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Every fall I notice townhouse fronts come alive with the season’s colors. I rarely see it happen, and always wonder how they go about doing this. Are the townhouse owners dedicated gardeners? Do they hire a service? Are they related to those wacky people in Brooklyn who love entertaining their neighbors? Whatever it is, these homeowners’ efforts are noticed and appreciated by many.

Enter Slideshow
(Check out AT's new slideshow - courtesy of Mark!)

11-3-johnc.jpgWithout fail, these houses always deliver on Halloween. In the case of a certain townhouse on east 83rd street (which we posted pics of last year), I recently met the person responsible for its seasonal transformations as he was stringing up the lights early one morning. Jon Carloftis is originally from Kentucky. He grew up surrounded by nature as his classroom, and grew this love into a successful landscaping business.

But hearing about how he came to work on landscaping projects in NYC was the most inspiring. After arriving in New York, he rang doorbells, met the homeowners face-to-face and grew a client base through word of mouth. He now commutes daily to NYC to work on his landscaping projects.

Even the flowerbeds in NYC have interesting stories. -MN