Outside

In the beloved children’s classic The Secret Garden, recently orphaned Mary Lennox embarks upon a journey of self-discovery when she finds an abandoned garden on her uncle’s Yorkshire estate. With the help of two young friends, Mary secretly weeds and prunes the neglected plot throughout the fall and winter, finally reaping the joyous reward of seeing the garden returned to its full glory in the spring. Only then do Mary and her friends realize that they too have bloomed and healed. While Williamsburg gardener Sandy Helsel is not a child, she too embarked upon a journey of self-discovery, creating a spectacular garden that also brought her joy and healing.

Like Mary Lennox, Sandy Helsel was a late bloomer … literally and figuratively. She was 51 when she began to pursue her passion for gardening, and after 10 years of hard work, her English cottage garden at her home in Williamsburg is no secret. Featured in Better Homes and Gardens, and by the Williamsburg Garden Club during Virginia’s 2009 Garden Week, Helsel’s organic garden combines British design with Tidewater plantings to create an oasis of natural beauty.

In 1992, the death of her mother, Betty Johnson, left Helsel emotionally and physically drained. “We were very close, and that last year with her being sick was really tough,” she explains. When her close friend Nancy Altznauer called out of the blue one day and asked, “What are you going to do for yourself now?” Helsel’s answer surprised both of them. “I think I want to take a tour of English gardens,” she replied, having no idea that Altznauer was actively involved in putting together exactly that kinds of trips for her garden club in Connecticut. Helsel’s mother had left her a small bit of money, so Altznauer got to work on the arrangements, and the next summer the two women traveled across the pond to see the best of England’s gardens.

They started with the formal gardens of Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, but Helsel was yearning to see the small private cottage gardens of the Cotswolds. So, the women motored to the country, carefully navigating the left-side driving until they arrived at the Swan Inn, located at the gateway to the Cotswolds. “We saw three or four gardens a day,” Helsel recalls, “and one day, as we were flying down a narrow country road [in Gloucestershire], heading into town to get some film developed, Nancy suddenly screamed, ‘That’s Rosemary Verey’s home!’ We came to a screeching halt when we saw her walking around giving some guests a tour.”