The writer utilises language to depict the garden as a threatening and disquieting place, which serves to overawe and daunt Rosie. It is introduced as an ‘unfamiliar garden’; this suggests that the garden may be intimidating and frightening to Rosie, especially in her concern for her children. It also hints at the alien nature of the garden, suggesting it has been supernaturally influenced. It is then described using imagery of an ‘overgrown mess’, which suggests that it has been abandoned for a long time and has lacked human intervention. This implies that the garden has been under the control of nature and is unchartered territory for humans in recent times, which adds to its daunting and mysterious atmosphere. The adjective ‘ancient’ creates connotations of death. This portrays the garden as foreboding and suggests that it is presented as a danger to Rosie and her children. The fact that the mulberry tree ‘stood at [the garden’s] centre’ contrasts with the ‘muddle of trees and shrubs’, and suggests that the garden is coordinated and overlooked by the central mulberry tree, presenting it as an otherworldly force. The garden is personified using its metaphorical ‘knuckles’; this alludes to the fact that nature lives its own life and has flourished without human influence. The ‘knuckles’ also connote violence and aggression, symbolising the dread that the garden foreshadows.