In 2015 my husband and I decided that it was time to move to The City – Greenfield. We rather quickly chose the small house under a Sycamore and a Lilac tree. Yes! There really are lovely  lilac trees.  Even so, we had to begin to work on our lawns – front and back – and although I enjoyed of thinking of Gardens we had to go to work building a Garden.  You can see we planted a very few small bushes and such – and  that was all very early. Actually, we learned that  the neighbors eventually told us that kids used to skate here in the winter, using the flooded backyard. With good clear eyes you can see floods above.

This is a picture of how the house and gardens look now, six years later.

Now, in 2023 you can see the gardens better, although I cannot give you ALL the trees, shrubs, and flowers, some of which are quite large. Do you see the stunning red Cardinal flowers? They first bloomed on this bed, but they have jumped to  the other side of the Garden as well.

This morning when I bought the NY Times Sunday paper I read that “Tiny Forests Take Hold, Giving Neglected Lots – The Benefits of Nature. ”   They gave an example of the Griffith Park forest occupies 1,000 square feet, drawing all manner of insects, birds, squirrels. They explained how rapidly dense planting can increase. It is an excellent article and I felt right in the groove.  I hope you will enjoy other tasks I enjoyed since 2015.

I am giving a few more examples of change.

Obviously, this was a VERY early job. We used a LOT of really good soil from Martin’s Farm and it did a great job.

Things are looking very good!

OH, no. Another flood!  And yet with more of Martin’s Farm soil, which we spread every year, and not only in the Big Garden, we also spread soil in the front of the house, even on the Hellstrip. We are lucky to have a really good operation.