Gardening 2023

[cineater]

Oh yeah, I'm going to blow.     Joe wants to do the convention.  He's manipulating the membership votes to get his way.  Marsha has called him on it.  Last night I asked him to add to the agenda for tomorrow I'm making a motion to add the plant sale coordinator, ie Marsha, as a voting member of the steering committee.  He basically accused me of being her partner in crime.     I can be, we duke this shit out but she doesn't control me.  This morning Marsha sent the rewrite of our financial operating policy to approve at tomorrow's meeting.  I tell the whole group I'm not voting approval until we have that talk about developing a plan for managing our budget for next year and years going forward.  We've been saying we were going to do that all year.

What is with these people?  I retired.  I joined this group to have fun, not run a business and grow it into a big deal.  Our treasure was telling me she wanted to save up enough money to invest some of it!  What the fuck for?  We need enough money in savings to cover greenhouse repairs and the plant sale.  You want to be in the fucking business world, go back to work.  Be in the retired world and have some fun.

Anywho, there's the blow.  I'm in a pretty good mood.  My Bulb Garden lead resigned but her two helpers are going to take it over.  I'm fully staffed.  The place looks great.  Kevin agreed he's putting in the rest of the bricks on Saturday with the help of a new guy.  The tools are getting sharpen Saturday.  Plenty of people said they were coming to do that.  The boardwalk will always be a work in progress for the next few years but a lot was done this year.  We're a wrap on Saturday.  I can play for a few weeks.  The weather is holding.  I rather liked building those walls and it's been too long since I had the trimmer in my hands.

[cineater]

Meeting wasn't so bad and barely went over 2 hours.  We even had donuts.  The icing was applied with the same expertise I applied the adhesive to the cinder blocks.    There's a learning curve there.

Side track issue brought up during the discussion of making the Plant Sale Coordinator a voting member of the steering committee but it passed.  The treasure came prepared with all the information for us make a budget plan and build up our "in the event of a catastrophic event", ie the plant sale gets whipped out and we have no money.  I added $4500 to the treasure's initial assessment of what we had to build up to.  She forgot minimum amount to run the organization and the demo gardens.    After everything was decided, I reported to the treasure I still had about $500 worth of bills coming in.  Ooops, her information was off because she thought I was done spending money. 

The gardens, the only place they can really cut the budget, got $1500 less than we averagely spend, based on a five year period.  I'm agreeable to that.  We kicked ass out there this year on projects and there's really very little we need to do next year.  Marsha, my assistant, mumbled her agreement.  Does she realize her boardwalk, while I like it, is down to a crawl?  She didn't and I didn't tell her.  I'm reluctant to continue with that.  Some of the boards are already starting to warp.  The frames are only treated wood.  How long before we have to replace that?  How much chemical usage is going to be used to keep the weeds from growing up through them?  Looks great but may not be the best thing for us.  She estimates $2000 to complete it.  No where near fitting into the budget next year.

We'll continue working through the end of November.  Weather looks good.  Final leads meeting first weekend in December and then I'm off duty till March.  I move to plant sale where Marsha is the brains and I'm just the labor.  Do what she tells me and don't say a word.     Says she feels better today.  Blames a lot of stuff on chemo brain.  That is a real thing.  I acknowledge it and say, "I get it, that's why I'm reminding you and not pestering you."  I have learned to put that positive spin to work! 

[cineater]

We are done.  All fall projects I'm responsible for completed today.     Plant sale team installs the greenhouse doors next weekend.  Crew scheduled for that.  Damn those folks cranked out a lot of stuff.  A few minor things to fix next year.  We should just be planting plants and weeding.  One would think. 

[cineater]

Scathingly brilliant idea!     Phebe is the new Pantry Garden lead.  It is a lot of work!  Lady you are getting ducked.     I have 20 of those hunting duck decoys.  Phebe is a hunter too.  I'm done playing with these ducks and looking to unload them.  Marsha is going to enjoy this too.  Phebe shows up to the garden Wednesday those ducks are going to be everywhere.   

[cineater]

Score!  We had went out to lunch and noticed the restaurant had straw bales they were using for decoration.  So I asked if we could have them when they were done with them if they were just going to toss them.  The guy just called and said we could pick them up tomorrow.  Phebe has her growing medium for the mushrooms.

[cineater]

We thought we were getting 3 bales and instead got 6!  We can use all of them.

