The Secret Garden

Old garden slumbers
Dreams of waking to the kiss
of a loving hand.

Who dreams of discovering a mysterious secret garden, full of flowers and birds, butterflies and bees? Most gardeners, I think.

Who wouldn’t want to turn the old key in the rusty lock, push open the creaky old door, and venture in to discover the wonders within?

A place to dream, to rest your back against a grandmother tree and enjoy a classic book… A garden to hide out in, a place where nobody can find you, a secret just between you and the birds.

Have you read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden? I sheepishly admit that I just read it for the first time last winter (despite my love of classic gardens, I am not much of a classic book reader). It was the perfect antidote to a long, grey-and-brown winter full of isolation and anxiety due to the pandemic.

Little known fact: Hodgson Burnett wrote this classic English tale at her home on Long Island in the U.S., not in England as we might have thought.

I have fond memories of watching the 1993 movie many times with my daughter when she was young. I can hardly think of a more magical movie scene than the moments shot in the mysterious and almost-forgotten estate garden as it comes alive. Plus, it has Maggie Smith, so no more needs to be said!

Below is a trailer from the movie that will give you a hint of the garden’s (and movie’s) delights. Bookmark it for a dreary winter day when it seems like spring will never come.