The Value of an English Garden in Brooklyn

Published in The Common

December 2020

“There is a strange ugly tension when someone dies, and minds wander from the deceased and the bereaved to their property. A year or so before Christopher died, he and Nat had spoken to me about preserving the garden, but never formalized a plan. Nat didn’t garden. Who would tend it? Would or could any of the people whose yards abutted the garden buy and preserve it? A group of neighbors approached Nat with a plan to transfer the garden to the non-profit Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust. At the last minute, Nat decided to hold on to the property. Not long after, his health deteriorated.”