By Leanne Star, Class of 2011
Editor’s note: Leanne’s story originally appeared in CAC@Home. Docent’s and volunteers contributed twenty stories to CAC’@Home this season. In case you missed them the first time, we will be reposting them on The Bridge in the following months. They are also available on the CAC website.
In Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Oberon, King of the Fairies, sends the sprite Puck to an enchanted garden to craft a love potion: “I know a place where the wild thyme blows; where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows.”
That enchanted garden exists on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, replete with wild thyme and some 50 varieties of plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s work. A double wall of hawthorn hedges shelters the plantings to create the effect of a secret garden in the midst of campus.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story. And you still have the chance to take the popular Northwestern University tour this season. It will be offered on Friday, September 18 at 10:00 am and Saturday, September 26 at 1:00 pm. The garden is included in the tour.
It’s a terrific tour, right in my back yard, and the Shakespeare Garden is a wonderful treat.