garden images, 1998 – present     |     jmcvey.net

 
Here are gathered — in a kind of mosaic — thumbnails to images of the garden at 47 Vassal Lane (and its Walden St side), and some of the back yard (from earlier years). Click on dates at right (yyyymmdd format) to go to source of the images — which may be tumblr (loosely classified!), flicker (emphasized, because a good overview; opens to the “orts” album), instagram (problematic in so many ways) or various obscure backwaters in my own website.

The arrangement is sortable by date. The array provides ten slots per date/line (ten being the maximum number of images allowed in a “carousel” instagram post).

This tentative project is undertaken (1) for the convenience of its maker, and (2) to more conveniently reference the evolution of the street-facing garden, that has been inducted into the Secret Gardens of Cambridge event, 9 June 2024).
description for that is at bottom (footnote) of this page.

footnote
 

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	click on date for link to source; description
										20240227 (IG) spring day in February, got some dirt and stonework done; looking-close work, too and chats with passing neighbors
										20231112 (IG)
										20231006 (IG) holes, &c. pesticles, asagao, fungus on retired cherry tree
										20230630 (IG) yucca; seasonal labor at work (6:30am)
										20230622 (IG)
										20230617 (IG)
										20230613 (IG) no. 3, Amsonia (“bluestars” ?)
										20220706 (IG)
										20220604 (IG) columbine, bearded iris, red iron rail
										20220515 (IG)
										20210909 (IG) drill bit (donated); rust; wire; rugosa rail; cherry trunk fungus; hibiscus
										20210821 (IG) peaches (prior to overnight vanishment)
										20210328 (IG)
										20210208 (IG) wire, pipe, snow
										20210126 (IG) metals, plastics
										20201019 (IG) automne rustique iron reflect, radiator rust
										20200830 (IG) potato crop
										20200816 (IG) (twisty) yew
										20200802 (IG)
										20200724 (IG) caterpillar (black swallowtail ?), in the dill
										20200710 (IG) twine, ties (balcony tomatoes)
										20200701 (IG)
										20200607 (IG)
										20200605 (IG) Papaver orientale (spent), against the sky
										20200529 (IG)
										20200527 (IG)
										20200522 (IG)
										20200419 (IG)
										20191013 (IG)
										20190817 (IG)
										20190731 (IG) (one more, same day), the difficult between zone
										20190731 (IG) peonies, bellflower, &c.; stepped (south)west (desert) terrain
										20190614 (IG) cwazy wabbit like lupine. click on each thumbnail for its respective IG post
										20190609 click on each thumbnail for its respective IG post
										20170704 counterclockwise
										20140504 composite view, during street construction
										20130817, 20130820 Andras Korondi, “Oppugnatus per naturam...” click on each image to load their respective pages
										20160610 Green Dragon, Arisaema dracontium; identification; Garden in the Woods survivor
										20130706, 20130811 click on each image to load their respective pages
										20070621 Walden, and balcony views (including rear “patio” platform)
										20030711 backyard construction, early green; classical and fernery approaches; bicycles; orange bench; one fake owl
										20030616 backyard construction, pre-green; 16×16 inch patio pavers (most scavenged, some new), level on sand
										200305-06 backyard construction, early stage dirtwork
										200007 glimpses of silver 1986 Volvo 240; orange bench; oak and maple trees long since removed
										199906-07-10
										199905
										199903 late winter blue
										199807

 
original files for all of the “IG” images are available (and awaiting archiving within this website; it may be a long wait, however).
this directory is under active renovation.

preparing this directory is a form or extension of gardening (ortwork, I call it) — repetitive, cumulative.

description (whittled down to 249 words)

Nothing secret about this garden, exposed to its Vassal and Walden sides —
      a paragraph composed of commas and semicolons, clauses and periods. The stump of a cherry tree, retained for its verticality and the “bracket” fungi it hosts. Compost bin. Iron valve-box risers, bearing bouquets of ivy, sedum, other variables. Sections of trolley track (one blue, one red, buried once under Huron Ave), and other locally sourced scrap iron. Where soil and/or light is poor, there’s an emphasis on objects, potted things that can be moved around; display of clay potshards and other detritus (some from the not-infrequent collisions at our intersection). Paving stones create sinuity and form (when most else gone in winter), buttress soil. Sedums inhabit terraced concrete blocks. Birds frequent their birdbath, fresh water supplied as needed.
      Current plantings include Butterbur and Japanese ginger (both cookable), Japanese basil, garlic chives, dill and fennel. Roses (rugosa and better others). Campanula, ferns, hostas. Hibiscus (including Rose of Sharon), yucca, baby’s breath beside it. A struggling volunteer pear tree; and peach whose fruit is often plundered. A yew dominates its corner, a difficult neighbor. In June comes Green Dragon, the lone survivor from our naïve ideologizing for New England natives. Potatoes sometimes, Columbine too. Where the light is best, hibiscus, dahlia, Amsonia, murasaki, Missouri primrose, Russian sage. Lavender, penstemon, oriental poppies.
      Bulbs here and there provide an all-you-can-eat buffet for rabbits and squirrels, and sometimes color.
      Missing here are 30+ years of making, plants come and gone, forgotten. Conversations.

1 March 2024
 

3 March 2023