Tomorrow we are going to talk to Menards about a discount on some damaged composite wood.  The way Marsha stumped through that conversation and went on and on, if I was the guy I would have said lady you can have it for free if you just shut up.     I don't think we will get that lucky but I am looking for a deal.  I just missed out on the porch pillars.  Brian said his employer just threw some out!  I have to talk to more people and fast.  Eventually, this stuff will show up.

My Federation garden club is dissolving.  I was going to drop out but I guess I will go over to the one Maureen is part of.  Got to keep up those network connections and they do take care of the garden at the homeless shelter.  Plus they are taking over our Gold Star Memorial.  Is this my new adventure?  Joining a new garden club?    I should have asked for diversity.

[cineater]

We basically got 75% off the composite.  The stuff was out in their bargain bin.  28, 8' boards.  Made Marsha very happy.  I'm not giving back $3500 in my budget.     We're on a roll and I want this shit done!  This should get Marsha to a stopping place.  We've got about two weeks.  We can crank out that boardwalk.

[cineater]

6 fucking hours again!  And I left them at the house because I had to go babysit.  I am never being anything more than the labor on the plant sale.  I swear it would not have taken me that long if I did it by myself and I had 3 other women.  We did have cheese cake so that's something.   

Anyway, all the composite is cut up and ready to assemble.  If the weather holds, we may complete this section of the boardwalk.  We did get Marsha's area really cleaned up so it doesn't look like a construction site any more.  This year it was all about straingtehing up, fixing up.  Hopefully next year it will be all about planting and weeding.  One would think. 

[cineater]

I skipped probably our last Saturday workday. Next weekend will be freezing.  Marsha dropped off Rosemary seeds.  I only had to seed up 200 of them.    She's out of screws for the boardwalk.  Okay, we are spending next year's budget.  I wish folks would start turning those in.  I'm anxious to see how much they are asking for next year.  I was told we get $4500 but they forgot to ask what bills I still had coming in.

[cineater]

Bulbs 50% off, you know I'm going to look.  Got Puschkinia, 12 for $2.50.  Cluster of flowers on each stalk, star shaped, white with a blue line in the middle of each petal.  We call them landing strips, directs the bee to the center for the pollen.  Like they need that.     Goes with our Moon Garden theme.  I've got some white asicatic lilies and white tulips I'm putting in there too.  Ran by the garden to put them in between the rain drops but my timing was off.  I'll do it tomorrow if I can steal Beka away for a little bit.  Doesn't hurt to have your designer with you and she's so into it.  She was a little nervous when I said I'd do it without her.  Of course, we may stop by Lowes and grab a few more.  Can't miss out on 50% off. 

[cineater]

I did go back to the bulb sale and might again.     Picked up some tulips with ruffled edges, hyacinth, pinks and purples.  Some daffodils, grape hyacinth and small iris.  Highly allergic to all of these.     I put the ones for the moon garden where the annuals will go.  We hadn't planned on these but I think that's a good choice.

I'm reviewing the budget requests from the leads.  Daylilies wanted 10 bottles of Liquid Fence for $196.  He was using ready to use bottles with a hand sprayer!  There's over 100 daylilies.  You don't hand spray those.  I reduced him to $70 for a bottle of concentrate, same sq ft coverage, and a sprayer that attches to the hose.  Cut the cost, saves him time and his fucking hand. 

Marsha is doing well.  She is so close to having all that composite installed.  Has ordered seeds from Parks and is working on Bakers.  Probably half way done.  Hasn't decided if she needs me Friday or not.  She's a pretty happy camper.

[cineater]

And I went back again.     Got some more white tulips and paperwhites.  I'm really allergic to them.  Great for forcing indoors but highly fragrant.  These I put on the backside of the shed.  Not sure if those were snake holes or voles I kept running into while I was planting them.

You are suppose to plant in odd numbers so it looks more natural.  So what do you do when they give you 6 tulip bulbs and you want them all in the same spot?  You make an H.  Two on each side and two in the middle on the joining line of the H, not the point where it connects to the side lines.  Or think of it as two triangles pointing at each other.  At least, that's what I do.

[cineater]

Damn it.  I have all the leads sending me their budgets for next year.  We're going bare bones and Marsha sends in one for 1300.  400 for fruit trees and 800 for another leg of the boardwalk.  We have money left from this year but it's really money they are using to fund us for next year.  Right now what she needs for the next leg of the boardwalk is sitting in the bargain bins at Menards and nobody is going to want it at this point.  Next year they may have a new model and then it's trash.  We got the one place way down there.  Going to piss off some folks I'm letting Marsha spend so much but this could be saving big bucks.  I'm going for it.  Her area has been under renovation for 5 years and I want it done!  They can't fire me right?  No blessings there.   

