Bussey Woods Murders c.1865

With the proliferation of weapons in crowded American neighborhoods in our time, murders-even of innocent children-seem part of news reports all too often. Has our area ever seen anything so gruesome in the past? Since this column is a mirror of things past, violent crimes must be included in its impartial light.

Even without combing police reports, one double murder in Jamaica Plain during its seemingly bucolic days stands out chillingly. In the words of the 1865-66 West Roxbury Town Report, “The murders in the town in the month of June, which so shocked the community, have given us an unenviable notoriety.” The killings took place in what is now the Arboretum.

For those who despair about current news reports, the words of a local resident speaking in 1878 of the murders set a continuity, “Of the many dark deeds of blood which have disgraced this age few have been fraught with more harrowing details than the one enacted right here.”

Isabella and John Joyce were the children of a Lynn dressmaker recently widowed. On Monday, June 12, 1865, they left their aunt’s home in the South End with a picnic basket and carfare for a day in the famed Jamaica Plain countryside.

They called on their grandmother at Newland and West Concord Streets and, at 11 a.m., left her house (still standing in the South End) never to be seen again alive. Their announced destination was May’s Woods along the present Arborway. Night came, and the unescorted picnickers (an action not then considered dangerous) did not return. A vigorous search was immediately made but was fruitless due to all the June greenery. It was not until the next Sunday that the children were found accidentally by some hikers in the Bussey Woods.

A view of Bussey Brook in the Arnold Arboretum, taken in 1949 by Professor Karl Sax, who was the Arboretum’s Director at the time. Photograph from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. Used with permission from the website of the Institute for Cultural Landscape Studies of the Arnold Arboretum
©The President and Fellows of Harvard College.

The Bussey Woods were part of an old 400-acre farm on both sides of Bussey Street, given by Benjamin Bussey to Harvard College for the horticultural institute. After several gyrations, 120 acres of the farm and woods would become the Arnold Arboretum with the Bussey Institute (now the State Lab) on one side. Somehow the children had arrived at the far end of the South Street side of the present Arboretum and had sought higher ground for a good view and their picnic. But this was before the grounds were planted and groomed by the Arboretum after 1882.

Isabella, age 15, was found in the hollow of a rock atop a hill. She had been stabbed 28 times, and (by contemporary account) “the murderer attempted a deed upon the body of the little girl” despite her efforts to fend him of. Her brother, age 8, was found later a quarter mile away by Bussey Brook in a condition that sickened Civil War veterans who viewed the body. It was surmised that just before noon he had left his sister, fallen, and finally been attacked by his sister’s murderer.

The children were brought back to Lynn for burial. Much sorrow and many efforts to find the criminal were generated by the shocking event-just two months after the assassination of President Lincoln. Rewards were offered by all authorities. Seven suspects were interrogated but released. The many visitors to the girl’s murder site raised a memorial cairn. In the process, any further clues were obliterated, with forensics still in its infancy. For the protection of all, a police beat was established in the Bussey Woods.

In March 1866 the Boston Weekly Voice reported a possible break in the case. A man of violent disposition had been arrested in August 1865 for burglary. While being held for trial in Fitchburg, he plotted to murder his guard and to escape with others. Known as Scratch Gravel, he stated that any man who had done “the Roxbury job” would not hesitate to kill again. His bravado about the children’s murder revolted another prisoner, who foiled the escape by telling authorities about Gravel’s entire conversation.

Upon his removal to State Prison for the burglary conviction, officials there attempted to get Gravel to speak directly-but in vain. He was transferred to a light work detail in hopes that he might talk with a trusted prisoner-again in vain. Finally a detective of supposed Southern sympathy was placed in Gravel’s cell in February 1866. Gravel liked his cellmate, and soon they were hatching a plan for escape. Gravel referred to “the Roxbury children” but never confessed to their murders.

The oddly named prisoner turned out to be an adopted lad, born in Boston, who went to sea at age 15. He had entered the Confederate Army after being pardoned from the South Carolina State Prison. Then he joined the Union Naval Forces, deserting one ship after another. A man like him was seen at Taft’s hotel in Roslindale less than a mile from Bussey Woods. The knife taken from him at Fitchburg could have wounded the Joyce children.

