The Duke of Knollwood.

My mother is engaged in a rather large project that will always be classified as a work-in-progress, her backyard garden. It has been evolving over the last ten years or so.

It all started when she and her husband decided to construct a substancial slate wall, which creates a division between the upper and lower areas of the yard. They built steps into the middle section of the wall so one can easily pop down to the lower section to visit with the coy fish in the pond that now exists. I remember the morning the pieces of slate were delivered to my mom’s house. I wasn’t given any warning that a truck was coming to dump tons (literally) of building material into a pile. The earth shook! I remember crawling out of bed and looking out the window of the upstairs bathroom to see the pile. The truck was gone almost immediately. I’m sure I placed a call to my mom posthaste.

Since then, many flowers have been planted and shrubs repositioned to cover up the ugly fence that lines the perimeter of the yard. When I was down in MA over the weekend, my mom and I sat and had a cup of coffee next to the pond and looked around. Every year the garden is fuller, the clematis climbs a little higher and things look as if they’ve always been that way. The signs that this garden was built over time are becoming harder to spot and the plants and wildlife are establishing themselves (enter, "Duke of Knollwood").

Many creatures are happy to call my mom’s backyard their home-frogs are at the top of the list of occupants. Occasionally, we’ll hear a splash and see one of these guys swimming away from us. Over the weekend, I was checking things out in the pond when I realized that hundreds of tadpoles were looking back at me. I summoned my mother over to take a look. “Oh my god! Look at all of them.”  I don’t know where they came from or why they haven’t been a problem in the past but, they are here now. I’m not sure how this story will end but, I’ll be standing by for an update from my mom. In the meantime, we think this guy is the culprit.

“The Duke of Knollwood”