magical gardens

[Danae]

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bloody great toadstool and a sprinkling of pixies

seriously though, I remember my friends' mother's "magical garden" and it had lots of different sections: soft fruit, veg, shrubs, birth bath, stepping stone path etc etc

When I was older I rememeber we had a pond (had been fenced off for ages so was very myseterious) Loved watching the frogs etc. Dens sound good to me. A nice big lawn is great too. I had my own little patch where I grew my own herbs. Now, there is a huge rosemary tree that I planted years ago!

When I was older I rememeber we had a pond (had been fenced off for ages so was very myseterious) Loved watching the frogs etc. Dens sound good to me. A nice big lawn is great too. I had my own little patch where I grew my own herbs. Now, there is a huge rosemary tree that I planted years ago!

My parents have a Leylandi in a corner of the fence. My brother and I had a 'den' in there. One year my grandfather tarmacked it - it was meant to be a lovely surprise for us, to make the place easier for us to play in, but it totally destroyed the magic for us and we never played there again.

Another magical thing for me was that my mum grew masses of food plants, but not necessarily in any order. There were vegetables and berries among the roses, for example. We were alowed to pick whatever we wanted, and I loved playing in the garden with schoolfriends, and 'grazing' together.

She also planted many of the cut-and-come-again type plants, like geraniums, so that we could pick them without doing any harm to the plant or the overall display.

I'm at a similar stage to you with our garden .

I loved my grandparents garden. The special, magical bits that stay in my memory are:

-little winding stepping stone paths through the flowers and shrubs
-places to hide and make dens
-picking and eating the fruit and veg they grew
-having a corner where we could make mud-pies and a general mess

Depending on what you have & time available, the list below isn't necessarily realistic, but you did ask -

• trees to climb & make houses in
• apple trees, pear trees if possible
• extra wild bits for birds & little animals
• lots of wild strawberry plants for foraging in summer
• bulbs in the grass around trees so that in early spring you suddenly get a totally different garden
• a proper tended kitchen garden, where things can really be harvested
• deeply scented roses

aah, yes, good point Bink about keeping a wild bit that attracts creatures.

A wood pile for woodlice, plants that attract butterflies and ladybirds etc. We used to love finding them.

We've got a "nature area" (well thats what we call it ) in our garden at the moment.

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More -

Not gardening, but garden feature - a wendy house, a nice watertight wooden one with a verandah bit. And an ordinary climbing frame for hanging upside down on when you've had enough of nature for a bit.

Yew trees, for their weirdy evocative spooky dusty smell.

Box hedges, for their strange subtle smell in hot sun. Lavender, I suppose, for going inside the box hedged bits. (For bees, as well - so other things that attract bees, too.)

Gravel, for that lazy opulent sound of someone else raking it in the early morning.

the only ones I can remeber are a type of geranium that mum grows in the gap between the lawn and the path, and allysium which scrambles all over the place. Hang on, it's coming back! Also Love-in-a-mist and forget-me-not. Basically anything that thrives on being deadheaded and isn't too wooody. Woody plants, like roses, depsite thriving on being deadheded are, more likely to be damaged by children picking flowers and breaking stems.

Despite having a greenfingered mum, I don't actually know much about gardening - I wasn't that interested in the activity, only in the results! So I'm also learning as I go along.

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Oh! - nesting boxes, how could I have forgotten. There are special insect ones, too: masses of mini bamboo tubes.

Am really enjoying this thread, it's so evocative, esp Bink on the smell of box leaves in hot sun!

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Oh yes, and speaking as a 6 inch high person, make sure your garden is somewhere good for Borrowers/Playmobil people etc to live. They tend to like tiny little flowers like forget-me-nots, and also rocks or broken brick walls they can climb.

Ds (aged 8) would also say A ruined barn, to vanish & be discovered exploring in, a rather alarming amount of time later. Ds's mum would not recommend this, but she would highly highly recommend the thickets of blackberries that surround said barn. Those are for your extra-wild habitat bits.

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Honeysuckle
Jasmine
Night-scented stock
Some climbing roses, & something for them to climb on (our communal garden has a little stand of apple trees planted close enough together for their boughs all to mix, with roses trained up the trunks which then peep out here and there in the treetops. It's very sweet)
A swingseat, big enough for two but only one (& her book, & her mint julep) allowed
A hammock, close enough to the ground for a small person to fall out of without getting hurt
A sundial

Can you tell I am a fool for gardens?

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Nasturtiums!

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You can get hammocks with their own stand, which would do while your orchard is growing ...

A little slightly crumbly greenhouse, with tomatoes in growbags & a peaty smell

If you are going to plant a tree, a weeping one would be nice - instant fairy palace for summer