Widowed: I’m Planting a Secret Garden Outside My Office

There’s a secluded space right outside my writing room, a cozy, sheltered bit of outdoors that no one can see but me — and I can see it only when I’m sitting at my desk, at work in my writing room. It’s the perfect spot for planting a secret garden. A place to be alone, by myself. Just me, the hawks and the Steller’s Jays.

The months-long hardscaping project in our side yard and back yard is done. The new stairs alongside our house are in. So is the little deck outside my office. Also the handrails that let me dash safely up and down the stairs. And the gates and fences in the side yard to keep out the deer.

And now it’s time to put in some plants.

I already  know what I want to do with the backyard down below. It needs to be fire resistant, drought resistant, deer resistant and low maintenance. I’ll plant mostly California natives down there — tough stuff that can go months without water: manzanita, ceanothus, salvia. It will be a wildish place.

In planting a secret garden outside my writing room, on the other hand, the idea will be to create a cozy place. Domesticated. Friendly. A secluded spot that invites me to get up from my desk and keyboard once in a while. A place with living things to keep me company.

Some widows acquire dogs for company. Some go in for cats. I find myself going to great lengths to attend to the condolence flowers and plants that people have sent my way. And on my evening walks I notice I keep stopping to photograph people’s gardens.

So, I’m a plant person, it turns out. Who knew?

And now . . . what shall I grow in this mysterious secret garden outside my office?

• An herb garden for chives and dill?
• A moss rock garden with lichen, creeping thyme, ajuga and, with a little luck,  moss?
• A succulent garden with sedum and echeveria?
• A woodsy garden of azaleas and rhododendrons?
• A pollinator garden buzzing with dahlias, rudbeckia and alstroemeria?

What would you do with it?

Right now I’m leaning toward the pollinator garden. A pollinator garden gives you living, growing, color-blasting flowers — and as a bonus, hordes of noisy bees and hummingbirds.

There will be life all over the place as I sit at my desk and work — which will make me happy on some days. And very sad on others.

Luckily, some help arrived at my doorstep earlier this week. I am the winner of a silent auction hosted by the Friends of the Oakland Public School Libraries. I bid on — and won — a gift certificate to Ace Hardware on Grand Avenue and a delicious new gardening book, “Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates,” from the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the folks who deliver water to my door and would like me to use less of it these days.