An aerial view of Bussey Woods in early days of the Arnold Arboretum.Used with permission from the American Environmental Photographs Collection, [AEP Image Number, e.g., AEP-MIN73], Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library.

Yet, the Boston police were not convinced by the prison warden’s reports that Gravel was their man. All his information could have come entirely from newspaper reports. If no stronger evidence came forth, Scratch Gravel (alias Charles Aaron Dodge) would be proved more of a braggart fool who embellished the basic information in the newspapers for his own reasons. Thus rested the matter of Jamaica Plain ‘s most heinous and unsolved murder until it took another bizarre turn.

The details of our area’s “terrible atrocity and barbarity,” fueled “a feeling of unprecedented horror” in the words of a book about the murders, published in Boston in 1878, some 13 years after the barbarity. “In a section as civilized, a community so guarded, a population so abundant, in the marginal outline of a great city” how could it have ever happen, asked the book.

The book’s author was Henry Johnson Brent (1811-80), who had founded and edited the New York City magazine, Knickerbocker, widely enjoyed from 1833 through the Civil War. In June 1865 he happened to be staying with friends within a few hundred yards of the murders. He wrote his book “Was It A Ghost” to focus attention again on the twin murders that had gone unsolved for more than a decade despite a vigilant police chief.

Brent himself had immediately become a suspect in the case because a boy told police that he had often seen a man of Brent’s description in the Bussey Woods with a knife and gun. Fortunately, Brent was also an artist, whose palette knife and gun practice was known in the neighborhood. He was also acquainted with the police force. For lack of any solid evidence, yet another suspect in the murders was free to go.

By the end of June 1865 the search for the murderer had worn itself out. A week or so later, in a bizarre personal twist, Brent saw a male apparition on the far side of his host’s property between Bussey and Motley Woods. This meeting, described in his book’s Chapter 10, will appear in the next column. Brent truly felt that the event was something beyond his ability to reconcile by the usual rules of explanation and that it deserved publication.

He had gone down to meet his host returning from Boston via Forest Hills, only to learn later that he had returned home via Centre Street at 10 p.m. Brent revisited the site of the apparition at 9 p.m., within half an hour of the event, but nothing more was seen nor found. Initially the apparition was definitely connected by Brent with his host, but during this second visit, which included a walk to the rock where Isabella Joyce had been murdered, Brent suddenly connected it with the murders.

He went with his story to a perplexed police chief, who urged him to publish it. The chief’s reaction was whether Brent recognized the male ghost. Was it a witness to the murders of the children’s recently deceased father?

Over time, Brent felt that he did know the face, as he was familiar with the police evidence. He never named a suspect but published his book.

He brought his book out so much later after the case had grown cold once he knew what clues the police had and after much thought. He hoped to stir up a renewed investigation and to goad the murderer, if still alive, into remorse and confession. The ghost story is the centerpiece of his book-rightly so, given the title. Yet “this book would never have been written if that misty figure had not confronted me on that night.”

Many Jamaica Plain residents must have had theories about the murders. Brent, believing the murderer still alive, did not state his complete details. The change from May’s Woods (as announced by the children) to the more secluded Bussey Woods prompted a suspicion that the children were accompanied by someone they knew. The streetcar fare was found near the girl; someone had paid their fare. There was little screaming, as men were mowing in the area and heard nothing.

In his latest chapter Brent notes the results of séances-so popular at the time-reported in the spiritualistic press. He notes a letter said to have been written by the murdered girl and another by her father. A communication from the boy also circulated. Though unacquainted with spiritualism, Brent felt in a sense of fair play that he had to include them with his ghostly account. He felt very bad that he had not been in the Bussey Woods at noontime of June 12, 1865, doing some target practice or painting.

Brent names his host only as Dan. Lot maps of the period show only two properties surrounded by the Motley-Bussey tracts: the Skinners and the Weatherbees by Centre and Walter Streets. Dan must have been a son in one of these families, which owned “a house that looked out on Centre Street with the rear giving view of a meadow watered by a tiny rivulet and on up to the Bussey Woods.”

