A recent first-time visitor to Roxann’s garden took one look and declared it to be “wonderfully wild!” Roxann often refers to her creation as her “secret garden” or her “zen space.” But the name she holds closest to her heart is her “legacy garden.” It’s a reference to treasured generations, both old and new, who’ve fostered and continue to inspire her vision of what a garden should be.
Roxann both lives and works her love of gardening. She’s been a trusted team member of Tagawa’s Perennials Department since 2009.
A Cottage Garden Was Always the Dream
Roxann began gardening when she was ten years old. She’d spend summers with her grandmother, who loved working with soil and plants and all things nature has to offer. Those summers rubbed off on Roxann as her passion for gardening took root.
The lush garden that now fills her entire back yard was nothing but lawn and rocks when Roxann and her husband, Jeff, moved into their home 32 years ago. Slowly and surely, her vision of a cottage garden began to take shape.
By definition, cottage gardens are densely planted and include lots of whimsical touches. Roxann brings that whimsy to life with small statues and quirky garden gifts from friends and family. She tucks them here and there, peeking out from the lush foliage that dominates the entire space. Roxann’s philosophy of cottage gardening is “things growing everywhere, often with no rhyme or reason.”
Seating is another traditional element of cottage gardens. Stone steps are home to clumps of violets, making each step a perfect perch to sit, listen to humming birds and bees and “just soak it all up.”
“Insects Love Me!”
Roxann is a non-negotiable organic gardener, just one reason the space she’s created is alive with birds, pollinators, and insects of every description. She says an assortment of harmless snakes also calls her lush garden home and keep any pesky insects under control. With her ban on pesticides, you don’t have to look far to find beneficials scouting out their next meal.
The density of plants in her garden also helps an abundance of helpful insects find places to overwinter, ready to get back to work once warm temperatures return in spring.
Old-Fashioned Flowers Thrive Here
Bold, bright daylilies light up the jungle of other plants that surround them. The whimsical touch here is a cracked glass globe mounted on a small rusty stand that looks as if it’s been there for decades. It all adds to the feeling that you’ve stumbled onto a lush but long-forgotten secret garden — exactly what Roxann has worked so hard to create.
An intensely purple Jackmanii clematis is another of Roxann’s favorites. It weaves its way out of the shadows and into the light to show off dozens of flowers and buds that give this legacy garden a decidedly tropical feel. And who doesn’t love a display of royal purple!
Roxann vs. The Squirrels
Even in her live-and-let-live garden, Roxann draws the line at squirrels. “Squirrels are just awful,” she says, adding they’re the only out-and-out enemy she faces in this secret garden. Her weapon in the battle is chicken wire, which she uses in abundance to protect the vegetables she and her gardening-loving young granddaughter grow.
The sanctuary she’s created works well to keep the veggies and herbs beyond the reach of any squirrel that’s inclined to try its luck on the treats growing inside this heavily fortified space.
Passing Down a Love of Gardening
Roxann says that aside from routine maintenance, she doesn’t see any big changes ahead for this garden. She knows Nature will spread seed and send runners here and there, and if they take root “in the right spot,” she’ll let them grow.
But the love of gardening she learned from her grandmother, the same love she’s now passing on to her own grandchildren, is her legacy of plants and peace and partnering with Nature to see what a very special secret garden can grow.
