QUESTION By Artist Nancy Forrester?  WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A GOOD MEMORY?   As an Artist, "I treasure memories of Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden.  I curated the site to promote experiences and preserve them, human and non-human".   I hope you find my remembrances of the "happenings" which took place in my Key West visionary environment as spiritually, morally and educationally important and uplifting for the island's history and the world as I do.  A Blog will soon to be added for your participation and cocreation. 
ENTRANCE TO NANCY FORRESTER'S SECRET GARDEN at the end of Free School Lane
THE GATE, CIRCA 1975
This Beautiful Wooden Gate was built to last by friend, self-taught designer and builder Paul Mikolay
​photo by Cynthia Brown
​Just inside the gate the magic/art begins.
The First of Twelve Environmental Stations.
Just inside is an unmanned round table with several chairs.  An umbrella protects the table and chairs.  A small very pretty hand painted wooden box with a floral design sits on the table. The box has a hinged top lid with a hasp for lock.  It is not locked and open to receive money.  A sign on the table says,
​"The fee is what it is" $6.00 per human! Put money in the box.
THE CANOPY
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 ​Melicoccus bijugatus, Spanish Lime Tree    photo by Nancy Forrester
In 1969 the CANOPY OR UPPER STORY in Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden consisted of five mammoth centurion fruit trees, three Sapodilla trees and two Spanish Lime trees plus four old Alvacado trees, one King Jamaican coconut tree, one Almond tree and a stand of Canistel/egg fruit trees, a stand of Pandanus and one small Sugar Apple.   The large fruit trees shaded nearly the entire space.
These centurion trees were planted by the early seafaring visitor's & settlers of the island.   The plants were not labelled with their scientific or common names on purpose.  Visitors were encouraged to use their senses. To take time to sit or stand beneath these huge Centurion trees in order to feel their powerful life force, their coolness and the moisture they regulated,  to ponder their value, to touch, smell and hear them and see their colors, patterns, caste shadows and other myriad details.   As you look at this photograph of one of the trees it is still possible to feel this massive tree's majestic power and imagine its mysteries and the animals that depended on it.
"Hidden at the end of Free School Lane is a place where the trees teach love" this is a quote by author Carol Barre who made artful postcards with this inspiring thought about NFSG.  Carol attended "Writing in the Garden" taught every year in March by Poet Kathryn Howd-Machon, Professor of Creative Writing at Ithaca College.
 Photo of the lush understory at Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden by Michael Ray for the Trust for Public Land
"Nancy's Garden is a giant lung it provides fresh air for all of Key West." 
Quote by Jesper Roos, age 9  
 Jesper understood, He got it!  At the age of 9, he felt the importance of the green biomass and the old trees in the garden. He was very motivated to help and became the gardens first volunteer.  He helped tend our small nursery of rare potted plants. He tenderly cared for rare exotic plants, their propagation, watering, fertilizing, up potting, labeling and learned common and scientific names.   When his mother visited many years later she said that Jesper became a Dr. of medicine.
"Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden"  "Key West's Rainforest"
SITE SPECIFIC ART by Nancy Forrester 1993 - 2012
The Garden is gone but its memories and intrinsic values live on now by way of this digital experience.  I want you to feel the love I had for this land, its topography, its plants, animals, and the experiences that happened here.  
Secret Garden Rainforest Understory
Here is a list of Humans who took part in noteworthy interactions at the garden. Alexander Elliott Wright, Judith Podell and Larr y Spetch, Magella and Jerry Kennedy from Ireland, Jackson Maddock, Irving Poveroski, John Rankine, Stef Laing, Alex Simonton, Bruce Tolman, David Schottler, Edna Steinbach, an Artist who restored the stain glass at Methodist Church on Eaton Street, Magic Ray, John Bowie, Public School Kids, Catholic School kids,  female politicians, Sheila Body, Edna Steinbach, Tara Chandra, and artists Karen Strobehn and Bill Luchsinger, Joe Frankie, Charles Kuralt, Dennis Reeves Cooper, and Chris Arnold.  Key West citizen. The guide books. TV shows and magazines. Volunteers. VIP visitors,  artists Jennifer Straton and Steve Lohman 
Alan Lacy, wrote Common Ground, his book of essays, Home Ground, charted a new direction in garden writing.  Previous to Lacy, American garden writing had limited itself largely to the how-to.  Lacy set out to examine the where, the why and, especially, the who.  Although he was a passionate plantsman, Lacy understood that gardens are largely about context, that an array of plants is interesting not just in itself but equally for what it says about the dreams and attitudes of the person who nurtures it, and for how it expresses the latent potential of the place.
Nancy's Garden is "An Oasis of Sanity"
​A quote by Steven Stevens a reporter with the Columbus Dispatch
Phalaenopsis or moth orchid is an ​​understory detail         photo by Nancy Forrester   ​
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"Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden is a precious jewel in the crown of the Keys. a tranquil tropical oasis of shade, green, cool. A postage stamp rainforest that offers respite from noise, heat and the business of day-to-day existence. This garden is more than just a collection of trees. plants and parrots. It is the primal heartbeat of Key West."  Quote by Alan Kelly-Hamm co-founder of Key West Literary Seminar
Snake friend on a Caryota palm leaf                                                                                     photo by Nancy
Understory, orchid, bamboo, bromeliads, air plants, palms and aroids. 
"Jurassic Park sans Dinosaurs," said Marc Caputo
The dense middle story foliage of endangered cycads, aroids and ferns engendered this highly prized quote by Marc Caputo a journalist and political reporter based in Miami, Florida for Politico.                                photograph by Nancy Forrester
photo by Professional Photographer/ teacher Irving Pobboravsky
​Known to the older generation of contemporary Daguerreotypists as the “Prince of polish” Irving has made an art of the science as well as a science of the art. His recent still-life's make up our latest artist gallery.  Daguerreotypes – Irving Pobboravsky   ​Daguerreotypes – Irving Pobboravsky | Contemporary Daguerreotypes (cdags.org)
We were gifted with photos of palm trees and textures by Irving Pobboravsky retired teacher with the Rhode Island School of Design.  They were put online by David Schottler (internet guru) who volunteered to create our first web site.  Irving's online photos of palm details were used by students of all ages who were studying horticulture all across the country. My friend Irving rented the cottage at the Secret Garden multiple winters and took beautiful pictures of the Garden and its inhabitants. Notably the texture of palm trees.
A&A Portrait - Irving Pobboravsky - YouTube
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1996, An Avid Birder upon request is given a key and permission to visit the garden in the early AM to bird watch and count the different species. Here is his list of the birds seen or heard, the dates seen, their sex and and in some cases song recognition