I'm not liking the way the rosemary is coming up.  I might have fucked it up.  There's these single, long white hairs on top of the soil at the place I put a seed.  Is that a root?  I've never seen that before.  Or did the plants come up and die off before they formed leaves and that's the stem?  It happen before I expected them to pop up.  They still have a week before they should be showing up.

[cineater]

There was several women who got a kick out of building those retaining walls.  Peggy even said her husband never lets her do stuff like this so she never got to learn.  Marsha needs a strawberry bed.  She's spending a ton of money making the fruit arboretum handicapped accessible.  Okay, they can come look but can they harvest the fruit?  Strawberries lend themselves to vertical gardening, perfect for handicapped people to harvest.  You see where I'm going with this? 

I have people who want to learn and practice building.  I have something that needs building, teachers and did I mention Marsha is replacing her deck, used wood there.  I've got a woman with power tools class!  Okay, I can't be openly sexist while I'm building something for a disadvantaged group.     I'll come up with a better name for the class but you know the nickname, the secret nickname.

[cineater]

Marsha like the idea of a vertical design!

I got my first drilling practice in and a few tips.  I kept getting my gloves caught on the screw when I was trying to hold it.  But we got both planks we made installed and polished off the rest of the screening.  We're going to go ahead and put together 3 more planks next week.  I get my first circular saw lesson then.

All the teams are called off at the garden.  Just the leads and a few people there today although it warmed up nicely.  Kevin gave the place it's last mow.  There's not really much more to do even if the weather holds.  The greenhouse doors are on hold while we wait for an install kit.  I was right, they weren't going to make it another year, beyond repair.  Pieces of it come off every time you open the door and fall off with it just sitting there.  Surprisingly, the Gazinnia are still blooming and some natives.  Rain coming in.  We need it. 

Holiday party Friday and Leads meeting Saturday.  Looks like most everybody is coming in with a reduced budget.  Marsha may get her fruit trees this time.  Menards stopped with their rebates until January so even if we did find composite cheap, we are waiting.  Meet with the trainees Thursday night to discuss what they want for a budget.  They need 15 perennials and coco mulch.  I will cover whatever they don't get funding for.

Just waiting on the Rosemary to come up.  Figured it out.  I use some used promix in the current soil so that probably is dried up roots.  Rosemary should show up on Sunday, fingers crossed.

[cineater]

As I figure it, we spent $5900 on the gardens this year.  That's $100 below our 5 year average of $6000.  We're not using $3200 of what we asked for.  That's $300 less then I projected in September.  What can I say, extra money, I pushed an emergency project forward and got a great sale for an ongoing project.  I'm fucking happy!   

Little research and I think we may be able to apply for an ag grant for the Fruit Arborium.  We just need about $600 to finish that off with all the plants.  I put Marsha on it.  That area really is shaping up to be unique and the only place like it except for all the way across the state and you have to walk acres to see it.

There is grants for handicapped accessible that we could try for on the boardwalk and stone paths but there's too much of a need just to make homes and businesses accessible.  I would feel bad asking for that funding.  We don't have that many disabled people visiting the gardens, maybe because we aren't handicapped accessible, so it's still a worthwhile goal for us to aim for.

[cineater]

I should have mentioned, we got a shit load of stuff done out there this year.  I'm on page 3 of our accomplishments besides the normal planting, watering and weeding. 

Not to mention all the freebies we got for the place.  I'm thinking of those 4 straw bales.  We got them for free but god did they make a mess in Bob's car.     I was the one who had to vacuum that car out!  Next year, we pick those up with a truck.  Marsha kept saying he'd never notice what fell behind the set.  I am not pissing Bob off.  Eventually that stuff is going to make its way to somewhere else in that car.  I left enough behind I couldn't get to.  Eventually, he's going to know what we did.

[cineater]

I really thought I was going to piss off my turf lead to the point he would probably quit.     I cut his budget and challenged his use of weed and feed.  I was dreading his email reply but he was fine with all of it.  He doesn't really believe in using weed and feed either.   

[cineater]

Budget process went pretty smoothly.  We were aiming for $4000.  We landed on $4100 and Marsha offered to have what they won't fund us for taken out of her budget.  Nice of her to offer considering we pulled out the money this year to complete nexts years boardwalk project.  She's a year ahead.  With the up coming budget she is getting all the wood to complete the boardwalk.  All that money went in at full price.  We get a discount like we did the last time and 24% off in the first week in January from Menards, we're looking at part of the stone path she wants around the strawberry bed.  We get a $600 grant from ag for all the plants she wants, there's the rest of the stone path.  We could be looking at finishing off the Fruit Arboretum next year.

