Almost every child longs for a secret hiding place: a tree fort, a clubhouse, a hidden hollow. My hideaway was a dusty upper ledge in my bedroom closet. My fantasy, however, was to have a secret garden as in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic story.
If you wind through Inniswood Metro Park to its northern edge, and then go just a bit further through a child-sized trellised arbor, the fantasy takes form. Crumbling brick and stone walls, inset with colored glass marbles and draped with vines, emerge as a “ruins” from a seemingly ordinary forest.
Inside, trickling spigots and a rising mist elevate the mood to mystical. Wall inscriptions and an iron bench invite lingering and just a bit of daydreaming.
It may be my favorite spot in a remarkable park, where nature and the heart can truly intertwine.
just a bit of daydreaming is good enough to charge up for the next day real life.
I actually had a tree fort for a while as a kid, but now I have a secret garden that I let my neighbors share from the other side of our picket fence! I really do think that one of these days, maybe I’ll do a post on my own backyard! ~ jb///
Beautiful! That would be my favorite spot too!
Pretty pictures and great post! Down in Key West there is a “Secret Garden”, this is the official name.
Susanne
Has that Narnia feel to it…….something magical might happen at any moment!
My hideaway was the enclosed space below a staircase for a while.
This part of the park must be off limits to the public to survive so long. Any idea of the year or era that section was built?
I just had an old cardboard box I used to turn upside down and hide away, turning the box into whatever I fancied, but it was my castle of dreams.
Rainfield: So true. Never underestimate the value of daydreaming.
LAZY: I hope you will! What a cool thing to have in your own back yard!
Trisha: It would be a great little writer’s nook.
Susanne: -Hadn’t heard of it, but I bet you have photos somewhere on your site?
Bring Back Pluto: You’re right. It’s enveloped by the surrounding woods and is always a surprise to walk into -even when you know it’s there.
Brian: The “Secret Garden” was actually created for the park. So everyone’s allowed to wander through it, but not everyone knows that it’s there.
Donald: I loved playing with cardboard boxes too! When my parents had to buy a new appliance, we’d always take dibs on the box it came in.
It is like a wall of a middle age fortress
Cyprus Hotels: It’s a very romantic/magical old-world sort of setting. I never miss it when I visit Inniswood.