1234 Quincy Street, “Woodland and Meadow”

Our house is a Facchino home.  Pappa Facchino came from Italy, a marble and stone craftsman; he built most of the houses in the 1200 block of Quincy Street.  You can now find the Facchino Construction Co. signs on large developments being constructed all over the suburbs.

The house lot had been used as a construction site for a time and I’m still finding hunks of iron and nails every time I turn over a shovel of dirt. The first four years I spent pulling crabgrass; the next two adding some soil to the clay which was all there was.  My very first plantings came from the side of the road where construction had displaced family gardens; I rescued iris and daisies trying to survive on highway roadsides. The garden has never seen a landscaper or designer; it totally evolved around me as I collected another and another plant, which needed another little corner. I know the story, if not the name, of each of my plants and love to communicate with them throughout the year.  In my garden I try to accommodate too many different plants, creating no particular style--except my own.