Gone

About a month ago, I received a tip in the middle of the night that the garden was gone.  Gone, I thought?  That’s impossible.

But when I went to check it out, it was about as “gone” as a garden could be.  The remaining autumn plants and perennial shrubs were removed.  In October, I bought clover seeds online, to sow as a ground cover over the winter and bring much-needed nutrients to the soil.  I also read that clover works especially well with grape vines, which I had recently planted and had high hopes for covering the cinder block wall.  But instead of a lush green ground cover, I found mulch.  And under the mulch was some synthetic netting, I suppose to keep out the “weeds.”  And under the netting, I found those baby weeds, my little green clover sprouts with no hope for survival.

Obviously, I was enraged.  I went into the Ba Le Bakery where the garden is located, and got in a long line of customers.  Persistently, I asked a couple of employees, and finally a more helpful manager what happened, or what could have happened.  They clearly had no idea; they concluded that some Mexican neighbors came by and took the vegetation.  I told them that people had been picking stuff all along, but nobody has ever mulched over the whole darn thing.  Finally, they gave me the number of the gardener for the entire shopping center, but I never could get a hold of him.

I feel that this is the end of an era for me.  And I’m not sure if I should even continue this blog.  I’m tempted to keep posting about my nature/garden-based findings throughout the city, since that’s what I’ve always loved: the way nature creeps its way through urban environments.  We will see what happens, and if I will ever find another prime location for a guerrilla garden.

Good Neighbors

Sunny sunflowers

 Someone gave the gift of Christmas cactus

 

 

 

 

 

Promises, Promises!

Hello friends!!!!  I’m sure you are wondering what I’ve been inheriting from nature’s bounty these days!

Though not quite guerrilla, this is the community garden around the corner.  The Mighty Writers kids grew this plot and it’s bursting with arugula, dino kale, tomatoes, basil, jalapeno, chard, rosemary.  Good lord, I just can’t eat it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At 6th and Washington, the only plant that really loves the heat is the sunflowers and, I guess, this squash which I didn’t even plant this year…

I’ve just been picking up trash, sprinkling some rotenone dust to keep away the bugs, and doing a little weeding.  Otherwise water is left to mother nature.

Dog Days

At last, rain!

This summer has been very trying compared to last summer.  The fact that one garden has been prohibited and the other destroyed, causes me great anguish.  Not to mention the scorching hot days- I have almost given up.  I really cant bear to do much more than water and run back inside to my air conditioned bedroom and take a nap.

What a wuss.

But at least the cloudy skies are watching over me today.

Nevermind then….

condos suck

gardens rule

Tree Man

 

Silly peeps!  Did you think I did all of this work myself?  Sure, I may be the brains but never underestimate… the brawn!

Here is my hunky tree man boyfriend helping me out at the new garden on South Street.

Finally a place to really try out the succotash (corn, red scarlet beans, pumpkin).  I don’t know what kind of pumpkin we have here; my friend Maggie grew some of her own pumpkins and gave me one, so I kept it all summer ’til there was not much left but seeds.  Thanks Mags, they have been sprouting like crazy.

But of course the ground wasn’t perfect, and Dan couldn’t rest until he uprooted the white whale, a probably-decades-old demon buried a couple feet down.  At least the corn can breathe now.

Forget Me Not

Where did this come from?

Who are you?

I love it.

No Vegetables Allowed

 This season, I planned to have 3 gardens in South Philly:

1.  Last year’s garden at 6th and Washington

2.  Giant empty lot at an Unnamed Location

3.  Hidden shady spot at the old YMCA on Catharine

The garden at 6th and Washington has some tough-ass kale, collards, garlic, and parsley still growing from last year.  Crazy weird flowers are shooting out from these plants.  It is overgrown beauty.

But not just crazy weird flowers!  After the flowers fell off…. magical beans appeared.  A woman came up to me today and told me she speaks to my plants whenever she walks by.  She demonstrated saying things like, “very good job, very nice work”  This woman told me the collard seeds were combined with beans at some point … I don’t know!   Could this be true??

I will meet lady next Sunday at 5pm if anyone would like to join us for  plant convos.

In other news,

people sarcastically joke about guerrilla gardening being “edgy” and “badass,” which I agree is so silly.  But I got in some edgy, badass trouble the other day at the Unnamed garden.  I really can’t say too much more about what happened because I could truly put several aspects of my life at risk if do… but I absolutely positively cannot continue to…. GROW VEGETABLES.

Simple Basil and Sage Recipes

These recipes came with some fresh herbs I recently bought.  Easy stuff.

Basil Butter

- 1/2 cup garden basil

- 1.5 sticks warmed butter

- salt and pepper to taste

1.  Melt 1/2 stick butter.   In a blender mix butter and basil.

2.  Add 1 stick room temp butter and blend.  Put mixture in a ziplock bag and place in freezer for 20 minutes.

3.  Lay out two sheets of plastic wrap on a counter top.  Remove butter from freezer and take it out of the ziplock bag.  Roll butter in plastic wrap to form a smooth log.  Tie both ends.

Yum!

Sage Biscuits

- 1/2 cup chopped garden sage

- 2 cups flour

- 2 teaspoons basking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 stick butter

- 3/4 cup butter milk

1.  preheat oven to 425 F.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut 6 tablespoons cold butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal.  Stir in the sage.  Stir in the buttermilk.

2.  Using a large spoon, place dough onto a greased baking sheet.  Brush with remaining melted butter.

3.  Bake until tops are golden brown; about 10-15 minutes.

* I tried this recipe twice.  The biscuits can be a little dry so try adding more buttermilk.  Or top with honey and let it soak to keep them moist.

* I doubled the amount of sage in the recipe I just gave you.

* Sage helps with sweating!  A little random fact for ya.