Backyard oasis built with love

A Burlington woman is convinced miracles can happen tonight — and she found her miracle worker in a company named ‘Peace, Love and Landscaping’.

Sometimes it is remarkable when people come together in a community. In this case, business after business in Burlington lined up to help provide a backyard retreat for a woman being treated for cancer.

After weeks of secrecy, the mystery was finally revealed.

Jane Stillwell: “Oh my goodness. Oh good Lord. Oh Wolfe, this is amazing. It’s my oasis.”

Until now, closed off windows kept Jane from seeing what was going on in her backyard — except maybe for the occasional peek.

It started with Larry, her husband of 42 years: “OK, so there’s one secret in our lives, alright. This is the secret.”

The work had been going on for two weeks.

Jane has liver cancer and is on chemotherapy. Before the secret was revealed, she told us she was hoping for a backyard oasis: “This current treatment that I’m on I don’t have many days when I’m full of zest, so I can go many places.”

And Larry wanted to give her that oasis.

He spoke with landscaper Wolfe Bonham. Attracted by the name ‘Peace, Love and Landscaping’, they worked out a plan that was way beyond the family budget.

Wolfe Bonham: “I didn’t feel right walking away from it. Something about this project really spoke to me.”

And remarkable things started to happen as Wolfe got the word out: “The response from other companies was almost overwhelming, to the point where companies were actually approaching us to see if they could be involved in it as well.”

In the end, with a long list of donations of material, Jane was presented with a 30-thousand dollar backyard makeover for only about ten-thousand dollars.

Jane: “This is absolutely stunning. Oh, thank you so much. And as I said, I plan on spending as much time as I can out here.”

She calls Wolfe her miracle worker.

Jane: “The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious.”

Wolfe says this fits with his company philosophy of going beyond just a garden: “For me, I’ve always been intersted in trying to take my company to a different level.”

Larry says he’s in awe over the community response that made this happen.

Jane and Larry: “A happy place yeah. A happy place to be.”

While Jane plans to get as much use out of the garden as she can.

Jane: “And I hope I get to use it for a very long time. That’s going to be my goal — use it for a very long time.”

So Wolfe says Jane’s garden has everything you could possibly in that kind of backyard garden. Lighting at night, low-maintenance artificial turf, the list goes on and on. And Jane says she’s planning to be out there this summer, then in the fall, and the winter and the spring and as long as she can.