Lucy/Alice Garden

I think I have a very mild form of Seasonal Affective Disorder, which I find myself countering every January by going completely over the top in an obsession with gardens--ordering magazines online, buying books, drawing sketches in my big blue garden planner. This year I was feeling sad because with A&J's work on the water garden last summer, there are no more major projects to be done. Then I remembered my little memorial garden for Lucy.

Many years ago I saw a non-Disney Alice statue in a Better Homes and Gardens ad. I tried last summer to look it up online and found nothing--I decided to just get a little pedestal without a statue at Sun River Gardens and have that be it. But I tried again this month and found the statue! Since it is the dead of winter, I will have a lot of time to plan the garden before putting it in.

It will be hidden in the shady spot behind the rose arbor and the peach tree, and viewable from the swing:

Here is the view out at the yard from the swing:

Here is the space, overhung by Dr. Wochnik's plum, apple, and cherry trees, with the lilac on the left and a snowball bush on the right. Last fall we planted about 200 red and yellow tulip and daffodil bulbs there (but I think we planted them too shallow--I hope they come up):

Claudio inspects the site:


Actually, he just wants me to pet him:

Then on the fence behind the statue and flowers we will put in a mirror gate similar to one of the following. I saw mirror tiles at WalMart for $5/pkg of 6 when I was there the other night with Amy buying yarn. I could attach the mirrors directly to the fence in a lattice or tudor pattern and frame them with thin strips of wood, or I could buy an old door at a second-hand/recycle store like Restore and put the tiles on it then bury it a foot or so into the ground so that it was child-sized, or create something like these amazing mirror illusion-gates (below). I will make a little bark-chip path up to the looking-glass gate, and put a pot beside it.

It makes me look forward even more to spring.