Neighborhood gardens and old houses

Asheville is full of interesting neighborhoods, historic and now upscale, eclectic and gentrifying, mid-century and interesting, etc.

(There are lots of boring nouveau neighborhoods, too, with folks with way too much money who create way too much space for anyone to live in, not to mention, more importantly, the disappearing places for anyone of limited income to live.)  It's the conundrum of life in a tourist town, now a destination for many folks bringing $$ from elsewhere.

We've done that, although we're hardly in the high $$ amount.  But, we're in a great neighborhood, within walking distance of downtown, so we're totally happy in our small eco-infill house.

Yesterday, I went on a garden tour of eclectic gardens in West Asheville, a gentrifying neighborhood, filled with a variety of houses and gardens.

An artist's vignette in a West Asheville Garden

A favorite garden was an artist's -- she'd lived there 26 years, WAY predating when West Asheville became "hip."  (Our street at that time was crack houses and "Sunday" houses).

Today, we went on a tour of the Grove Park/Sunset District Tour of Homes.  It's a venerable neighborhood, too.

Most of the houses were 80-100 yrs old, so reflected the updates of recent owners, which were considerable, in most cases.  As former stewards of an old house (built in 1929), I appreciate what these new owners have done, whether I like their improvements, or not.

There were lovely examples of positive care.  I'm glad for that.