Mini Adventure in a Mini Forest

After living here for almost a decade, and walking my dog Wilson around the neighborhood daily, I discovered a mini secret urban forest one and a half blocks from my home!

The Mini Secret Urban Forest Story

At the Bottom of the Half-Alley

We usually walk on the sidewalk, but this day we walked in the alleys for a change. As we walked down one alley, I was curious about what used to be a perpendicular alley planted with fruit trees and finished with stone work. The neighbor living next door noticed me and advised, "The figs are not ripe yet."

"Oh, I'm just taking some pictures," I said. I learned from him that the alley was so steep here that decades ago the city closed it off worried that someone might crash into the house at the bottom. It was neglected and became an eyesore. The neighbors asked the city to maintain the area, but that never happened. So this man got together with his neighbors and planted the little half-alley with fruit trees and vegetables, and flowers, and built a nice stone wall by hand. After thanking the older gentleman for the explanation, we walked up the next street and circled around to find the top of the half-alley.

At The Top of the Half-Alley

We've walked this alley before, it dead-ends about halfway down...or so I thought.

We walked over the grassy area and found a short cement pathway leading into the mini forest.

Look, a trail!

Fig Trees

Squash

Secret Gardens

Rooftops through the forest.

Follow me!

The trail ends back at the stone wall.

I waved to the gentleman as we walked by a second time!