Books & Blooms 2017

Joanne Wojtusiak

Below road grade and bordered by Furnace Brook, Route 4 and a town road, my small garden is a surprise to most who have been driving past it forever.  Despite its size, there is a forest-like niche where early season wildflowers hold sway, an outcropping of rock that reminds one of the true terrain of the town and an almost bowl-like hillside that is planted with shades of green and variegated foliage that provides a backdrop for perennials and annuals chosen for the bounty of butterflies, bees and birds they beckon in.  And Furnace Brook, with its stone-faced fish-way, provides audible inspiration throughout the garden.  Stone benches, mushroom shaped stools and stone steps to access the brook (by Justin Money) combine with an iron abstract design fence and ball-topped stakes (by Israel Fitch) that provide both architecture and visual interest.