3/1/ 1996 American red start Palm warbler Black throated blue warbler grey cat bird
4/12/1996 List of Bird Species seen in NFSG.  
4/9/1996 
White crowned Pidgeon, White-eyed vireo, Black-throated Bue Warbler (song) male, Palm Warbler (song), North Parula Warbler (song) male and female, Cape May Warbler (song) male and female, American Red Start Female, Ovenbird, Grey Catbird
4-12-1996
Cape May Warbler (male)4/6, 4/10, 4/12, Palm Warbler, 4/8, 4/12, Northern Parula (female) 4/12, American Red Start (male), 4/8, 4/10, 4/12, Northern Waterthrush, 4/12, Black whiskered Vireo (male) 4/8, 4/10, 4/12, Summer Tanager (male) 4/12, Grey Catbird, 4/6, 4/10, 4/12, White Crowned Pigeon 4/8, 4/10, 4/12, Common Grackle, 4/12, Collard Dove, Eurasian Collard Dove, 4/10, 4/12. 
Red-bellied woodpecker 4/10, Great-crested Flycatcher 4/10, Ruby throated Hummingbird 4/8, White-eyed Vireo, 4/8, Blue-winged Warbler, 4/8, Hooded Warbler 4/10
May
Common Yellow throat 5/13 Scarlet Tanager 5/1, Rose-breasted grossbeak 5/2, Indigo Bunting 5/2, 5/6, 5/8, 5/10
Baltimore Oriole, 5/1, White crowned Pidgeon 5/8, 5/13, Mockingbird 5/13, Black whiskered Vireo 5/6, 5/8, 5/105/13, 5/17, Common grackle 5/10, 5/17, Osprey 5/6, Bald Eagle adult 5/6, Eurasian Collard Dove 5/6, Hummingbird sp. 5/6, 5/8, 
Great-crested flycatcher, 5/8, Cape May Warbler, 5/8, Black-throated blue Warbler 5/8, Boy-breasted warbler, 5/8, Blackpoll warbler, 5/6, 5/8, American Redstart 5/6, 5/8, 5/10, Mourning Dove, 5/10, 
4-12-1996
White crowned pigeon 4 8 & 10 and 12
Eurasian collard dove 4 10 and 12Red bellied woodpecker 4 19
Great crested fjy catcher 4 10
Ruby throated hummingbird 4-8
Grey cat bird 4- 8, 10 12
White eyed vireo 4-8
Black whiskered vireo 4 8, 10, 12
Blue winged warbler 4-8
Northern Parula warbler 4-12
Cape may warbler 4-8 10 12
Palm warbler 3-8 12
American redstart 4-8 10 12
hooded warbler 8-10
summer tanager 4-12
Common grackle 4-12

