Gardening 2024

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Okay, just got a good look at that picture.  What the hell is that box doing hanging out of the brick border?  That's a fuck up.   

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We didn't hit 80 today.  I spent 7 hours in the garden.  The weeds enjoyed all that heat!  Our chocolate and moon flower vines are blooming.  Lots of wheeling and dealing going on with wood, edging and plant acquisition.  I think everybody came out today.

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We're going with a small flag for the Chocolate Garden as it's sign.  How cute is this?

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I'm thinking the same script for garden as chocolate on that flag.

Beka harvested the chocolate mint and did a Forrest Gump listing on all the ways it can be used.  Just make some chocolate lemonade.  It will be cold and taste like chocolate.  I'll like it.  Not in my coffee though.  People keep wanting to put shit in my coffee.

I need to leave the state.  I'm in the middle of three rivers and allergies run rampt.  My eyes have been burning and swollen for months.  Or maybe I'm allergic to those lenses they put in my eyes.

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We could use some rain but the gardens were beautiful today. 

Steering Committee, what can I say?  They looked at if we were on budget for the first two quarters only.  I couldn't get through to them and finally the other Kevin explained they needed to look to see if we were going to end the year on budget.  Donna who was a bookkeeper started questioning some of the expenses.  I walked out with my budget fully intact.  If we go over budget we'll just have to dip into the funds set aside for next year.  The president brought up doing some kind of fall fundraiser to set up a scholarship for horticultural education.  What part of we need to get money in savings for what we have going on if the plant sale fails is he not getting?!  Anyway, he wants to step down as president, the vice president and secretary along with me also want to step down.  Basically that only leaves 2 people on the Committee who have any history.  Not to worry, the old guard has left before.  You stumble for a few years but then committed people get it together.  New visions and new growth.

I'm organizing a block party.  We're going to run out to Leslie's farm and get about 80 cinder blocks. 

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The other two signs for the renovated beds got decided.  The Moon Garden will be on a big silver plate with the moon painted on it.  The Bee Bar is 3 dimensional with 3 bees at a bar drinking out of a flowers vases.  Melanie is so creative.

Ken is okay with the kiosk going in the enabling garden.  Yes, we are getting the damn kiosk back.  Long fucking backstory with the kiosk but it will forever be known as the damn kiosk to some of us.   

Daniel asked if Beka might want to come to the Old English Dance party he is having at the garden.  I've ben trying to match Beka up with a gardener for a while now.  I liked Jacob but Daniel, he's sounding pretty interesting with this party.  I have no idea what Old English dancing is but the man has an interesting hobby.  I'm not sure if Beka's religion allows her to dance and I know she has to have a chaperone, I'll do it    I don't think I know how to chaperone buy I'd like to see this party.

I started organizing the bridge work and the block party.  I'm back.  Going to be a busy September and October in the garden.

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And now I'm out.    Fuck this shit.  One group wants the wood gone now, another group can't get to it for another week and storage doesn't want it.  I told you the policy, you folks decide what you are going to do.  I am not taking responsibility for it.  Like children squabbling on the playground.

The acorns are falling, usually that doesn't happen until September.  They are small and green so maybe it's lack of rain.  But some of my natives are blooming early too.

Heard the phone ring tonight while I was out in the garage.  Thought, oh that's Marsha, we frequently reviewed upcoming things for the week happening at the garden.  Yeah, no, that's not her and nobody else I want to talk to, let it ring.  It was Beka, called her back.  She was excited about the 15 historic iris she planted.  We chatted about the gardens.  Not the way Marha and I did but it was still nice to have somebody to make plans with.  It hadn't hit me until that call I would never see Marsha's name on my caller id again.

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And I'm back in.     I am the garden lead, shifted into third and powered up.

Inspiration hit.  I can attach something to that composite and use them to make borders around my renovated beds.  I have dark brown composite for the Chocolate and Bee Gardens.  I have grey for the Moon Garden.  If there's enough left I'd like to do the milkweed display.  And then there's the wood storage rack.  I need decking to give Phebe back the cattle panel.  Some other boards are cracked.  I wanted to learn my power tools.  I have a call into Jim to teach me.  Look out, the girl is going to build stuff!    I should never be allowed to do that without supervision.

