The Secret Garden: A new place of serenity

By Bill Barrick, Executive Director

The new Secret Garden, which is under construction now, is located between the Rose Garden and The Great Lawn. Several years ago we planted “Tokyo Delight” hydrangeas in this area. After observing this little garden room for several years, I felt this area had the possibilities to become a designed garden.

I wanted to create a new space that would use many of the elements used by George B. Rogers, the original designer of Bellingrath Gardens and Home.

I gave my initial sketch of a simple, yet elegant garden space to Missy Marshall of MTR Landscape Architects to create the final design.  Missy Marshall and her colleague, Amber Wilkins, were the designers who helped us transform the Rose Garden with its central fountain and artfully designed brick pathways using St. Joe Brick.

Missy and I agreed on a design that featured a small fountain in the center of a circular pool with three cast iron fern benches where guests could sit and enjoy the tranquility of the space. An oval brick border of St. Joe Brick surrounds a formal lawn of Zoysia turf.

Robinson Iron in Alexander City, Ala., fabricated the fern benches, two entryway urn planters and the central Roman urn to be used for the fountain.  This is the firm that was responsible for fabricating, restoring and installing the fabulous three-tiered fountain in the Rose Garden. If you attended the 2016 Festival of Flowers, you saw all of these elements in Bellingrath’s formal garden.

This project would not have been possible without the support of the following foundations and organizations: A.S. Mitchell Foundation; The Crampton Trust; The M.W. Smith, Jr. Foundation; the Hearin-Chandler Foundation; The Ben May Charitable Trust; ExxonMobil Foundation; The Sybil H. Smith Foundation; The Frank Ladd and Vivian LaVerne DuValle Charitable Trust and The Daniel Foundation. The landscape contractors for the project are Greg Blakeney and Jason Mosley of TurfMaster LLC Landscape, Inc.

We anticipate the construction of our Secret Garden will be completed in mid-October, after which the horticultural staff of the Gardens will install the plantings. We will dedicate the new Secret Garden in mid-November during the Cascade Mum season.

We are very excited to add this new garden to complement Mr. and Mrs. Bellingrath’s historic Southern estate garden. Please come out and take a peek at our Secret Garden later this fall!