View from the Kitchen Window into my "Secret Garden"

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Hubby is the king of the kitchen around here. It's his domain. I don't complain, since he lets me have the garden shed all to myself.

Our kitchen isn't big--perfect "cottage size". Hubby likes it that way. He says that his "work triangle" is perfect in that space. Over the kitchen sink is a window that looks out into our smallish front garden. I think that's one of the reasons he likes the kitchen so much (just a hunch).

When I came in from taking garden photos today, I realized that the view from the kitchen window is really pretty right now. That's probably why Hubby had the window open to let the cool breezes flutter in and air out the house after its been closed up for a week during the heat. Even though I had to shoot through a screen, I took a photo out the window so I could share it here.

The bright pink billows on the lower right are the "Raspberry Ice" bougainvillea that is resting atop a mature rosemary hedge. Behind the bougainvillea you can see the tall yellow spindle blossoms of the fennel, looking a bunch of bare umbrella frames stretching to the sky. The round shrub just to the left of the fennel is my "Pineapple Sage"--a variety of salvia that smells just like fresh pineapple when you crush the leaves (I have a honeydew variety that's wonderful too).

I walked out into the road in front of Rosehaven Cottage so I could photograph it with all the blooms on the pergola. The white flowers on the right of the pergola are a "Lady Diana" bower vine. The left side of the pergola and picket fence are covered in red Japanese honeysuckle with some bougainvillea poking through here and there.

You can see a little corner of the white kitchen window shutter (I drew an arrow on the photo to make it easier to see).

From inside the kitchen, the garden looks like a little enclave of blooms and greenery. So many people have been surprised the first time they walked under the pergola to find the garden within.

It's my own little "Secret Garden" of sorts. There's a line from one of the film adaptations of "The Secret Garden" that always come to mind when I'm in the garden--"curtains and fountains of roses" is the line. I think maybe I've been subconsciously using that movie line as a pattern for my plant-as-you-go form of garden design which has resulted in what we have now.

Stay tuned for the next post when I share more shots of the blossoms that are in my "Secret Garden" right now...

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