From the vault: Leaving your garden to strangers

Despite our neglect, or maybe thanks to it, the garden astonished us with a candy-cane colored display in the spring. Azaleas in pink, red, and white lined the foundation. The dogwoods scattered white and pink petals across the weedy lawn. The phlox—in parallel lines of alternating pink and white—invited passersby up the front steps. It was an amateur’s garden in the Latin sense of the word: loved, a garden someone had cherished for many years before it was relinquished—reluctantly, perhaps—to new ownership.… Read More