Our author ends wondering about the ghost, “So strange an occurrence does not happen without an intention. What that intention was, I for one, if only one, shall patiently wait to see.” Two years later Henry J. Brent died in New York City with the murders yet unsolved. The writer in the Boston Sunday Times in November 1878 was incorrect in his reading of the book in his statement that Brent felt the children were murdered by something supernatural.

This brutal event, like so many others, has passed into legend. In April 1936 Boston Herald artist Jack Frost ran a sketch of 644 South Street in Roslindale. In his explanatory paragraph in his “Fancy This” column he states that a boarder at the house murdered two children in the nearby woods, then barricaded himself in his room and killed himself in remorse. So goes the last twist in Jamaica Plain’s most heinous crime.

Sources: H.J. Brent, “Was it a ghost;” Appleton’s Encyclopedia of National Biography; “Boston Herald,” April 2, 1936; “Boston Sunday Times,” Nov. 24, 1878, Boston Weekly Voice, March 15, 1856; Boston Sun Times, November 24, 1878; West Roxbury Town Report 1865-66, pg. 14.

By Walter H. Marx. Reprinted with permission from the November 5 and November 19, 1993 Jamaica Plain Gazette. Copyright © Gazette Publications, Inc.

Arboretum Ghost Story

The following event took place on a moonlit night at 8:30 p.m. some three weeks after the brutal murders of the Joyce children on June 12, 1865, in the Bussey Woods (now part of the Arnold Arboretum). It is described by JP visitor, H.J. Brent, in a book he wrote in 1878 entitled “Was It a Ghost?” in chapter 10, here abridged for the reader.

Upon a still and clear night I went out of the cottage, and, taking two dogs with me, strolled down through the stable yard and past the garden, until I came to the brow of the hill that formed the apex of my friend’s grasslands. The brow of the hill was flat all about me and at the base ran off into a meadow, the opposite side of which was overlooked by the Bussey Woods.

From where I stood, several pines rose out of the even surface of the forest, marking (as with an uplifted hand spread out) the place where the girl’s murder had been done. On my left was Motley’s Woods, drawing up with its intense shadows close to the dividing wall. From the wall to where I stood all was clear and distinct, save where the shadows fell over the ground.

The wall and the wood on my left ran down to that corner at Bussey Creek, which was only a short distance (about 50 feet) from the spot where the boy had fallen. Some 250 yards away and close to the corner just mentioned was a clump of trees, and then straight before me without an intervening object, the dark wood gloomed over the rock of the girl’s death. My purpose was simply to take the cooling air from the winnowing trees.

It was the habit of my host, who did business in Boston, of leaving the train at Forest Hills Station at 9 o ‘clock as a general thing and keeping to South Street until he got to the bottom of the hill near to where the brook crosses the road. He would then enter the lowlands at the outskirts of Bussey Woods and thence follow the path and up the hillside covered by Motley’s Woods, keeping close to the wall until he reached the point of the wall near which I was standing, pass over it and be home.

Knowing that my host was irregular as to his hours of return home at night, I was not surprised when I saw a figure lean over the wall for an instant within about 20 feet of me, pause a moment, and then cross over to the side on which I was. Seeing that he stopped, I spoke aloud these words, “Hello, Dan, is that you?”

Though I could discover the figure and recognize its movements, there was too great a shade thrown over the wall to enable me to distinguish a face so familiar to me. To my appeal there was no reply, and then in an instant the impression came upon me that if it really was my friend, he was testing my nerves. Up to this moment I never had a thought apart from him.

While I stood perfectly motionless, waiting for some recognition of my appeal, the figure advanced slowly in a direct line from the wall, leaving the shadow, and stopped before me and not 20 feet away from me. I saw at once that it was somebody I had never seen before. When in the light without even a weed to obstruct my vision, as soon as he stopped, I called, “Speak or I will fire!”

It was at this period that I observed especially the behavior of the dogs. Up to this time they had been quiet, lying on the grass, but now they both got up, and I felt on each side of me the pressure of their bodies. They were evidently frightened, and I saw that they were looking with every symptom of terror at the figure that stood so near us without a motion.

