Winterthur Garden

The children's garden at Winterthur is at the top of my list of places to go. The Tulip Tree House is like nothing I've seen before, and the Faerie Cottage looks like it came straight out of a storybook. According to the tale of the Enchanted Woods, the land has been "taken over by the woodland fairies who live here and is transformed into a place of enchantment, mystery, and discovery."

Here are two fun quotes from the Winterthur site:

Tulip Tree House
Climb over the Fallen Oak to reach the Tulip Tree House. The fairies have an elf friend names Quercus who is the guardian of the trees in Enchanted WoodsTM. Quercus lives high in the branches of an oak. He made the Tulip Tree House for you out of a giant tulip-poplar that lived for more than 100 years before it died of old age. If you carefully open the creaking door and go in, you'll be inside a tree. It's dark in there. Feel the walls with your hands. Is it smooth or rough, hard or soft? What do you hear? Peek behind the tree to spy the Pixie Fire Pit.

Faerie Cottage
When spelled this way, from Old French, the word faerie includes all the woodland spirits--fairies, pixies, elves, brownies, sprites, sylphs, and gnomes. Together, they all discovered a crumbling stone building with one wall falling down. They worked to repair it and make a playhouse for you. Look around. What do you think of the fairy way of building?

More images of the enchanted Woods can be found at flickr.