Where?” Simone sounded genuinely surprised as she hurried to join me at the window. Bess and George came over too, and all four of us stared out at the unkempt backyard. I pointed to several vigorous-looking vines twining their way over what appeared to be an overgrown rose hedge. Half a dozen oblong green fruits were growing from the vines. “Hey! That does look like zucchini,” George said. “I think you may be right,” Simone said. “As you can tell, we haven’t had the chance to work on the yard much. Come, let’s investigate.” My friends and I followed her through the kitchen into the backyard. Like the front yard, it sloped steeply down toward the drop-off over the river, which was lined by a low stone wall. About two-thirds of the way to the wall, the rose hedge blocked off at least half of the yard’s width. By standing on tiptoes, we could just see over the hedge into a vegetable garden gone wild. Tomato plants sprouted here and there, and spindly onion tops were already going to seed.
