The Secret Garden- A Special Place for Children

In one of his garden projects,  Joe is designing a grassy circle of small trees, surrounded by hydrangea, rhododendron, and native grasses, at the top of the hill as a location especially for children, so they may take "hikes" and sit on blankets in the side yard and look at the big view across the river and through the trees.

Tired of weeding? Look up.

The Palisades are a terrific respite from hours of weeding and raking,  my knees stuck in the dirt, arms and legs weary from tugging and pulling on horrible, creepy, invasive vines.  It pays every once in awhile to stop looking down at the weeds and to look up and catch the larger view.   This view reaches past all the noisy leaf blowers, dismisses the roars of lawn mowers and shifts one's thoughts beyond ones aching muscles.  When I stand up from weeding, I see the Palisades of New Jersey across the Hudson River. What a mood they provide each day. 

Mint Tea Anyone?

Pinch a couple of mint leaves out in the yard, drop them in steaming water and have a cup of mint tea.  Delicious!  It is late November and they are still fresh and green.

A New Approach to Getting There

Falling, tumbling, rolling down the hill, limping upon our return. We finally gave in and repaired the steps. Now the entire backyard is available to us for planting. We have a completely new medium for our work. Water trickles through the granite rocks leaving small streams to be a constant source of water for certain portions of the yard. Shade mixes with bright sun. It is a bit like going into the Grand Canyon, because the noises of the street and yard disappear as we step lower into the backyard. You can see what our steps used to look like in the 2009 part of this blog.

A woman visited us last year and told us that she lived in our house 35 years ago.  She said her parents built  the original steps so that she could quickly visit her best friend and neighbor who lived in the house below.  Now that the steps are finally repaired, I envision a new group of children using them them for adventures exploring the backyard.  Hopefully this includes our grandchildren.

Gardening steep slopes - Not for the faint at heart

Try mowing this yard!  We are working to naturalize this back yard.  We have removed all the invasive Norway Maples and are now replacing them with native plants.   Step by step, so they say.

Art Mimics Nature

Gabriel's painting of our bird bath out front

  Photo of the front garden taken this morning.

Above is a painting of the front garden that our son Gabriel did when he was in high school and below it is a photo of the same place, today.  This part of the garden is a haven for birds.

Cloudy with Possible Rain, but Hopeful

Wish me luck tomorrow.