First a word of explanation about the name Ozgard. Oz is the name of the magical city in the film The Wizard of Oz, and “-gard” (a Norse word cognate with garden) is taken from the name Asgard, home of the Gods and one of the nine worlds of the Ygdrassil, the world tree of Nordic mythology.

The garden of our house in Bremen, as re-modelled in 2008. The sundial, which we had made as a wedding present by a local stonemason, has symbolic reliefs on the four sides corresponding to the four seasons and the four points of the compass: a tree for north/earth, a feather for air/east, flames for south/fire and waves for water/west. The obelisk, traditionally representing a solidified ray of sunlight, is appropriately placed in the south and also represents the clear, disciplined, structured style of the Graeco-Roman world. The northern part of the garden is intended to be more redolent of Nordic and Druidic mysteries, exemplified by the Green Man sculpture shown on the masthead and below. The Green Man, the obelisk and other symbolic sculptures have been brought to Bremen from Rühstädt. The east and west sides will also be given appropriate motifs. Plants from the garden in its earlier form have been reintegrated in to the new scheme, and more plants will be added.

Above: the sculptures in their old home in the garden at Rühstädt. Right: a stork nesting at Rühstädt. The stork (adebar in Old Norse) is a sacred bird in the Nordic mythology.

The aims of the Ozgard project are to encourage an appreciation of the sacred in nature and to promote the study and practice of sacred gardening through lectures, workshops and meetings and through the Ozgard Network (see below)