When I was a kid we lived with my Grandmother. She lived upstairs and we lived downstairs. Winding brick steps with cement lions on the landing led to her front door. She had a garden with a bird bath, an arbor covered in wisteria and a path winding through another garden that lead to a Madonna surrounded by a rose covered arch. My grandmother used to light candles at the Madonna and later got electric lights to shine on her at night. We were not allowed in my grandmother garden.
But I do have a faint memory of me and my sister Fran playing there at least one time. Maybe my grandmother wasn’t home. The gardens weren’t really big or elaborate, but because we weren’t allowed in them, they was always mysterious and magical to me.
The love of these gardens with their winding walkways and gazing balls and hidden benches and archways are something Fran and I share. So when Fran started making mini gardens it made complete sense to me.
Like the book The Secret Garden, Fran’s mini gardens are a place to enter with your imagination. Walled and magical, safe from the outside world.
Fran is reworking some of her mini gardens from last year (her first winter with mini gardens) and making a bunch of new ones for the Open House this weekend. Like last year, Fran and her mini Gardens will be right outside my School House Gallery door. Fran loves to talk gardens, so if you’d like to buy one or make one of your own, or are just curious about them, she’ll be more than happy to talk to you about them. You can see more of Fran’s Gardens here.
