Art Peck was a practical man. When his Narrowsburg neighbors decided to build a library, Art and his wife Beth donated the building and a lot more. If he needed a clock or a boat or a rocking chair, he built one for himself, and a few more for his friends and family. A generous man, he helped others without fanfare, expecting only a simple thank-you in return. He was a mentor to many and his barn/workshop in the Narrowsburg Flats was always open for kibitzing, working or just watching Art build his newest project.

He did love a practical joke now and then, like the time he sent his neighbors on the Flats (I was one of them) an official-looking letter mailed from Philadelphia warning us not to disturb the local eagle population. Some of us thought it had the mark of Art all over it. But he had no use for subterfuge when it came to his dealings with locals. Tom Coacci, who considers Art “like a father to me,” said, “You learn a lot about a fellow when you’re sitting out in a boat in the middle of the night freezing together.”

“Art was a good man,” says Tom. “Most people don’t know how much good he did.”

After Art died in 2014, the Narrowsburg Library board wanted to honor his memory with a garden. There was an unused spot on the grounds, a slope between the upper and lower level that could accommodate a small garden. Art’s daughter Allison is a professional landscaper who “loves to solve a problem” with her work. She knew at once when asked to plan the memorial garden that it would have to be “both handsome and practical, like my father.” The other requirement was that it be low-maintenance. “He and I both talked about how when you plant a garden, that’s not the end, it’s just the beginning.” He lamented anything left untended. His own raspberry patch near the barn was well-protected from deer and birds with fencing and netting that Art assiduously reinforced. At the end of the season, he cut back the canes to encourage new growth in the spring. He poked fun at Allison’s gardens, full of ornamentals, saying, “I don’t know why you plant anything if you can’t eat it.”

The specimens Allison chose for the library garden are all dwarf conifers—no disrespect to Art’s stature intended, as he stood tall in most people’s eyes. But the dwarf varieties of conifers will grow well together, without one taking over the relatively small plot. They are also “deer and critter resistant,” Allison says, and have been largely damage-free since they were first planted.

Beth visits the library almost as often as when she served on its board, and enjoys the many shades of green in the garden. And Allison says she was happy to “get it done when mother could enjoy it” for many years to come.

Last Christmas, when the garden was finished and a stone from a property belonging to the Peck’s son Wayne was engraved, the family assembled, 27 of them including grand and great-grandchildren, to have an unveiling of the stone. “Dad didn’t like a lot of fuss,” says Allison. “Four of the great grand-kids clambered around the little slope like mountain-goats,” she said, to reveal the marker. “We didn’t want it to look like a tombstone,” says Beth. And with little fanfare, as he would have insisted, the Arthur W. Peck Memorial garden was officially installed.

Even if you didn’t know Art, you can enjoy the benefits of his long and fruitful life by taking in this jewel-box of a garden next to the library he helped build in Narrowsburg.