I've called my labor.  I get revved up, gets them excited and we do some shit.  Let's skip 4th gear and slip into 5th, cruising speed. 

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I'm beginning to question if using the composite for edging is such a good idea.    Spent a couple of hours hauling it over, all the way across the garden.  Jim couldn't come up with anything real cheap to hold it in place so it's $1.50 per stake and I need 110 of them.  Then there's the whole composite isn't really made for ground contact so how long is this going to hold up.  I'm going to say long enough to get me to dead and I don't have to replace it.

My energy and back gave out before I got the boards for the shelves on the rack.  There's only about 10 of those, a lot heavier and tomorrow I have labor so I'm going to share the fun.    Tomorrow is likely a rain out but If we can work it, we should have all the wood cleared out, cardboard down and that area mulched.  If not, the temps are staying down and I can get to it in the next few days.  We need it to rain on the new berms so the soil settles and maybe next week they can plant the trees.

And we went out to check out the cinder blocks.  She's backed her donation off to 35.  They are down in a hole but we only need a truck to haul them back plus there were mosquitoes everywhere! Catherine doesn't think she will get to that project and is now wondering if she has the skills without Marsha.  I'm thinking we may just put that off this year.

I'm off to find a grant for our herb garden renovation.  I'm starting to rule out getting shit for free that involves my physical labor.  

Hold on, Jim says I can use wooden stakes.  They are only 50 cents a piece.

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I had the rest of the good wood out of Marsha's area by the time the team showed up.  A quick clean up, a bunch of cardboard down and a whole lot of wood chips.  That area has been under construction for 6 years and it's done.  Everybody was rejoicing.  I turned to look, not what Marsha had invision was all I could think and I missed how it would have been.  There's an empty section, can't remember what was going in there, that the team will address at some point but for now it's construction complete.  There's a few trees waiting on the berm to settle that will go in next.

Tom is going to cut and screw down the wood on the shelves for the rack.  Got enough to do three shelves.  He's going to let me try my hand at the circular saw.  And Maggie says she's got the construction part of the borders for the renovated beds.  We'll let the From the Ground Up team do that in September.  And that will wrap up Marsha's stuff.

I need to get back to weeding and planting.  One would think you would do that when gardening.     I have a small bed I'm adding plants to and moving some plants around.  That needs to wait until it cools off a bit so that leaves weeding.  Something relaxing about weeding. 

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   I did it to myself.  I get up and moving and the rest of them jump on board.  Joe was so excited, he stopped by before he went to work to do something.  You can hear the energy in his voice.  I have no less than 7 projects in the works and about to kick in three more.  This of course generates numerous phone calls to me.  Good to hear from my team.  I've been disconnected from them all year.

And those wheelbarrows are talking to me.  The back muscles get achy but the hips are flat out pain.  Gets me right in the hip bones, the front sides of them.  I have to remind myself to stand up straight and tall when I get out of bed.  I feel like I'm going through the evolution of man, trying to reach homo erectus.  

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Dropped by the garden and Jim is replacing the bench tops we talked about Tuesday.  He's been working on the raised bed design for renovating the herb garden.  He's got the each bed down to a couple hundred bucks.  He plans to build them in the parking lot.  Okay, if you can get that plan together before the September leads meeting when I figure out how much money I have left in my budget, I may be able to afford a couple of those.  And then get the rest of them in next year's budget.  He said something about getting it done while he's still alive.  I hear ya and I hate taking years to complete a project.  Just what the hell are we going to do with all those leftover bricks?

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Susan gave me this for the Moon Garden.  It's the Man in the Moon. 

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Talking to Kevin tonight.  Last year I got his two sheds cleaned out.  He was telling people, she's got me doing stuff I never would have done.  Tonight we were talking about the shelves on our outside racks.  He says to me, lets clean some of that stuff out.    In all fairness, Kevin is the kind of guy who I bet has everything organized at home.  The sheds were a mess long before he got there.  The only difference, I'm not going to live with that!

People are telling me plants are completing their life cycle early this year.  That doesn't mean an early fall.  Plants are triggered by the length of light they receive.  It's more likely an indicator that they weren't getting what they needed, like water or nutrients, to live longer.

