The lighthouse gardens are cottage style.

Remember the secret clubhouse you had in the yard as a kid? Or hiding above your parents heads in the branches of a giant oak tree?
That’s the quiet thrill you get when you enter the not-so-secret garden of the Hereford Lighthouse, in North Wildwood.
There, anytime of day, the beach traffic and the call of the Fudgy-Wudgy man melt away in the distance, and you are left to contemplate the patchwork of flowers, the songs of the birds and the almost solitary shuffle of your feet along the wooded pathways.

The lighthouse gardens are "cottage" style, that is, that the hollyhocks and snapdragons that vie for attention might seem as wild and uncontrollable as the ocean waves, but, in fact, North Wildwood Public Works Superintendent and seashore gardener, Steve Murray has left no detail in the award winning garden to chance. Each piece of the elaborate puzzle has its distinct place.

The garden is meant to mimic the rustic look of the peasant gardens of early England, and planted thickly along the arbors and fences, are many varieties of thickly planted vegetation in all sizes shapes and colors. In fact, in well under an acre, Murray has planted over 200 different plant varieties.

He has battled salty breezes and sandy soil and coaxed the rough landscape into a nature lover’s paradise that’s become home to birds and butterflies and a few lucky squirrels.
Birdbaths, well-worn urns and stone statues placed artistically around the property make it easy to imagine you have entered another place and time.

And occasionally when you happen upon other visitors on the sun-dappled lawns or by the shade of a holly tree, you become quiet conspirators, wondering in hushed tones how such a peaceful spot is hidden here in plain site.
The garden is easily within reach—just behind the lighthouse at 1st and Central avenues.

It can also be reached by a pathway off the North Wildwood seawall. Touring the garden is free, but there is a charge to visit the historic lighthouse, which played an important role in North Wildwood’s maritime past.
Murray has chronicled some of what he has learned over thirty years of seashore gardening in his “Guide to the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse gardens: With tips and observations for the seashore gardener.”

The book is available at the Lighthouse Museum gift shop. For more information, call 609-522-4520 or visit herefordlighthouse.org.