if you brought along a pillow (I always have one in the car). Look at the green-laced flagstones... they invite you to take your shoes off and walk in bare feet

But oh how inviting does this doorway look!?

It wasn't locked, and so of course I had to go in. There was a smell of damp that foretold decay inside... it seemed like it might have been an old potting shed... and there was nature not just knocking at the door, but knocking through the door...

 Despite Madame Nature slowly taking over the thin veneer of civilization, there are some fair maidens still standing, and also a sort of stage or a folly at the end of a grassy path

and more mysterious doorways... and Nature making her way through them all...

But the best part of it all was this teeny cottage covered in creepers - I'd like to think it was the gardener's house, although it was more likely a garden shed. Still, I can dream that it can be made into a little house, and how wonderful it would be to live there, surrounded by this exquisite garden that comes alive each spring and summer!