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!

The Blizzard of '10

March 27, 2010  

 Here are a couple of pictures of the "Blizzard of '10 that hit on February 13, 2010.  When I moved to Wilmington, I knew that I was going to have to say good bye to regular winter snow. I go back to NJ every winter, so it was a loss I could take. When I woke up on this morning and recognized that hush that always settles after it has been snowing during the night, I crept out of my warm bed, put on boots s and went outside to marvel at the snowy wonderland in the blue dawn, just as I had when I was a kid.

  This is the view from my front door.

Below are some of Castle Street Community Gardens.

This is our children's garden. Toni and her son Ethan have been the main contributors to the garden. Tom constructed the PVC frame and provided the landscape  fabric to make our easily movable greenhouse. We have harvested oak leaf lettuce, mustard greens, bok choi and broccoli that was started back in January. 

 

The entrance to the garden is just to the left of this shot. 

From the front of the garden looking back.

        

Something about a cardinal in a green tree covered in snow is another image that reminds me of snow days in New Jersey. 

  

There are plants under much of that snow!

I was worried that our rain barrels might freeze, but they were just fine, it definitely didn't get that cold. In fact it was such a warm, wet snow it was practically gone by the end of the day. 

All that remained by the day after were randomly placed mutant looking snowman dotting muddy lawns.

  

This picture was taken right next to the children's garden towards the back of the space.

These are the trees behind the garden. 

This is part of the culinary and medicinal herb beds. The shrub sticking up is a lemon verbana.

       

A Broccoli in disguise. I harvested the florets after they got a little bigger and it didn't seem that the snow had much affect on the flavor.

We didn't lose any of the plants to the snow, any that were damage were the transplants that got hit by the frost a couple days prior.