Just a reminder of what the Boulevarden looked like last year...then the sod removed.
The Garden last week
The Garden today.
This is the perennial bed - as well as the rhubarb (we have four large plants...might have to remove a couple)...and squash side.
This is the vegetable side (we try to keep the veggie plants grouped as much as we can so that we don't have to water the whole garden - the flowers are pretty much all drought tolerant). We planted lots of tomatoes, cauliflower, walla walla onions, beans, cucumber, watermelon, zuke, carrots, grasses for texture, flowering kale for 'prettiness'... We also added the annual herbs (basil, flat leaf parsley, fennel (although we had some volunteers from last year) to the herb garden We still have some shifting around of plants and might plant some more in this weekend.
I went down this morning to see how the garden had faired over night. Not only was everything looking great - but it had been watered! Yea! I could tell it was not the nightly watering of the 'downtown park' grass that had watered the bed because the grass was still really dry...only the garden that was watered. It is funny how something so small (or not - depending how you look at it) can make your heart smile...well mine anyway...the fact that someone else has come along and contributed to the garden is just wonderful.
This morning I dug up some Brown Eyed Susans, Chives, Sedum, Catmint and gathered some seeds.
MIchelle brought some of her self grown tomatoes and alpine strawberries as as well as some sunflowers.
We sat on the deck and made a sign for the garden and some rock plant identifiers. We grabbed our tools and a big...I mean seriously big..jug of water (it was brutal) and headed down to the garden.
Just as we got there Shawna and Liam arrived. Shawna brought some Oregano and Lavender for the garden.
As Liam (at 6 months old our youngest Guerrilla Gardener to date) supervised, we got to planning and planting the garden.
We added four tomato plants (should 'tomato' and all the other names of the plants be capitalized?? I can't decide...), Swiss Chard, Chives, Alpine Strawberries, Lavender, large and small Sunflowers, Oregano, Cat Mint, Sedum and Brown Eyed Susans. Michelle has some potatoes that she is going to bring down.
Shawna also acted as our official documenter so she will be posting some other pics.
We named the garden 'Coyote Garden'.
Before (Picture by Michelle)
Before (Picture by Michelle)
Before (Picture by Michelle)
Above is on the left Glenn, then me, Loralee, and Michelle on the right.Yesterday Michelle and I went down town to scout out some spots that we thought could use some guerrilla force. We found a small bed in.... let's just say a 'downtown public park'...that we have been working on. Today we prepared the soil and added compost. We had two men that joined us in the work and two men (security) that spied on us.
Glenn was the name of the first fellow who helped - his nephew, whose name I didn't get was the other. They were both a great help and suggested that tomatoes and peas would be good vegetables to plant.
The security came over - NEVER asked us what we were doing - BUT asked us if Glenn was bothering us, MIchelle said no...a little while later the two security guys came over and told Glenn that his friends were waiting for him and that he should go join them at Studio 54...Glenn said he was just fine and would stay and work...I told them that he was helping us, he then said, "well...they were REALLY waiting for him", those security guys, they are sooo helpful!!
Anyway, like I said we got the soil worked and will be planting 'soon'. Michelle has some tomatoes she has grown from seed that we will plant, then we will add lettuce, peas, beans and some pretty perennial flowers as well as a few sunflowers for the peas and beans to grown up.
I am totally excited to get gardening in the boulevarden as well as around downtown...do you want to be involved - if so email me at loraleee@gmail.com and come and join the 'troop'.
Also it may interest you that the University of Lethbridge is in the process of presenting a business plan to the administration for a community garden - the next meeting is March 19th at noon in the Student Union board room SU180 - and every Wednesday after that...
See you soon!
