Labyrinth

Have you ever had an area in your garden that you just don't like and you can never think of what to do with it?  I had one of those spots. It was actually the front garden. You see I don't like to be out in my front garden so I haven't done much to it over the years. We live by a road that has a lot of traffic and it is full sun. I am very sensitive to sun so I can't be out in it much. So this part of the garden has languished these 20 years I have lived here.

Oh yes, the area around the driveway and to the East of the drive I have tried to plant a barrier between the garden and the traffic.

 On the West side of the lot I have done not much of anything.There is this big patch of zoysia grass.  I have nothing against zoysia grass. Actually I like zoysia. I hear you all gasping. First of all it makes a thick carpet wonderful to walk on barefooted. Secondly I sort of like the way it goes to sleep during the cold months and turns that straw color. It is always exciting when the weather begins to warm the zoysia begins to come alive as if by magic it becomes a lovely green carpet for spring to enter. Yet to look at a sea of zoysia is quite a bore, so boring I don't have a photo of the carpet of zoysia before implementing my idea to make it interesting and to create something I have often coveted.

What could that be you ask...a walking labyrinth. I have always admired these low lying sculptures in the garden. Every time I would come upon one I wondered where in my small garden I could put one. The labyrinths you see in public gardens are always so large. I couldn't see it in my garden until last fall.  I saw this photo of a labyrinth. I am sorry I can't give it the proper acknowledgement since I have had this photo since last year sometime and have forgotten where I found it. It is a public garden someplace in the US. EDIT: You can see the story here about my inspiration. Thank you Jean for reminding me where I saw this.

Of course to get to this point  you need a gardening crew. While I can see things in a picture and in my brain it doesn't always come out on paper or on in this case on the lawn like I want it. I had to enlist my Dearly Beloved aka Garden Crew to advance my idea.

After drawing on paper, measuring, mulling it over in my brain and not seeing it on the lawn my Dearly Beloved took all the left over paint on our shelves and drew me a picture on the lawn. 

Then I went to work. I discovered that pushing a mower through the zoysia is a little more difficult than it looked. 

This is how it looked last fall. I actually did it too late in the season to get the grass into shape as it had basically stopped growing. Just the painted lines in the lawn made quite a stir in the neighborhood. Neighbors stopped to ask what in the world was going on. 

This spring we went at it again. We mowed down to a clean slate. I couldn't quite make it turn out like I wanted. I was about to give up when one day I came home from work and the Garden Crew had been at it. What a difference it made. I have to thank my Dearly Beloved. He is always my rock, my help mate, better than any garden crew I could hire.

Here are a  couple of pictures as it is now. 

It has come along quite nice. All I need is a totem or small bench at the center. 

All the comments and questions have been interesting. People we don't know have stopped to ask what... why... do you believe in crop circles...? To me a labyrinth is a tool to get to the center and finding self or questions answered if you take enough time. I guess if and when they see me walking in the gloom of dawn or dusk I will forever be known as the crazy old lady walking in circles and I will be at peace in a sea of zoysia.