Greener Gardens

About Greener Gardens

Early morning in Dunkirk smells like water — the breeze coming off Chadwick Bay before the day heats up, dew still sitting on everything. Greener Gardens starts there, in the small deep backyards behind the older houses, where a lawn shares its room with a garden bed, a clothesline and a maple that has been there longer than the fence. Mowing and trimming come first, then the finer work: edging the beds, mulching, pulling weeds by hand where a machine would do damage, keeping the turf thick right up to the border. Spring and fall cleanups bracket the season, and the leaves go out before November has its say. It is unhurried work, and by midday the yard smells like cut grass and looks like somebody loves it.