The Untold Secret of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I loved this book the first time I read it, and every time I read it thereafter. It's a classic, and deserves to be. If you haven't read it, you should.

However, during this morning's reflections while in my own garden, I realized that this book can be misleading.

We have a "water feature" in our backyard. A pond with a shallow waterfall/creek that runs to the pond. It is beautiful, and I love the sound of running water. Rather, it is beautiful when it has not become overgrown into a state of possibly being mistaken for a rain forest in Brazil.

I tackled that area of the yard this morning and managed to clear a path about one foot wide and six feet long. It was then I realized how I had been hoodwinked by The Secret Garden.

While in my tender, impressionable years I was led to believe that with a very little effort, and excitement at the very possibility of working to clear out a garden, I would be able to do so in no time flat. Ha!

1. Look at the book cover shown above. Now to me that looks like the finished product, not what was completely overgrown.
2. Obviously Mary had never lifted a finger to weed before in her life. Otherwise she would have realized the impossibility of doing the task.
3. Dicken. Now I'm wondering what onerous task he was avoiding at home to find clearing out the secret garden to be more enjoyable than that task.
4. It's hard for me to believe that they were able to do all that themselves with so little help. It must have been a very low maintenance garden to begin with.

These are the kinds of things that run through my mind as I work in the yard.

Time to get some books on tape. Or at least something to listen to so my mind doesn't wander too far away and never come back.