Grandma had ivy crawling around her back porch and back yard.  For a few years she even had ivy wallpaper in her kitchen.  The garden plots were long rectangles along the street, across the back alley, and along the house next door.  At certain times of the day you could see the sunshine shadows through the picket fence.  And there always seemed to be that rich brown soil showing between the green sprouts of Spring flowers.  And there always seemed to be a mud puddle right outside the door where I played with my cousins.