Pantry Garden, another big ticket item, is getting all they want except we forgot the Rhubarb.  I'll gift them a couple and there's alway moving some of that money around.  Each plant is only $6 and I think we're only looking at 5.  The retaining wall in the Cottage Garden is a have too, money for that.  I did say I rather liked building those, right?

My three bed renovations didn't do so well.  Out of a $427 request we agreed to $200 this year for the keystone plants and the rest the following year.  That's what I said.  Again that was a full price estimate on prices we saw on the net.  I'm a better bargain shopper than that, I have three people saying they are will to gift us plants we have to buy and I can substitute some plants we are looking for with plants we have.  I don't like my projects dragging out.  They come on time,if not early, and under budget.  We will be finished in the spring.

Everybody else got pretty much what they wanted once we cut out the fat and supplied them with what they needed from what we could scrounge up.  I'm good with $4100.  A little nervous.  That's $1900 below our average.  I can always go back and ask for more.  I hate that and it may not be there.  I still have the problem of, is what we are spending out there worth it?  Are we getting our educational bang for our buck?  I need more programing and more people coming to the gardens.  It would be nice if the gardens could generate some money too, besides what we do for the plant sale.  I like that the education is free that we are doing and the food gets donated to the pantry.

[cineater]

Okay, I wouldn't read this but I have to wrap my head around it.  Marsha is giving me shit for asking for $200 in plants for the 3 bed renovations.  Says I knew we were short on money when we came up with the project.  We've told the other leads they have to run their plants through the plant sale sourcing because we may getting better pricing.  If not, they can buy a plant if they have a reason for that plant including lack of presence on property and educational value.  But she says a couple of them are mad I'm asking for plants outside of the plant sale when they wanted to but didn't as we have money problems.  And nobody goes over to the backside of the property.

Okay, the project only went over by $50 this year because I had $150 in my budget.  We ran into trouble on the hillside with the slope and built a raised bed.  For the last two years I have had a budget.  Before that I never had a budget for the Foundation Gardens and it's only because the guy who takes care of the front of the building likes artistic displays up there.  I've cut him off this year.     She wants me to give back the money I don't spend if the plant doesn't cost as much as I figured it would.  Yeah but what if another plant cost more?  But that's not what I said at the meeting.  I showed what plants we were looking for, the total estimated price and said I would agree to cut it down for the plant purchase which was even below the plants I said I really needed.

We brought no plants.  We used the plants that were there, got plants from propagation and other beds.  The money we are spending on plants for next year is for plants we can't get through the plant sale.  They are not on property and very specific to the themes.  For example, native bees are usually plant specific, educational.  The beds are theme, again educational.  Lots there for the public but I've also got 17 newbies on the project getting hands on training.

I ask which leads and what they wanted.  She didn't want to tattletail on them.  And couldn't tell me what it is they wanted.  I said they didn't speak up in the meeting when I asked if anybody else thought of something they wanted.  If I don't know they are wanting something, I can't help them get it.  There was other budgets we could have cut more.

I've asked for years for a sign that says we have gardens around back but we don't have the money for it.  We do take people back there on the general garden tour, there is a path all the way around the building, two of our speciality tours go back there and it is on the garden map people can pick up when they visit.

That's taking it non personally.     Justifying it to the rest of the leads if anybody asks.

But I would just like to come back to Marsha with the thousands of dollars she is spending.  She didn't volunteer to reduce any of her budget this year until we made the first run through and discovered we were only over $100.  I let her spend an extra 500 over her budget this year from extra funds and she also got an extra 500 donated to her garden.  She gave her budget at the retail price knowing full well we were getting it wholesale and with a rebate yet, she insists she gets to keep all that.  Not make it available for the whole garden or give it back.  I defend her project all the time from leads who think she's spending too much.  And her garden is locked so visitors have to look at it from the fence.  Why the fuck is she giving me shit?!   

Alright, the only reason I'm addressing this with her is she is saying it to other people.  I'm sticking with the nonpersonal response, not using her as an example and pushing the positive narrative.  Our basic goals of completing projects in progress is moving forward.  Nothing here for me to worry about or take to heart.  Marsha can deal with her own head and what's she's all about with this.