Joyce Ahlgren Hannaford lives in Natick, Massachusetts, seventeen miles west of Boston, where she has been working on her garden for the past eleven years. Her garden, which wraps around the house, has a total acreage of a little under a quarter of an acre and is a neighborhood landmark.
“One day, on a Thursday, around 10 o’clock in the morning, I saw a man setting up with a tripod in my garden, taking pictures! I said hello, and he said, ‘Oh, I hope you don’t mind, I was doing some photography of your beautiful yard.’” Hannaford laughs, adding that she has impromptu visitors all the time, many of them stopping to admire the plethora of flowers that bloom in her yard. Hannaford, who is retired, lives with her husband Charlie, and frequently opens her garden to tours for her garden club.
Hannaford works on the garden full time, spending 40 to 60 hours a week working in her garden from May to August. She spoke with us about the very personal associations her garden has for her and how the many plants and landscaping features serve as memories of her friends, family, and past homes.
(And if you're interested in showing off your garden on our site, just send us your gardens!)