The figure never once turned its head directly toward me but seemed to fix its look eastward over where the pine-trees broke the clear horizon on the murder-hill. This inert pose was preserved but for a moment, for as quick as the flash of gunpowder it wheeled as upon a pivot and, making one movement as of a man commencing to step out toward the wall, was gone!

To my vision it never crossed the space between where it had stood and the outline of the shade thrown by the trees upon the ground. One step after turning was all I saw, and then it vanished. What I saw I relate exactly as it happened. Can I describe this figure you will ask?

It looked like painted air. There was no elaborate appearance, indeed I could not make out the fashion of the garment. I was more occupied in the effort to recognize a human being in the figure that was before me. He looked dark grey from head to foot. Body he had, legs, arms, and a head, but the face I could not distinctly see, as he turned it from me.

***

This story about murders and ghosts on and around the Bussey estate is the most interesting thing I’ve read about Jamaica Plain/Roslindale so far!

The Haven Burger had me at, “Hello.”

The dictionary describes haven as  –noun 1. a harbor or port. 2. any place of shelter and safety; refuge; asylum. I have been into Jason Waddleton’s restaurant at 2 Perkins Street in Jamaica Plain at least a dozens times now. I am a happy camper. The food is very good, and the value is fair. His Haven Burger is Heaven. It is to die for. Literally, I would gladly welcome death now that I have experienced the mouth-watering delight that is the Haven Burger.

What kind of a friend won’t share his Haven Burger?

I was recently at The Haven with my friend Riaz for an after-work beer and had the chicken salad sandwich and chips. It was very good, but I had to go through the agonizing pain of watching Riaz (in his very upright, gentlemanly sort of way) finish off a Haven Burger. I could smell the sweet aroma of the  onion marmalade and the warm Huntsman cheese. What good is it to be healthy if you are beset with the purgative agony of watching your good friend demolish a Haven Burger? And while I’m thinking about it, what kind of friend would do that to you? I guess I should have been happy for him, right? I should have shared his sumptuous feast vicariously? Bullocks.

The Haven is an all-around good choice especially if you like deer antlers and skirts on men.

In all seriousness, I have given The Haven a good go and I say Blue Ribbon all the way. From The Full Scotch breakfast to deep fried Mars bar late night – you can’t go wrong. Jason has a great selection of beers as well.

I’m a big fan of the rough sawn wood and the darkish, antler adorned, not over stuffed space. It feels sort of homey at The Haven – I’m not sure about Kilt Night though…for more “Best Of” picks check out BJ Ray’s blog for his opinions on The Haven and other Jamaica Plain favs.

Spring is in the air. It’s the season for properties to begin hitting the market in earnest. I think we’ve seen the last of the snow, so by the time little green plants start peeking out of the ground you should be prepared to hit the open house trail if you’re in the market for a new home. 143 new properties have hit the market since January 1, but 96 of those came on this month. It’s clearly getting ripe around here. I’m pleased to say I have a number of new homes hitting the market as well. Four this week, a couple next week and hopefully several more over the next month or so. I’m pretty excited about this newest batch of homes – they’re all exceptional values and beautiful. I have open houses all weekend and even a Commuter Open House on Monday for those of you with a little time when you get off the train on Monday. In no particular order, I’ll give you a brief run down on each of them and some of my favorite photos from the shoots. By the way, if you’re in the market, or even just considering it, you might want to sign up on my website as I have some super cool tools that the average home buyer will find quite useful. Ever been scrambling around on a Sunday (lacking the appropriate caffeination) trying to pull open house info from the Boston Globe, Boston.com, some random real estate website, etc? 45 minutes later your hunched over your computer furiously loading all the properties into Google maps and cross-referencing the open house times? No more! Check out my open house search tool. Just plug in your parameters and viola! you’re in business. all the available open houses are magically delivered to your screen, mapped and chronologically ordered. Pretty cool, eh? Sign up for an account for lots of other goodies. Anyway, the task at hand. The smallest of my three new homes is a loft-like condo in The Brewery District adjacent to Stony Brook station between Boylston and Porter. As described in MLS:

Loft-like 2BD in The Brewery District

Perfection. Design, efficiency and location. Brewery District loft steps from Stony Brook Station. Total renovation from basement to roof. High-efficiency heating and point of use, on-demand hot water for kitchen and bath. Amazing insulation in walls and roof. Incredibly well thought out design including cabinetry, and built-in oak/aluminum wardrobe. Roof rights and nice rear deck. This is a great space to just sit and enjoy the light and quiet – it has a certain Zen quality about it.