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My car is packed with shit to go to the garden and not one plant.  I've got tools, building supplies, hardscape and cookware to donate to the food pantry.

There's this whole thing with the gutters on the building.  Not my problem, the building is not under our control but they had the handiman reroute one of the downspouts.  He buried a pvc pipe to get it away from the building except the end of it poses a tripping hazard next to my bed.  Jim looked at it and says the water is going to come gushing out and erode the area.  I mentioned it to the lady in charge.  She's still pissed we unplugged the ice machine when it was about to overflow.  We've been yelled at to not touch any of their stuff so I was a little uneasy mentioning what I thought was a problem.  She said to put a flag by it.     Plus I'm looking at the reroute of the downspout.  There's 4 bends it that, one that curves it back across the building.  That's a large roof with a lot of water.  Is it going to be able to drain fast enough with all those bends?  I didn't mention that, not my concern but I really think they should have hired a pro.   

And another whole thing about if we are teaching you how to build something in the garden if people can count it as hands on education time.  I want to as a carrot for people to come help and I'm tired of sitting in a chair being lectured to for my education hours.  I am not going to cuss and discuss this.  Hands on education is nothing new. 

I'm in gear to get some shit done.  I've got my problems, you folks deal with your own fucking problems.     I am not getting sucked in.

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Decided using the composite for a boarder is not such a great idea.  Okay, I only got two levels done on the back rack with one to go before running out of wood.  We also have a smaller rack up front that could use shelving.  I can use the composite for that.  The herb girls were not happy when I told them $700 a bed was probably not going to fly with the other leads.  They have 6 beds.  Paul agreed to mentor the Fruit Arbor team.  He started the orchard so it's good he's jumping back in.  Marsha had taken it from him.

Some progress today.    Heat is coming back next week.

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Fucking garden leads     It cooled off and they want to play.  Woke up this morning to all kinds of texts, emails of shit they want to do.  Okay, I've somehow managed to get 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  They're ready to go and I'm going to counter with my shit.  Let's do this!  My team is calling me out.  Love those people.  Drag my ass out of this slump.

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I'm fucking with Marsha's team.  She went to great lengths to collect all the letters for Fruit Arboretum in fuschia and was thrilled with it.  That's not a color I associate with fruit and Marsha didn't present as the kind of girl who liked pink.  But it's a pretty big sign hanging at the entrance to the garden.  In some of the stuff Marsha's husband gave back to us as belonging to the Fruit Arboretum was a can of Gloss Mambo Pink spray paint which the new leads promptly handed back to me saying they didn't want it.  Tonight I noticed some of those letters are starting to lose paint and the color is fading out.  So I email the new leads, you sure you don't want that can of spray paint back?     They know I like free, repurpose, use what we've got.  We'll see what they say.    I think I'll make it a hobby of mine to see how many times I can ask them if they are sure they don't want that pink paint back.

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The "pro" they hired for the drainage issue "fixed" the protruding PVC pipe.  He put a mesh screen over it and a pile of rocks in the grass.  How do I mow around that without risking the mower throwing a rock?  That drain ends on a slope.  You sure it's not going to cause erosion?  I'm thinking this story is not over.

Beautiful day at the gardens.  Found myself on top of the dumpster trimming the willow tree.  Got one of those hairdos you can only get from squirting yourself in the head and running through the sprinklers. 

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I was there 4 hours and only got the pantry watering done.  All business.  Oriented 2 new members to the gardens and helped map out the cottage garden.

Bob, Marsha's husband, came by and dropped us off more of her growing lights.  Only got to talk to him a minute.  He is willing to help us rebuild the cottage garden wall.  Looks like we have a block party.  Said something about his Saturdays are free, aww.

My turf lead and native lead are dating.  What?  His wife just got up and walked out on him in December.  Okay, you're good to go, enjoy.  Think I mentioned David has a girlfriend.  Much to the relief of the rest of the female staff.

Beka has agreed to be my colead, maybe assistant lead, maybe I'm staying, maybe I'm letting go, we'll work that out later.  In the meantime, we started on a plant to map every garden.  Know exactly what plants we have and where they are on property and what that will look like in the computer.  I feel a breeze in my sail.

Okay the pile of rocks doesn't look that bad.  I'll still have to hand trim it.

The heat is back.