Folks Cafe Garden!

March 27, 2010

I was in Folks Cafe one day last week and while I was waiting for my coffee I heard the word "garden" out of the corner of my ear. Juan (the owner of Folk's), Gwen and Jock were speaking in conspiratorial tones about digging up the sandy patch below and putting in a flower bed. The topic under discussion were the logistics of such a plan. Gwen saw me perk up and invited me to join the conversation.  Long story short, after work today I loaded up a barrel of horse manure that has been "ageing" at Castle Street for months, a barrel of compost (full of fire ants) and a barrel of sawdust and set out to turn this patch of ground at 15th and Princess:

into this flower bed: (!)

By the time I got there after loading up the MGU (Mobile Garden Unit), my two grunts, Jock and Fish had already turned over the soil and removed the sparse bit of weeds. We removed some  of the soil to prevent it from washing into the storm drain. To get the bed ready for planting we "turned in" the liquid mush horse manure and compost, finally covering it all with a thin layer of sawdust. Once the seeds come up we will mulch a thicker layer.

I have never used sawdust before as mulch, but considering it comes much more cheaply than hay straw I have been working with it in all my gardens this year. It seems to do very well. It tends to fly around a little more and laying down too thick of a layer in the beginning will prevent seedlings from pushing through. 

We planted Orange Coneflower, Dianthus, Nasturtiums, Black Eyed Susan, and Calendula. Everything but the Orange Coneflower and Black Eyed Susan we planted from seed. 

We chose plants that would provide nice color, but not grow to high so as to restrict visual space at the intersection.

Fish donated the transplants from his garden. Fish also donated and installed the granite stepping stones that provide access to the middle of the garden. You can see them more easily in the second picture

Gwen was an excellent supervisor. Everyone stayed on task and got the job done!

Gardening is a very serious business (the sun was in my eyes so it looks like I am almost smiling, but it was supposed to be more of a grimace). 

As the plants come up I will post more pictures on the progress. The next step is to put in gardens at the other three street corners of this intersection!

This garden was a first for me in the sense that I have always planted "useful plants", that is plants that are either edible, medicinal or both. It was a breakthrough for me to put something in simply for the sake of making a spot look more beautiful. There are so many more plants and places I can put them than just the useful ones in the useful places!