Grimm's Gardens

About Grimm's Gardens

In warmer months the beds along Grimm's Gardens carry peonies and daylilies in long tended rows; in January those same rows lie under a plain white cover, waiting out the cold with the rest of Hiawatha. The crew that tends the soil in June is the one clearing the walk in December, moving down the same paths in reverse — snow shovel instead of hoe, salt bucket instead of watering can. Driveways and front walks across town get the same patient attention the flower beds get all summer: cleared to the pavement, edges squared off, nothing left to refreeze overnight. There is a rhythm to working one place in every kind of weather, knowing which gate sticks and which downspout ices first. By dawn the walks are bare again, gravel dark against the drifts along Brown County's glacial hills.