A defoliated Secret Garden after a Hurricane  photograph by Artist Joe A. Frankie
Poet, Feminist and Belly Dancer, Kathryn Howd Machon, Professor of Creative Writing at Ithica College lived in our cottage and taught creative writing in Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden in March for 18 years during spring break.
PHOTO STROHLUCH PRODUCTIONS photo of cottage (artist residence) by artist Karen Strobeen
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Charles Kuralt's America, February Section 
Secret Garden Midstory photograph by artist Taracandra Bolt
One of Nancy's favorite plants the odd and unusual, Amorphophallus Paeonifolius,  
The Elephant Yam blooming in Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden      photo by Nancy Forrester
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Heliconia Caribe Red ​ photograph by Nancy Forrester
Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) photograph by Nancy Forrester​
Cuban Tree Frog  photo by Nancy Forrester
Free School Lane Entrance and Exit to Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden    photograph by Nancy Forrester
"NANCY FORRESTER'S SECRET GARDEN"  "A VISIONARY ENVIRONMENT" written by me in 1993
My wish is for humanity is to restore balance to the natural world.  I want others to learn from nature and to open their hearts and feel the love I have for all life forms.  I work passionately to save the last undeveloped wooded acre of open land in the heart of  "old town" Key West, to help life on Earth and to provide environmental education and storytelling to the public. Each of us can bring innovative action to our lifestyle to be harmonious with nature.
Wilomenia Havery made me an honorary conch in
7-29-2008  I RECIEVED AN AWARD FROM THE CITY OF KEY WEST FOR MY WORK
Carl Schutze   Commissioner Bill Verge   Nancy Forrester   Mayor Morgan McPherson   Peter Whelan   Sharon Wells 
Photograph taken at Key West City Hall by artist Candice Whitaker for Tony Gregory/Photographer/Artist
WHEREAS Nancy Forrester created a rainforest in the heart of historic old town Key West, a garden which holds an exotic plant and rare palm collection found nowhere else in the mainland of the United States;

WHEREAS this rainforest and work of art is now the last wooded acre in old town Key West, a residential neighborhood that is otherwise fully developed to high-density;

WHEREAS Nancy opened her Garden to the public on December 25, 1993, and kept it open for the benefit of Key West residents and visitors seven days a week, including holidays, for 15 years;

WHEREAS Nancy Forrester, as the founder of the nonprofit organization Mana Project, Inc., has donated and given her own resources and property to offer the public an oasis of calm where they can discover and connect with nature, appreciate the artistry of the earth, and help preserve those plants, both native and non-native, which are rare and endangered;

WHEREAS Nancy has dedicated  her garden and home to the welfare of animals by providing parrot rescue, re-homing and care in the garden sanctuary for those birds that are exploited or rejected, and has also established a public education program to address parrot intelligence, social and dietary needs, and the problem of unwanted parrots;

WHEREAS Artist Nancy Forrester has made a creative contribution to ecological art, which has presented an
experience for public interpretation, invited interaction,  posed the topic of interdependence of living organisms and environmental activism daily for 10 years and journaled these happenings for future publication;

WHEREAS Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden has become a botanical collection of high renown, and is now a world destination for international travelers as well as United States tourists;

WHEREAS, Nancy Forrester, a lifelong steward of green practices, will celebrate her 70th birthday on July 29, 2008;
​
THEREFORE, be it proclaimed that the City of Key West will declare July 29, 2008 to be Nancy Forrester Day so that the citizens and visitors of Key West can celebrate her birthday and acknowledge the 40 year contribution that Nancy has made to the community.
Volunteer Jesper Roos at age 9 put it succinctly “Nancy’s Garden is a giant lung - it provides fresh air for 
all of Key West ”.Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden,