Sign Up  /  Login

HMPT-Secret Garden LbNA #59617

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Sep 23, 2011
Location: Point Defiance Park
City:Tacoma
County:Pierce
State:Washington
Boxes:1
Planted by:HMPTC
Found by: Dickens Family
Last found:Sep 15, 2012
Status:FFa
Last edited:Oct 10, 2015
We are Homeschool Meetup of Pierce and Thurston County and we'd like to take you on a small tour of a secret garden! Well it might be a secret to many who may have missed this gem on their way out of Tacoma's largest park. After you've enjoyed the Rose Garden, Owen Beach, cruised 5-mile drive and even stopped to say hello to some not so native animals make your final stop at a fenced garden specifically designed to showcase our indigenous plant life.

Find a parking spot and enter into the gates! The homeschool students who will lead you on this hunt would like to welcome you to this "fun garden with many plant habitats". Beautiful isn't it? No matter the season of the year. Notice the evergreen huckleberry in front of you, if you're here in September (like we were) it may have produced a delicious snack for you. But now which trail to take? There are many to decide from, aren't there? The HS students who hid this letterbox would like to direct you "toward the path on the left side of the pond garden" and introduce you to what THEY consider the main attraction!!! Can you hear it? (If you can't hear it it may be because it's turned off during the winter months.) If you were a kid would you be distracted by the two trails to the right? Probably not! But if you aren't a kid you may stop for a moment and admire the thriving maidenhair along the trail.

By now, you must have noticed the kid magnet. "Go up and cross the stream" says one student. "Hug the mighty Western Red" says another.

So now what? Where would kids, ages 1-7, hide a letterbox around here? "Find the Osoberry" they say. Hey that was one of the shrubs we learned about on our garden tour. We learned that it's a favorite for the birds and that it's the first plant to sprout its leaves in late winter, as early as February. Thank you Osoberry for the early promise of spring. Ooh! Ooh! It looks like a dugout under those roots! "Let's hide it here!", they cheer! Could an animal have made it? Does an animal live there now? Well we didn't stay long enough to find out but maybe you'll have the joy of this discovery. You'll find this underground shelter underneath moss and sticks between the Osoberry and the Red Cedar but beware when you stick your hand in it! "

Enjoy the rest of the Garden! The kids sure did!