These descriptions aren’t as easy to write as you think so keep that in mind. Criticism welcome as long as it’s accompanied by a suggestion. This unit is seriously wonderful. It’s going to make some one very happy. I sold it several years ago at Arthouse and they had to pry it from my kicking and screaming then too.

What an amazing ceiling!

This is the perfect starter pad – not just because of the price point, but it’s been renovated really well. Way better than what is typical for a unit like this. Over insulated, thermal panes and steel doors make it efficient, but also really quiet. The look of the ceiling is obviously cool but check out the Miele washing machine/dryer. Under sink you’ll find a point-of-use, on demand hot water system. It runs the kitchen and the bath. Sweet! Open house Sunday April 2, 1:30p-2:30p. I’ll be having a commuter Open House on Monday April 4th, 5:50p-7p.

Next on the list is a single family home on 30 Neillian Crescent, on Moss Hill in Jamaica Plain. This home is one of the best values on the Hill in a long time. It may not be the cheapest ever, but it’s definitely priced right – especially considering the condition:

Beautiful open-plan home in highly desirable neighborhood. New kitchen w/SS apps and large prep space. Guests can sit in dining rm and chat w/the host or lounge in living rm in front of fireplace. Picture window looks out over quiet street of well-maintained homes and enormous corner lot. Each bedrm is bigger than the next with a large master facing the rear of the home. Huge, open family room with direct-entry garage and 3/4 bath. Short walk to Larz Anderson Park. Short commute to Med area.

Immaculate Moss Hill home in Jamaica Plain

30 Neillian Crescent Open Houses Sat April 2, 12-1p & Sun April 3, 1:30-2:30p

Living room with fireplace and picture window.

Finally, last but not least is 41 Bournedale Rd, Jamaica Plain. This is the Woodbourne Neighborhood. There are a handful of duplexes just like this one in the “Bourne” neighborhood and I’m a big fan of the layout. They have kitchen, dining and laundry all in the back with a door to the back porch and yard. There’s a tiny hallway separating the dining area from the living room. On one side of it the designer snuck in a built-in hutch. It’s a nice little surprise when you come around the corner. The living room has a wood burning fireplace and a set of stairs that gently curve upstairs out of site. Very cute. My favorite thing upstairs is a cozy reading room just off the master bedroom. I’d spend a lot of time there if it was my place. Here’s what I wrote on the MLS:

Charming 2 story home w/perfect plan. Property has feel of a house rather than a condo. Open kit/dining room opens to covered porch. Enjoy your morning coffee listening to the birds chirp in the wooded yard. Granite counters and stainless steel appliances. Breakfast bar separates kitchen from dining room with built-in hutch.Walk to T, conservation land, shops and restaurants. Ask about Forest Hills Initiative for exciting information about area future development.

Somewhere Hipsters are gathered around expensive beer, reading these out loud and making fun of me. So be it. Come by this Sunday 3rd and we can have coffee together on the back deck from 12-1p.

One of my favorite rooms in Jamaica Plain

If you haven’t already heard the buzz, there’s a new guy in town. Tres Gatos will be serving tapas, music and books. I think it’s a marvelous idea and I wish them well. I won’t try and get all shmarmy describing a place I’ve never been yet – I’ll let you know what I think after I visit. I hope to make it by on Wednesday night if they’re not too crowded. It should be fun to see how they handle first night jitters. Good Luck Tres Gatos!

