Ask Martha

Garden becomes a family retreat, personal sanctuary,

Nearly two decades ago at her property on Martha’s Vineyard, Daisy Helman started carefully planting flowers and foliage plucked from the

pages of one of her children’s favorite books. This walled oasis flourishest oday, brimming with life and color and enchanting everyone who passes through its gates.

“There is magic in

there — good magic, you

know, Mary. I’m sure there is,” says Colin, a sickly boy who comes alive watching flowers

bloom in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s novel “The Secret Garden.” When you walk down the path from Daisy Helman’s Martha’s Vineyard beach house and push open the giant doors to her walled garden, you understand just what he means. Flanked by tall, dense hornbeam hedges, they reveal a hidden world vibrating with life. Winding vines of clematis snake up stone walls; the sweet, clove-y scent of lilies floats in the air; and bees zigzag from sweet peas to lavender to phlox, feasting on nectar. Good magic, indeed.

Helman, the founder and CEO of the online magazine Garden Collage, designed the space 17 years ago with landscape architect Diane McGuire as a way to share her love of nature with her then young children, who adored the classic story. Sinc edayo ne, it’s been both a family retreat and a personal sanctuary. In summer, it’s the first place Helman goes when she

wakes up, still in her bathrobe, coffee in hand. From that moment on, she says, “I’m watering, snipping and snapping a little of

this, a little of that.”

To keep it humming when she ’s not there, Helman has enlisted land

scape designer Melissa

Thomas of the local firm Seascape Designs, who recently added a vivid

color-wheel cuttin ggarden in the front yard. “It’s a collaboration,” says Helman of her landscape. “There’s a little bit of everyone in it.” That includes the wildlife, which encourages growth by pollinating flowers and seeding new plants such as Queen Anne’s lace

and Verbena bonariensis, which pop up in surprising spots every year. “Each garden is unique and personal,” she says. “Ours isn’ t perfect, but in our eyes, it’s exactly what it should be.”

The big reveal

A wooded path lined with native huckleberry leads the way. The cedar doors have large, branch

like metal handles, designed by local craftsperson Whit Hanschka.

Passion project

Helman founded her online magazine, Garden Collage, in 2014 to inspire others to start planting. “It’s easy and fun, and

there are so many good things that co meoutof it,” she says. A fragrant, ever-blooming pink rose climbs up an archway over beds of lavender and Verbena bonariensis.

Natural wonders

Clematis “Rooguchi” can grow 5 to 8 feet in one season. A gently tiered retaining wall

on Helman’s lawn was crafted by Tea Lane Nursery. A Stewartia tree flowers in summer. Ethereal Queen Anne’s lace seeds itself. Smooth stones around Helman’s pool house absorb drainage from the roof.

On the up and up

Archways with climb-

ing roses and clematis connect two beds and romantically frame a pathway. Strong re bar posts hold the heavy limbs of espaliered apple trees (meaning they’re trained to grow twodimensionally, as if up against a wall) — “I love the way it looks. If I could, I’ d espalier everything !” laughs Helm an. Wood tuteurs, or trellis structures, made from young cedar trees that were limbed and stripped, support sweet peas and edible scarlet runner and pole beans.

A full spectrum

Last year, Helman and Thomas planted a color wheel solely for cutting and arranging .“I rarely cut flowers in the walled garden; fo rso me reason, it makes me feel bad,” Helman says.

The golden hour

Helman entertains friends under an arbor made from wood sourced on her property, but admits that when she’s alone ,sherarely relaxes there. “It’s a never-end

ing project, like the Everlasting Gobstopper,” she laughs. However, she’s evolving: “After you clean up and put away the tools, the garden is quiet, and the light is gorgeous. I’m starting to sit more and take it in.”

Rock climbers

Pink “Etoile Rose” clematis winds along wires (attached with hooks and eyes) on a drystacked stone wall.

Well contained

“I love the order of French gardens, but I want the freedom to add whatever I want,” says Helman. “Edging the beds with boxwoods keeps them controlled and allows fo ra little

chaos with my plantings.”