Hello World!  My name is Hunter Silvestri, and I’m the garden manager here at the Azalea Garden. This year, it’s my intention to bring you behind the scenes of our unique public garden through original writing, photography, and interviews. The plan is to put out one of these posts every month* in 2026 (* weather permitting,  as we say). Common Groundskeeping  may span a number of topics, from progress reports to local history, from ecological field notes to gardening tips, fr

You may have noticed ash trees (Fraxinus americana and Fraxinus pennsylvanica) in the garden with markings cut around their lower trunks. These intentional cuts, known as girdling, are part of a management strategy used to control the decline and eventual death of these failing ash trees.