On June 18 2007, phred and I visited the Magic Garden, which we always thought was "Arvada's Best Kept Secret". The Garden's real name is "God's Little Acre and a Third" which is our friend's name for it (the owner of the property).
(1) View from outside Magic Garden's Gate, which is the only entrance. Covered with greenery, Gate is so narrow that trucks and cars park outside (no parking room inside). Dogs are not allowed in Magic Garden but stray cats and all other wild creatures are welcome.	(2)  View from inside and looking back down the road. You can see our car parked outside narrow Gate tunnel. Retired Civil War General is looking over at old falcon and eagle sanctuary (not shown). phred was a Colonel who did not really serve in Civil War but he should have been a General (in our humble opinion). He was grumpy and in a hurry that day. Fortunately, I was not. He shaved off his beard right after he saw these photos.

(3)  phred is looking at the lawn in the photo on the right. Unfortunately, I jiggled the camera so the photo is blurry.	(4)  Blurry photo of lawn on east side of house with flowers and plants waiting to be planted by new pond (not shown).

(5)  We went around the corner and saw new Cactus Garden, that was a surprise. Also new are Books for every Garden in the Magic Garden. We did not look but the Books have names and information about each thing planted in that particular Garden. We really should have looked to see what was inside of a Book.

(6)  Behind phred is theTropical Indoor Garden which connects house and garage. We found out later that the TIG has not been rebuilt with tropical birds, plants, ponds, etc. (other plans for it).	(7)  Front Door of House. I don't know what white box was, maybe UPS delivery. Flagstone steps lead up to front door (where secret path leads down to the garage past the TIG).

(8)  I have passed the front door, phred is near Secret Garden (named for secret den of red foxes hidden in it).	(9)  Inside Secret Garden (fox den not shown), looking back to where phred was standing before, at the gate going into it.

(10)  Beyond the Secret Garden is the Water Garden, which has a patio table on the deck. The Water Garden would be a beautiful and appropriate place for "Susan's Garden Party" in August.	(11)  Close-up of Deck steps railing and Water Garden.     phred comes from behind where wild animal cages used to be (we remember old mountain lion), says cages are gone.

Intermission Click the "Next" button below to see more photos taken that day. But all of them leave out so much... they don't show the owner of the Magic Garden and so many wondrous secrets of her Garden. We spent less than an hour taking photos and it would take walking the property with a camcorder for a couple hours to do it justice. The owner spent 60 years planting and building this garden. When she was younger, she was a licensed and well-known wild life rehabber who "had a way" with big wild animals and birds -- they trusted her. School classes used to come and learn about them. Now she has deer, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, birds, squirrels and many stray cats (who are not let out at night) and her big family gets along together fine. No dogs. Her property is historic and dates back to the 1860's. Her house was built around the BlackSmith Shop and you can still see a log wall. The BlackSmith brought juniper tree seedlings from Virginia which are now 100 feet tall. Because the species in Virginia died out long ago, offspring of her juniper tree specie will be scientifically named after her.