Cancelled: Secret Gardens of Lake Forest Park 2020

Cancelled: Secret Gardens of Lake Forest Park 2020

The Virus Won in 2020
By Beth Weir

If there were a preferred time to deal with a muscular virus, spring would likely be it. The daily walks most of us undertake in lieu of a social life these days, are surely enhanced by the blooms appearing at this time of year. The magnolias have provided one of the most expansive shows to date, heralding warmer days with their particular grandeur.

In normal times many of us would be making summer plans on our neighborhood walks. If you like plants and gardening, that would likely include a garden tour or two. But, as we are acutely aware, these are not normal times. 

There will not be many garden tours this year and among the casualties is the Lake Forest Park Secret Garden Tour. Bowing to the historic moment, the planning committee has cancelled this summer’s annual event. It would have been the 19th such tour.

Those of us who have been involved in the planning of the Secret Garden Tour are most disappointed. Our proposed date, June 20, 2020 had such a fat, joyous ring to it for starters. 

We are grateful to the six homeowners who agreed to show their gardens, knowing how much work such an endeavor entails. Our plant vendors were lined up, as were sponsors. The musicians and artists who add to the ambience of a garden experience were being approached. There had been discussion on details. We were armed and almost ready.

It cannot be, but like the magnolia, whose magnificence has a long history, we will endure. (They were blooming thanks to beetles long before bees took up the tasks of pollinating flowers.) 

Next year’s Lake Forest Park Secret Garden Tour will return June 19. Since a well-known morale booster is to put a date in the calendar so you have something to look forward to — we urge you to do so now.

In the meantime gardeners staying at home can do what they have always done; dig their dirt, plant and water, stake trees and peas, and take walks around the yard admiring what you and nature can do as a pair. 

It is not quite the same as going to see what other people have managed to do in their own gardens but as compromises go, it’s not too bad. And keep in mind that next year we will be back and we look forward to having you join us.