If you would have a lovely garden,
you should live a lovely life.
–  Shaker saying

When I first saw the Urban Cabin the garden looked like this:

A few years later, and a couple things planted here and there, and the garden looked like this:

Then we remodeled, tore off the back of our house,  moved the sewer line and dug up most of the yard, and put many of the plants in temporary beds. The garden looked like this:

Then, slowly, we started to re-imagine and rebuild, and put in 9 cubic yards of new soil and planter beds in the garden. It looked like this:

Eventually we also added a brick patio, wood chips and more plants…but then we had to take down our two 60-foot Poplar trees, grind out the stumps and roots and removed all the plants beneath them. And it looked like this:

Today, I spent most of the day in our garden. There are new trees, plants, fruit, herbs and flowers, growing everywhere. Rebirth! Our little 18 by 40 foot slice of paradise in the middle of the city. Now our garden at the Urban Cabin looks like this:

And in the front of our home, the parking strip looks like this:

Our garden, like many things in our lives, has been a long labor of love. There is a sign inside our house, given to us by a close friend: Love grows in small houses. And indeed it does. Both inside and out.

Take the road less traveled, Beth