Green Acres Village, our tiny retrofit suburban template for “growing community from the ground up” is shaping up as never before, even after all these years.
Elisha has been bringing over plants from the garden at the house she and Dave plan to sell, now that they are to move here with us in August. Which is exciting. Even more exciting is that Elisha herself, we are thrilled to recognize, does not only know what she’s doing as a gardener, but she’s a great teacher as well. We’ve been plugging along here, since Rebecca, our last master gardener, the one to whom you could go to with any question, moved to the west coast a few years ago after ten years nourishing presence. So to have someone in house who really knows what she’s doing re: the land, and “getting a yield,” as permaculturists like to say, is terrific. We cannot help but learn every time we are out there working with her.
Yesterday, she, Joseph, and Marita dug trenches for potatoes while Elisha explained to them why this is the best way to grow them. I was nearby, out of earshot, direct sowing seeds into another bed we had prepared for carrots and beets, then covering them lightly with compost and watering them. (We ordered four yards of compost from Good Earth this year, at Elisha’s suggestion. We do make compost here, but not nearly enough for her taste.) This is the first I learned that directly sowed seeds need to be watered daily until germination. I’m sure others around here through the years learned this, and sure that Rebecca of course knew, but it’s no wonder we’ve never been good at growing, especially, carrots!
I also direct seeded radish seeds into parts of two beds from which we removed some of the spreading motherwort, and may remove more to make room for more more seeds later. At least, we’ll have to cut the motherwort back when it gets too tall. But we’re getting more serious about “editing” rather than “weeding”
Next, in the garden in front of the house Elisha will be moving into, she worked with Joseph and Marita to secure plants she had brought from the garden of the house they will be selling: sorrel and strawberries.
The work party was yesterday. Two evenings before, at our twice-weekly Thursday Communty Dinner, Elisha and Dave brought four other people, including her parents who live here in Bloomington, plus Hunter and Isabel, whom she met when she worked on Hunter’s vegetable farm in California and convinced, a year ago, to move to Bloomington. They are also very interested in joining us in the future.
Before celebrating Equinox during our “circle up” session, when we went around the circle to briefly speak of what (metaphorical or otherwise) seed each of us is planting for this spring season, Elisha took her four guests outside for a “tour.” On their return, Isabel said she was amazed how big it was. I responded, yes, and just imagine what it would be like if more and more people did what we are doing! And of course, no surprise, what both Elisha and I mentioned as our personal “seed,” was growing community.
We had a grand time, with great food, and ending with a fun game that housemate Adam brought out, where you pick a question and then answer it. Provocative questions, most of them, food for thought, and generated stimulating discussions.
Examples:
“What is the one thing you have always wanted — big or small?”
“Who do you think needs more help, the homeless or endangered animals?”
Oh! And, during the work party, a coyote trotted down the road, brazenly braving the human world in the middle of the day. I was the only one who didn’t see it before Kona took off after it. Luckily, tiny Shadow was near me. Especially odd, this encounter, in that just the day before I had been hiking in a forest with Marita, talking about how a coyote could snatch up a dog Shadow’s size, and so I had to watch him, every second, if he was without a leash on the trail.
But a coyote in the middle of the street, here? I have never, in my 21 years as a Bloomingtonian, ever heard of such a sighting.
Oh! And after the work party, Joseph came across a blooming plant in his forest garden that he had never noticed before. Tiny pink flowers! Peach tree?
