If Emily Dickinson's neighbors saw her gardening at her Amherst, Mass., home in the moonlight, they might have thought her eccentric.
She was that. But the poet was also troubled by very sensitive eyes, and the sunlight hurt them.
But she did love her gardens, and the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx celebrates the poet and gardener with a new exhibition that opens this weekend and continues until June 13.
It is part of a series of exhibitions that demonstrate the role and influence of their gardens on major literary figures. The New York Times describes the thinking behind the exhibition and provides a slideshow of its elements.
The display not only recreates Dickinson's gardens, but the facade of her home and the home of her brother, who lived next door.
This You Tube video, and two more like it that can be accessed on the NYBG website, show the progress of designing and building her gardens.