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Like a volcano, it seemed to spit forth its arrangement: a 14-foot-high foundation of gloriously twisted mountain laurel branches covered in lichen, wrapped in foraged invasive greenbrier vines.

Until a few weeks ago, the future launch ramp was a thicket of greenbrier, poison ivy and other undergrowth.

In winter, thickets that in summer seem impenetrable jungle, virulent with poison ivy and greenbrier, become a few sticks and stalks, cleared easily, in an atmosphere of crisp transparency.

She has no interest in cultivars “bred for uniformity and performance,” preferring plants with hardscrabble souls, capable of cruelty, such as the prickly species of greenbrier known to draw blood.

And if you push aside the spring growth of vinca, greenbrier vines and flowering plum, you can see the names of a forgotten black community, etched in concrete or marble.