This summer we launched a writing competition for children and young people inspired by our exhibition The Secret Garden. Entrants were tasked with getting creative over the summer holidays on the theme of ‘My Secret Garden’. Judges Holly Webb, Philip Womack and Francesca Dow chose winners from two categories: ages 5-11 and ages 12-16. And we are delighted to share the winning entries below!
My Secret Garden
By Blake Rowlatt, age 9
I was bored. I was bored and lonely and I missed my friends Leo and Sully. We had moved to Japan because of my mum’s job. I didn’t even want to come to Japan. I hated it.
The only thing I liked about Japan was Pokémon. In Kyoto there were so many Pokémon shops. The quickest way my mum and dad could cheer me up most days was with a new pack of my favourite trading cards. The only friend I’d made in the last month was an old man called Kensuke who insisted on tidying our garden every day. We rarely spoke but he always looked so kind and content raking our gravel in the garden.
Unfortunately this new garden was just as dull as our old one. It was mostly gravel and rock with an old winding pine tree beside a pond that looked like a wiry old man dancing in the wind.
One day I was moping in the garden with my most beloved Pokémon cards. Kensuke was there and he stopped his work, turned to me and asked “Why so gloomy Blake-san?”
“This place sucks. I’m bored” I told him.
“This garden is very special Blake-san. You even have a whispering tree” He said enigmatically, smiling as he began to rake the lines in the gravel again.
“The only thing that is actually special about Japan is Pokemon” I replied sullenly, holding up my newest favourite. Kensuke stopped once more and squinted to see more clearly. He nodded politely and muttered something in Japanese before
returning to his work.
I felt the urge to show my cards to Kensuke and began stepping across the stones. As I did so I lost my footing and one of the cards slipped from my hand and spun awkwardly like an autumn leaf into the pond.
I knelt down and watched awe-struck as my prized pokemon card floated further out of reach. I looked up towards Kensuke who raised his hand as if to warn me. But this was an ultra-rare and I couldn’t let it go. As I reached out across the still
water I felt my balance tip further away from my control..
I fell head first into the pond. The darkness was quickly followed by bright lights; peacock blues, coral pinks and dandelion yellows streamed like densely bound ribbons. I heard slow guitar strings and drums before they gave way to birdsong.
I was back on my stepping stone but the gravel around me was now water. At the edge of this large pond I saw a gentle waterfall where crystal shapes gurgled and danced over the rocks. There was a moon shaped bridge crossing the foot of the falls, beside which was a majestic magnolia tree whose bright rhubarb and custard coloured flowers cupped towards the sky. Instead of feeling overwhelmed I just felt calm and peaceful.
I looked back down into the water to see my reflection. I saw my Pokemon card float past but as I scooped it out of the water I saw that the image of the Grass Dragon had vanished, only the name Appleton and his health points (HP) remained.
I got to my feet and surveyed the cascading pine trees. I felt the gaze of something watching me from behind the rocks and the trees.
“Kensuke?”
Suddenly a magenta bird fluttered out from one of the trees. Was it even a bird?
I almost fell back but managed to steady myself and follow the path up to the bridge which led to a small island with our wiry pine tree. It seemed to be pointing its branches towards a small solitary gate.
As I stepped across the bridge I heard something fall into the water beneath me. I quickly fell to my knees and peered over the side. To my amazement I saw a creature unlike anything I’d ever seen before in real life. The closest thing I’d ever seen had in fact been on a picture, on one of my Pokemon cards!
It was clearly in some difficulty. So I lowered myself to reach down and as I picked it up I recognised it completely.
It was Appleton, a grass dragon; soft and round like an apple pie with a rosy-red head and four little tortoise feet. I held it close and it glowed.
“Back home” whispered a husky voice and as I looked towards the pine tree its branch creakily gestured towards the ancient wooden gate. I looked back over my shoulder and recognised many more Pokemon creatures shyly stepping out of their tranquil landscape. ‘This garden is very special’ I thought to myself. I stepped through the gate and braced myself for the passage of darkness and light.
My Secret Garden
By Lucy Whitehead, age 13
It wasn’t really like a garden garden, you know, it was just like part of the woods, scrubby, dusty, dirty ground, dampened by leaves that weren’t meant to fall yet. The summer had been sooo hot and dry that by August the trees had just given up.
It was really dark inside, the fence shading everything around and the trees oppressing any sun from above. The spiky leaves of the holly trees? bushes? were a dark matt green, not even shiny, just blank, covered up by cobwebs. I clambered through the hole in the bendy wire fence.
No one saw me. I was on the cool shady side of the pavement. Inside it was really weird. The little dart beams of light made everything seem like a headache, the way they would disappear as a leaf moved in the wind then suddenly reappear like a laser on my forehead. I didn’t really know what to do, I just stood there. Kicked the dirt. I couldn’t hear any cars, people, shouting. Just rustling. Ikept looking around me like there was someone creeping up behind… If someone else had been
there I wouldn’ t have sat down. I’d have made a big fuss about not wanting to get any of this ‘dirty mud’ on my tracksuit. But I don’t know, there was no one there and I guess I was tired, anyway, I cross legged down to the floor.
It was pretty crazy seeing everything from that view. The bark of the fallen log I was leaning against was really big and dark brown, it looked like chocolate. There were little neon green gummy worms poking out the dry ground – vines from some plant, ivy maybe. I couldn’t see through the thick thick branches of trees and bushes and general plants. I felt like it went on forEVER, although I knew there was the boards of the fence just over there. I realised that no one could see me in here at all.
There was high wooden fencing on two sides and the holes in the chicken wire that I climbed through was covered by a big spiky bush that wanted to poke through and would dominate everyone by pricking them. I sat there for a long time, just looking looking looking. I tried taking some photos but it didn’t look right. I couldn’t capture the feeling, the vibe of the place. Then I got the bus home as it started to get dark.
The next day at school all I could think about was that place, that little bit of forest in the middle of a city. I was going through all the details in my mind, flashes of colour bursting through the woozy dark brown. The shine of a crisp packet swimming-pool-water blue. A weed with flowers like excited purple sprinkles on fronds of green icing. The light pronging through the leaves making small patches of dirt suddenly seem like the main characters, the stars of the show.
At the end of the day my feet led me to the bus stop, the bus, and through the hole in the fence. Everything looked the same at first. I could see the scuff marks from my shoes yesterday. But as I made to sit down I saw it. Spotlighted by golden light, a lime green silky, unblemished shoot. It looked so perfect like it couldn’t even be real. Surely, it was a photo, or one of those fake plastic plants. I reached out to touch it, soft and thin like paper, but also tough, the single leaf sprung back under my finger. I was amazed I hadn’t trodden on it the day before, or maybe it had sprung up overnight! In a burst of action I swept away the dry leaves around my plant and arranged some twigs carefully in a square around it. It looked like a tiny garden with the shoot a tall tree in the middle of it. I smiled, my secret garden.