Still Places #5 : Garden as a Private Sanctuary

All Text & Images: Dom Galloway | GardenSpace (unless otherwise noted)

The garden as a private space is an ancient idea, one that has followed humanity across civilizations and centuries. Long before suburban fences and urban courtyards, people carved out enclosed, private spaces where they could pause, reflect, and find rest. To step into such a space was to enter a different rhythm of being—slower, quieter, more attuned to the cycles of nature than to the demands of society.

From the courtyards of Roman villas to the stone and moss gardens of Japan, the impulse has been the same: to create a space where life is distilled, where a pool of water, a single pine, or a raked bed of gravel can suggest the vastness of mountains, the movement of the sea, or the harmony of paradise. In these places, one walks not into decoration but into sanctuary.

Sabatini Gardens, Madrid Spain

Through centuries the forms have changed, but the meaning has remained. Renaissance humanists shaped orderly retreats that calmed the mind; Romantic gardeners let paths wander and slopes soften, so the soul might wander with them. Whether drawn with geometry or with curves, the garden was always more than ornament—it was a refuge, a counterbalance to the clamour beyond its walls.

In the modern world, this impulse and need remains, even if its expressions have changed. The contemporary backyard, whether a suburban plot, a terrace balcony, or a rooftop bed, continues the tradition of sanctuary. The dimensions may be smaller, the materials humbler, but the meaning endures.

"A desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither." – Albert Camus

The idea of sanctuary is not tied to scale. While a grand estate may contain secluded groves and winding paths, a single potted jasmine on a balcony can offer the same gift. What matters is the experience: the feeling of stepping into a space that is your own, that holds your presence gently, that reflects something of your spirit back to you.

Even the tending of a private garden is as much about inward healing as outward beauty. The routine of care—the regular rhythm of watering, the seasonal task of pruning—provides a counterbalance to the unpredictability of life. Working a garden reminds us that rest is not idleness, that growth comes slowly, and that beauty arises from patience rather than ambition. These quiet rituals become rhythms of care. Here solitude is not loneliness but renewal.

Why does this matter so deeply? Because in lives filled with noise, constant demands, and living at a frenetic pace, we need opportunities that allow us to slow and rebalance. The private garden answers this craving. It is a place where one can simply dwell. Here, the acts of pruning, watering, or sitting quietly beneath a tree become rituals of renewal.

In the end, the private sanctuary tells us that, however restless the outer world becomes, we have a place of retreat. A place where we can sit among leaves and light, listen to the wind move through branches, and remember that we are more than our work, and the endless demands of our daily lives. It is a place where we can simply be still.

The private sanctuary is not a luxury. It is a quiet necessity. And every garden, however modest, has the potential to offer it.

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