Tres Gatos opens Wednesday night at 5p! Credit David Schafer

The most recent barrage of snow has been an overwhelming amount of work for me. Between constantly shoveling the sidewalks an driveway to clearing ice dams and shoveling the roof. (Which by the way sucks.) As soon as the house down the street collapsed all of my neighbors got up on the roof too. Mine started leaking just after the snow fell and I’ve got 24 hours to fix the damage before my next guests arrive!

Josh Sweeden & Myrta Montijo shovel their roofs.

Porter Street home falls under the weight of the snow and ice.

I’m not a huge fan of Boston winters. Well let’s be fair – I loathe winter in Boston. My house is something like 140 years old and although I’ve got it in pretty darn good condition, all the snow and rain and sleet and wind make me nervous. I lay awake on my second floor during these storms imagining what the noises are as my house battles Mother Nature. This particular season has been quite harsh in case you have been at the beach for the last several months and unaware. Yesterday was the culmination of a perfect storm of sorts. After having been pummeled repeatedly, one storm after another Jamaica Plainers shoveled out fresh rabbit runs in the sidewalks and sat down to rest their backs and watch their basements flood from the melting snow and rain that had no where to go and then…KABOOM! An ambulance blows up on the Jamaicaway!

Oxygen canisters blow up while firemen extinguish blaze.

Patch summed it up pretty well:

I spent Halloween Day walking around Forest Hills Cemetery reading the headstones and enjoying the beautiful leaves. Taking a break from open houses and market valuations is necessary from time to time. It was a super afternoon. The light, smells and colors were very refreshing. A perfect autumn afternoon.

Urban gardening is sexy.

Okay, well maybe that’s pushing it a little bit – but it can certainly be fun and healthy. In Jamaica Plain it’s even a bit cool possibly. I recently went to a panel discussion at the Universalist Church entitled The Carnivore’s Dilemma and the place was packed with hip shaksters, albeit the kind with dirty finger nails.

I’m one of those people that spends an inordinate time on the web perusing feeds, reading blogs, researching topics in an admittedly impatient A.D.D. sort of way. In any case, I’ve learned a great deal about the benefits of having an urban garden, not to mention the other benefits of greening up the surface of the planet and reducing storm water runoff. I have found gardening to be incredibly rewarding and soul centering. No really! It calms me.

In fact, according to an article by Susan Wyatt,  getting outside and getting dirty could make you smarter. “A new study finds that naturally occurring bacteria in soil could enhance learning. And as a side benefit, it appears to be a natural anti-anxiety drug, but without the side-effects.”

One of the things I’ve learned in my short five years of gardening is to be patient. This is not a talent in abundance in my life. However, as I’ve watched my garden morph over the years I’ve learned to not get too uptight about the little setbacks. Mother Nature is on an entirely different timeline than us.

My front garden in Jamaica Plain

For example, when I started working on my yard, the entire property was covered in a nasty layer of asphalt. I pried this all up and recycled it. We then had to build a huge sieve out of 2x6s and 1/4in chicken wire – and hand shoveled the top 8-12 inches of soil through it, removing as much of the yucky stuff and rocks as possible. I can’t even begin to tell you how hard this was. Then we brought in a lot of loam.

I worked with a landscape architect named Jen Russ to begin with to create a plan. She had great ideas and a good knowledge of plants that would work well in my location. The problem in hindsight (unforeseeable) was that we set up the focal points of the yard based on which properties around my house were crappiest and should be shielded from view. Surprise! The Brewery District emerged shortly afterward with the development of the old Haffenreffer Brewery by the JPNDC and the old crack house behind me and the rest of the real

estate abutters turned over and fixed up the dilapidated old wrecks, hence, changing the view. Now the best view was the worst view. I realized quickly that I needed to bring in the BIG GUNS. This is when I really got to know Rich Gargiulo. Rich owns Treeworks Earth Designs (617-983-0813) and also lives in Jamaica Plain. He’s a big bear of a dude – and watch out – he’s full of ‘piss and vinegar’ as my mom used to say. Rich loves the outdoors. He will literally hug your trees. It’s a little overwhelming at first, but his energy is catchy and his work ethic is astounding. Rich doesn’t stand around talking about how to get something done. Over the last three years Rich has taken exquisite care of us and created an amazing place for my family to enjoy. We started with the ‘hardscaping’ which wasn’t even on my radar before Rich showed up. I had some stepping stones planned, but Rich was thinking bigger. The giant granite blocks and very organic Japanese-esque stones create a real sense of permanence.

