06/14/2026
Give your daughter a garden.
To grow, to tend, to tame. To make it her own.
We planted this garden years ago, not long after we bought this house. We expanded it over time with a dry creek bed, paths made of rock or wood, a little bridge, the driftwood archway now covered with hops, the tree fort built from the stump and new growth of an ash tree. The goal of it has always been a little magical play space for our kids. That goal has definitely been accomplished.
But as our attention turned to other things - in the yard and in life - tending it fell low on the priority list. It's still magical in its own way, and also wild and overgrown. One clump of flowers blends into the next, tangles of weeds, paths completely overgrown, and no signs of where the yard ends and the garden begins.
In comes a 9 year old who decided this year that it was HER garden. Why would we ever say no to that? In between the day-to-day play, I'll randomly find her out there clearing weeds, thinning overgrown flowers, planting marigolds, and filling it with her love.
I don't have any "before" pictures and the "after" is still (and probably always will be), a work in progress. But, slowly, this overgrown play space is getting tamed by my sweet girl. I can see her marks in it everywhere I look and it is pure magic.
