From Maintained to Cultivated

These photos were taken one year and one day apart.

August 30, 2025 and August 31, 2026.

I don’t think I realized how much had changed until the before photo popped up in my memory wall.

A year ago, Buttervale was maintained.

The grass was cut, the bushes were trimmed, the pool was clean. It was a perfectly nice backyard.

Until, we started doing something different.

We started cultivating.

That strip of grass along the fence became an orchard. Apples, peaches, plums and nectarines went in. Then blueberries, blackberries, pineapple guava, cherry trees, artichokes, asparagus, gooseberries, strawberries, figs, citrus trees and bananas found homes around the property.

We added a few raised beds and started growing more of our own food. Potatoes went into bags. Herbs and flowers went into cinderblock holes. Fall vegetables went into the ground and became a Thanksgiving Garden.

We have added native plants and more places for birds, bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

We started composting more of what we used to throw away.

And, somehow, I became a worm rancher.

There have been plenty of failures mixed in. Plants have died. Things got planted in the wrong place and moved. Rabbits ate things. Bugs ate things. I probably bought too many plants.

But looking at these pictures, I don’t really see the individual projects.

I see a yard beginning to pull its own weight. It’s not just sucking down water and fertilizer to support a monoculture lawn designed to resemble a manicured fairway.

It is alive and thriving.

And we’re nowhere close to finished. There are more trees to train, more beds to plant, a greenhouse to put back together and my little taste of New Hampshire is just beginning to take shape.

That’s probably the biggest change in the past year.

We’re no longer just taking care of what was already here.

We’re deciding what we want Buttervale to become.

One year and one day.

Not bad.

Hope Springs Eternal at Buttervale.

Tomorrow the Adventure Contiues…

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