Japanese Pine and Mountain Laurel

Rich and the rest of the guys on his crew are artists. He has transformed my property into something extraordinary, a real diamond in a previously rough neighborhood. Also, as I am a Realtor, property value is always on my mind. Landscaping is the #1 most overlooked item for people when considering selling their homes. Don’t just spread some fake red mulch around. Put some thought in and you will be rewarded. Every year we make tweaks, get rid of dead plants, plant some new ones, and spend a little time making design changes. This year I moved the vegetable garden around a bit. The plants that grow below ground and the lettuces went down in the raised bed – where the gal-darned squirrels won’t eat them. (The little buggers don’t even steal the whole thing, they just sample a little bit and leave it. Yuk, who wants to eat a veggie some squirrel slobbered all over?)

The tomatoes, peppers, pickling cukes, etc. are all going to be grown hanging upside down from shepherds poles on our 2nd level deck. This way we can water them easily, monitor growth and our daughter Vitoria can take part in the process and be fully engaged with the growing cycle of the plants.

Hanging baskets for growing veggies upside down.

I’m going to rig up the poles with stainless steel inserts so I can quickly attach them every year and take them down again in the winter.

There are a number of El Cheapo upside down hangers out there, but you can do it cheaper and better. If you want to go really low tech, just get some old 5 gallon buckets and cut a hole in the bottom. There’s no shortage of websites to give you advice on the subject. I’m ordering mine online, and I’m going with a reusable wire basket design. It has a canvas outer bag that literally zips up for ease of planting.  Supposedly you get better, stronger plants with less  water consumption and higher yields.

I have been experiencing a lot of stress in the last couple months as I prepared to plant my first veggie garden. Newbies have so many questions and so little experience after all. Have no fear, there are no shortage of resources. I recommend reading a lot of info on the web before you even start asking humans questions.

5 Gal planter

There is definitely some lingo involved in gardening and it helps to know the basics. Create a bookmarked file and start dumping stuff in as you go. One of the best resources I have found so far is the no frills University of New Hampshire – Garden Guide. It has an overwhelming amount of info about all aspects of gardening. And yes, there’s an app for that. For iPhone users, check out Gardening Toolkit. It helps pick plants that are appropriate for the location, has a todo list, how much to water, when to harvest, etc.

The bottom line is that we need to do whatever we can to help the recent movement toward a more ‘slow food’ culture. Not only do we need to learn how to grow our own food, but we need to teach our kids the importance of land stewardship. Just like foreign language, these types of concepts are easier to learn as a child. They become second nature. My daughter, for instance, now instinctively conserves water, ‘to save Mother Nature’.

There really isn’t a downside that I can see to all this. Feel free to comment if I’m wrong. As I see it:

1.  By planting a garden you get free food and the satisfaction of having grown a living organism.

2.  No fossil fuels are burned to transport your food.

3.  Storm water runoff is slowed and cooled – preserving the environment.

4. The heat island effect is mitigated.

5. Everything looks a lot more attractive – unless you’re into that post apocalyptic look.

Each First Thursday of the month businesses along Centre and South Streets are transformed into galleries featuring works from local artists. Open receptions, at each location, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, offer a chance to meet the artists, enjoy refreshments, and experience Jamaica Plain’s fabulous businesses in an entirely new light. Artworks usually remain on display for the remainder of the month.

Viejo’s portraits show an intimate relationship with her subjects, real or imagined, with often surreal effects. The paintings investigate the division of the painting surface and the relationship of the figure to pulsating color and geometric environments. In addition to the amazing artwork on display at the reception, DJ Just Joan (Casey Williams of Bella Luna’s Cash For Gold fame) will be spinning an eclectic sound to set the mod. Come share a glass of wine

Anclados (Anchored)