New Jersey’s Hereford Inlet Lighthouse Garden in June

Garden Song

  Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.

All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.
Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.
Someone warm them from below, 'til the rain comes tumbling down.

Pulling weeds and picking stones, man is made of dreams and bones.
Feel the need to grow my own 'cause the time is close at hand.
Grain for grain, sun and rain, find my way in nature's chain,
to my body and my brain to the music from the land.

Plant your rows straight and long, thicker than with prayer and song.
Mother Earth will make you strong if you give her love and care.
Old crow watching hungrily, from his perch in yonder tree.
In my garden I'm as free as that feathered thief up there.

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.
All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.
Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.
Someone warm them from below, 'til the rain comes tumbling down. 

John Denver

This Victorian cottage garden delights visitors daily at New Jersey’s Hereford Inlet Lighthouse. At the southeast corner of the Jersey shore, in the picturesque community of North Wildwood, NJ

 The lighthouse grounds display the gardening genius of designer and caretaker Steve Murray. Steve designed the lighthouse gardens in 1986 and now spends volunteer hours tending his creation. The plot’s care precludes chemicals. “The caterpillar munching on parsley in June may be the black swallowtail we look forward to seeing later,” he says.

Today, the not-quite-1-acre lot features “little garden rooms separated by plants, shrubs, and trees, where people can stroll around and turn a corner to discover what comes next,” Steve says.   Hedges fence in the fragrant herb garden, which brims with lavender, rosemary, scented geraniums, and pineapple sage. Japanese black pines stand guard with indigenous shrubs such as bayberry, beach plus, and viburnum. 

garden nymph