Hi all,It has been a long time since I have posted as the Boulevarden is under show - it still looks beautiful - we planted many grasses and plants that look as good in the winter as they do in the summer - so I am pleased with the winter garden plant architecture. I am already looking through gardening books and seed catalogs...I wish I had a green house again - hopefully soon.Anyway...I have posted letters from Richard before...he is a guerrilla gardener based in England and his website guerrillagardening.org not only chronicles the escapades of guerrilla gardeners in Europe, but all over the world; the Boulevard is also included on his site.So happy holidays...Dear Troops On a day when London was cloaked by a glittering frost I write to you with season’s greetings and bring you guerrilla gardening gifts in the form of: - Three recent digs from Switzerland, Ireland and the USA. - Guerrilla gardeners’ awards - Surprise Hollywood support - A Christmas card to share Digs. Reports of guerrilla gardening activity hit my inbox from time to time, pop up on the GuerrillaGardening.org Community boards and appear on private blogs. I’ve just added reports from Greg 3516 in Zurich, Tampopo 2236 in Dublin and Amy 2903 in Raleigh North Carolina to the Troop Digs section of the website. These three wise guerrillas demonstrate the miracle of a sunflower triumphing in a government planter, the fun of roadside gardening, police sympathy and the power of mulch. Read more and see their pictures at: http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ggtroopdigs.html Awards. In London several different guerrilla gardeners have recently been awarded by benevolent organisations for greening their community. In North London Esther 418 and her youth force (who progressed from being guerrillas to legitimate community gardeners a while ago) added to their trophy cabinet with awards for cultivating both beautiful and wildlife friendly spaces, whilst in South London both Andrew 1679 and I collected engraved trowels and garden vouchers from David Bellamy and the Conservation Foundation on behalf of all those troops who have helped transform a couple of large traffic islands in South London into “blooming marvellous” green corners. Here we are still very much fighting a guerrilla gardening war against the public landowner’s long term neglect, but are most definitely winning. Daryl Hannah Last year Daryl Hannah (or Daryl 1976 as she is known in my guerrilla gardening spreadsheet) tied herself to a tree in Los Angeles to protest against the destruction of the incredible South Central Farm. I knew about this but I had no idea she was going to visit me. With just one hours warning from a journalist she turned up at my front door a couple of weeks ago carrying a large wooden flagpole and a digital video camera. She was keen to learn more about guerrilla gardening and so whilst she asked questions and filmed I showed her around Southwark and pointed out where guerrilla gardeners had struck. Last year Adam 276 (a New York guerrilla gardener of thirty years) had told me with a tone that expressed both pride and fatherly caution that celebrities would one day descend. In his case Lady Astor and President Clinton had stopped by to visit the Clinton Community Garden. I didn’t expect my visit would be from an actress who is sadly still most famous for dressing up as a fish. Despite her sudden, perhaps rude splash she was delightful and I encourage you to browse her eco-video blog at http://www.dhlovelife.com The story about her visit to London is published here: http:// women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/celebrity/ article2982771.ece GuerrillaGardening.org Christmas Card Last summer Patti 1253’s donated her elderly Christmas tree to GuerrillaGardening.org and Kit 018 and I planted it on the barren corner of St George’s Circus in South London. Later that year guerrilla gardeners decorated it and from a photo of the festive tree I have made a Christmas Card. You can download a copy of the card as a PDF file from the link below and you are welcome to print and post it to your friends. http://www.guerrillagardening.org/christmascard/gg_christmascard.pdf Until 2008, that’s the news from GuerrillaGardening.org
Just a reminder of what the Boulevarden looked like last year...then the sod removed.
The Garden last week
The Garden today.
This is the perennial bed - as well as the rhubarb (we have four large plants...might have to remove a couple)...and squash side.
This is the vegetable side (we try to keep the veggie plants grouped as much as we can so that we don't have to water the whole garden - the flowers are pretty much all drought tolerant). We planted lots of tomatoes, cauliflower, walla walla onions, beans, cucumber, watermelon, zuke, carrots, grasses for texture, flowering kale for 'prettiness'... We also added the annual herbs (basil, flat leaf parsley, fennel (although we had some volunteers from last year) to the herb garden We still have some shifting around of plants and might plant some more in this weekend.
