From PARADE archives

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 12:24 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Flower bank?

Seems okay to me. If, e.g. the plane of your frontyard is above that
of the public way, the part of your lawn that slopes down to the level
of the public way is a "bank." In the case of the Romney estate, I
imagine that it was built into the side of a hill, so that it also had
a "split-level" backyard with a similar bank planted with vines and
flowers. My maternal grandpatents' house was so situated. But, in the
backyard, my grandad had cut away and leveled the bank, so that there
was a flat area that, alongside the house, was used for a truck garden
and, immediately behind the house, was used as a chickenyard. He built
a plank "dam" or wall to hold back the remainder of the bank, which
formed the "bottom" of the backyard of our neighbors.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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