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the restoration and creation of luna apothecary garden... |
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Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) from upper MI roots |
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The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of the most beloved books from my childhood. Poor little Mary Lennox was a nuisance to her parents and therefore neglected. She was left in the care of her uncle, Archibald Craven, upon becoming an orphan. Uncle Archibald lives on the lonely, but beautiful moors in Yorkshire England. He too, is distant to Mary since his travels keep him far from home. He prefers not to be there because the family manor, his young son and a walled garden reminds him of his beautiful young wife who died too young. He and his wife once tended to the garden when she was alive and he can no longer bear to go there after her death, so he locked it up and buried the key. Being alone with only servants to take care of her in the huge house, Mary makes her way outside to the surrounding gardens to keep herself occupied. One day, a robin helps Mary find the key to the locked garden door. Stealing away each day in secrecy and tending to this garden, she becomes alive in her senses watching things bloom and grow in the garden. She soon becomes friends with Dickon, the brother of one of the servants. Dickon, is friends with some of the local wild animals, and joins her in her secret. Then, one day she discovers another strange secret; Colin, her cousin, who is locked up in the manor, and whom the servants are forbidden to talk about. Colin is bedridden, deemed a cripple from birth, and has never learned to walk. Mary and Dickon are convinced the garden will help Colin, and the three of them hatch a plan to get Colin out to the Secret Garden without giving their secret away. And then the Magic begins... Read The Secret Garden This book confirmed all I knew as a child about the plants and animals who were my friends. I spent most of my time in the fields and woods surrounding my childhood home and I knew and recognized all the wild plants and creatures that showed up faithfully each spring and summer. I also knew they had Magic. In my conversations with them, I felt like they understood. They knew. They cared. The connection was so that today I can still vividly picture their plant faces in my mind, which continuously spring up as I meet them again as an adult. Decades later from my childhood, I moved to Willis, on a six acre parcel in the early spring of 1999. This land was part of an 100 year old 17 acre farm, newly subdivided. Two weeks after I moved into my Victorian-style house, the critters started to show up; my first dog Bingo arrived via my sister's co-worker's roommate who could no longer keep him. Weird connections like that. What started out as "getting a few chickens for the backyard since I now live in the country" has turned into a small poultry breeding enterprise. Oh yes, I do have chickens, but I unexpectedly fell in love with guinea fowl. My adventures with these magical birds is still unfolding. Then, a barn and a greenhouse were built, and my lifelong dream of an herb farm business officially opened its doors in the spring of 2005. I knew I wanted to work with native herbs and so I set about growing them in my greenhouse. I also constructed a few modest gardens filled with many native herbs that had long disappeared from the area. Since then, as if by Magic, more and more wild native herbs have shown up and moved in with me to to live on my farm. But one area of the property remained untouched while I was figuring out the rest. A wild patch, approximately a three-quarter acre - left as it was - it has sat untouched for who knows how many years, even before me when it had belonged to the previous farmer. It was unruly and wild - difficult to walk on the uneven ground. Dead branches littered the uneven ground from the unkempt oak and maple trees. Wild raspberry and rose bushes formed impenetrable walls and the "weeds" were so tall and thick it was difficult to walk through. It was the last untouched ground on my property. I decided that it was the perfect place to expand my native plant population into larger colonies for me to sell for my herb farm. Perhaps creating a botanical sanctuary for others to come and enjoy - a place where people could come wildcraft without fear of harming the natural populations. So in October 2007, a farmer who lived down the road smoothed out the rough edges and cleaned up the area so I could better manage the garden and start anew. And then it struck me. Perhaps, standing here on the verge of my new garden, my "bit of earth", I was not a little unlike little Mary with the newly found key in her hand. Not to create a "gardener's garden all clipped spick and span", as Dickon said in the story, but "It's nicer like this with things runnin' wild, an' swingin' an' catchin' hold of each other." The idea has caught fire, and so with a little excitement, I created this page to document the restoration and creation of luna apothecary garden. What healing wisdom might come forth from my secret garden? At the very least, I can detail the plantings, both my own and mother nature's within the garden. Hopefully I might inspire you to grow some of the same if you have a similar and compatible habitat - to create your own tended wild space. And at the most? Perhaps...a little Magic...
~ Susan Burek. proprietor & caretaker of MMHF |