The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

A tour of a very secret garden in Wellesley

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In a small suburban oasis, at the edge of a woods and wetlands in Wellesley is a hidden garden, planted and tended by a gardener who is as discreet as the Solomon’s Seal that nods in the gentle breeze, as tasteful as the many native perennials that grow there. So humble is this plantswoman that I can’t even tell you where in Wellesley this treasure of a retreat is, or even the identity of the 18-year resident of the town. Something about being in the Witness Protection Program. Maybe she offed a plant once. Pictures will have to tell the story.

Secret Garden, Wellesley
The gardener’s whole design philosophy is “Living on the Edge.” The idea is you start out in the front yard rather orderly and manicured. As you move to the back yard things become less so. Toward the woods, you gradually let the idea of gardening go as nature does its own thing.

 

Wellesley Secret Garden
Azealea, ginger, fern, and hosta serve as foundation plantings. She doesn’t order up a few yards of sterile mulch every year for spreading over her beds, preferring to grind her own leaves and use them as a nutrient-rich mulch.

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
A gravel path leads to the back yard.

 

More pictures…

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
A group of about 15 of us were led on a tour on an overcast, damp day.

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
The gardener, a volunteer at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, uses sustainable gardening practices and plants mostly plants and shrubs that are native. “My heart is in the Garden in the Woods. That is my inspiration. and it’s my biggest plant source,” she says.

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
The gardener has a mowing crew for the lawn, but she tells them not to touch the beds. She bemoans the practices of some of her neighbors’ landscapers who take to the property with their leaf blowers and send topsoil and leaves, which provide excellent nutrients for the soil, out into the ether. She tells her guys, “Don’t touch the beds. Don’t blow anything out. Don’t blow anything in.”

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
Here’s where the horticulture ends and nature takes over. “Weeds are just things that are growing where you don’t want them to grow,” she says, which she can when she abuts a woods that looks like this. If you’ve ever been in a woods where bittersweet climbs up through the tree canopy, shading the forest floor and trying to pull down every tree it can get its tendrils wrapped around, you will have no trouble coming up with a less Zen description of “weed.” If a woods seems dark and creepy in the middle of the day, look up. Chances are that poison ivy and bittersweet have climbed up the tree trunks and are jumping from tree to tree, casting heavy shade. A woods unmolested by those murderous vines will allow dappled shade to come through and will seem like a peaceful place like the verdant woods pictured. A woods overtaken by such vines, however, will seem menacing.

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
Solomon’s seal and fern in this verdant rock garden area.

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
The birds adore this place. We saw goldfinches, downy woodpeckers, and thrushes at the feeder and enjoying this birdbath.

 

Secret Garden, Wellesley
The gardener says, “I don’t think of this as a show garden. I garden for my soul. It’s not perfect, so don’t be too critical!” This isn’t a garden that’s been edged and mulched to military precision. Brown leaves and weeds are in evidence. Chipmunks mocked us as they enjoyed the run of the place. She’s a gardener after my own heart, and I thank her for opening up this special place to The Swellesley Report.
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Comments

  1. Bravo, especially for retaining leaves and clippings as mulch and nutrients for top soils. No problem for those of us mowing our own yards. In the spring, unless we have lots of guinea hens about (which eat ticks), watch out for ticks (Lyme, Babesiosis, Powassan fevers) after every tour outdoors. In the summer and fall, watch out for mosquitoes and West Nile, especially around birdbaths with standing water. I love the natural integration of yard, woods, and gardens here. Congratulations.

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  3. Beautiful, peaceful place! I believe she doesn’t use any pesticides, either. The kind of oasis where kids and pets can safely roll around on the lawn and look for fairies and salamanders among the plants.

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Ann-Mara Lanza, Wellesley